Ripple’s XRP incubator Xpring, announced today it will invest in Bolt Labs, a project which is building payment channel implementations using zero-knowledge proofs, blind signatures, and commitments.
Their solutions aim to bring scalability not only to privacy chain cryptocurrencies, but also to existing public chains where privacy is not a default capability.
Inspired by the need for privacy in Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, the academic team which received a grant from the Zcash Foundation is launching a private, fast payment channel for any cryptocurrency.
The potential for these implementations to be networked together with technologies like the Interledger Protocol (ILP) (which also recently got funds from Xpring) opens the potential further for cross-chain interactions with these privacy guarantees set in place.
“We’re thrilled to be supporting Ayo and the team by investing in Bolt Labs alongside Dekrypt Capital. We’re committed to fostering the evolution of Layer 2 technologies which will both improve Layer 1 capabilities and the development of additional layers that can support interoperability.”
BOLT enables payment channels that hold funds in escrow until one or more parties are ready to cash out. Payments within these channels are off-chain and unlimited, and users remain anonymous. BOLT’s privacy protections rely on zero-knowledge proofs, based on the research of leading scientists and cryptographers.
