Blockstream
Blockchain technology company
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Blockstream is a blockchain technology company led by co-founder Adam Back, headquartered in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, with offices and staff worldwide.[1] The company develops products and services for the storage and transfer of cryptocurrency.[2]
- Adam Back
- Gregory Maxwell
- Pieter Wuille
- Matt Corallo
- Mark Friedenbach
- Jorge Timón
- Austin Hill
- Jonathan Wilkins
- Francesca Hall
- Alex Fowler
Official Blockstream logo | |
Company type | Corporation |
|---|---|
| Industry | Cryptocurrency software |
| Founded | 2014 |
| Founders |
|
| Headquarters | , Canada |
Key people |
|
| ASN | 396997 |
| Website | blockstream |
The company raised $210 million in a Series B round in August 2021, reaching a $3.2 billion valuation,[3] from investors including venture capital firms Horizons Ventures and AXA Strategic Ventures.[4] In October 2024, Blockstream raised an additional $210 million through a convertible note offering led by Fulgur Ventures, with funds earmarked for expanding its layer-2 technologies, mining operations, and bitcoin treasury.[5][6]
Products
The Liquid Network
On October 12, 2015, Blockstream announced the release of its Liquid sidechain prototype which could allow for the transfer of assets between the Liquid sidechain and the bitcoin main blockchain.[7][8][9] On October 11, 2018, a production-ready implementation of the Liquid sidechain was officially launched, called the Liquid Network,[10] which is designed to facilitate interoperability between the bitcoin main chain and the Liquid sidechain to extend bitcoin's capabilities.[11][12]
Liquid is built using Elements, an open-source sidechain platform designed by Blockstream,[13] which introduces several features including Confidential Transactions, Segregated Witnesses (or SegWit), native asset issuance, and new opcodes.[14]
Blockstream claims that Liquid reduces the delays and friction involved in a normal transfer of bitcoin. Blockstream asserts participating exchanges–including Bitfinex, BitMEX and OKCoin[10]–can reduce counterparty risk for traders and enable near-instant financial transactions between their platform and other exchanges or a trader's wallet(s).[15] New blocks are added to the Liquid sidechain every minute, as opposed to bitcoin's 10-minute block interval.[16]
Blockstream Satellite
In 2017 Blockstream announced the availability of one-way satellite broadcasting of the full bitcoin blockchain[17] to enable the propagation of valid bitcoin transactions to people without Internet access or during a disruption event like an Internet blackout.[18] In 2018 Blockstream extended the bitcoin satellite network[19] to four satellites across six coverage zones, adding Asia and Pacific region coverage. It also released API specifications to allow users to send data over its network. The network as of 2019 is only a one-way network and the user still needs a connection to the bitcoin network to send transactions, which can include SMS gateways or higher cost internet.
Industry partnerships
Blockstream employs Bitcoin Core developers.[20]
Blockstream developer Rusty Russell was one of the first developers to try implementing the Lightning Network during the summer of 2015.[21]
In early 2018 Blockstream announced a partnership with Intercontinental Exchange Inc. (ICE) to launch a cryptocurrency market data feed.[22]
Blockstream partnered with Digital Garage, an Internet technology company based in Tokyo, in January 2019 to create Crypto Garage, a bitcoin and blockchain technology company which targets the Japanese institutional market.[23]