Bitcoin-Focused Project Taproot Wizards Raises $7.5M to Advance BTC Innovation
Taproot Wizards seeks to bring together developers to build different applications and solutions on top of the Bitcoin Base layer that will maximize the potential of the Taproot upgrade carried out in 2021
To strengthen the innovations in the world of Bitcoin, Taproot Wizards secured new funding to further develop the BTC ecosystem. The successful raise shows increasing momentum and interest in expanding Bitcoin’s capabilities beyond being only a store of value.
HOLD ON TO YOUR WIZARD HATS!
Today we are announcing a $7.5M seed round, led by @standardcrypto, to Make Bitcoin Magical Again
We broke the chain, we danced on stage, we took showers
We heard about bitcoin 10 years ago. And WE’RE HERE TO FIX IT
More in the thread below 🧙♂️ pic.twitter.com/xoNho6EKhs
— Taproot Wizards (@TaprootWizards) November 16, 2023
Taproot Wizards has been burdened with moves encouraging innovation in the Bitcoin protocol since its inception. The project’s NFT collection features whimsical wizard characters as a nod to the early “magic internet money” meme from Bitcoin’s cypherpunk days. The just-concluded $7.5 million funding round was led by Standard Crypto, a venture capital firm focused on Bitcoin development. Several other leading crypto investors, including StarkWare, Collider Ventures, and UTXO Management, also participated in it.
Taproot Wizards seeks to bring together developers to build different applications and solutions on top of the Bitcoin Base layer that will maximize the potential of the Taproot upgrade carried out in 2021 to enhance BTC’s privacy, security, and efficiency. Taproot introduces the ability for complex smart contracts to execute on the Bitcoin blockchain in a privacy-preserving manner.
Taproot Wizard co-founder Udi Wertheimer, commented about the move as he said:
“We went for a larger seed round of $7.5 million because we feel time is of the essence. We’ve been bullish on bitcoin for a decade, but we genuinely believe that the best time to build in bitcoin is now. We’re focusing on adopting the best breakthroughs in broader crypto research to advance bitcoin and ordinals, for example, the open-source rollup work we’ve shared a couple of months ago, and will use this funding to build a team of top-notch bitcoin builders.”
A key focus area for this project is enhancing scalability and privacy for the Bitcoin network using innovations like zero-knowledge proofs and layer-2 rollups. These solutions can carry out private and complex transactions on Bitcoin without burdening the base layer. Taproot Wizards has already released open-source rollup code to advance scalability.
Additionally, the project aims to foster an ecosystem where Bitcoin developers can freely collaborate to push the boundaries of what’s possible on the blockchain. They view the early Ordinals movement as having reignited innovation in Bitcoin, which had stagnated recently as Bitcoin focused mostly on its “digital gold” narrative.
Bitcoin’s Utility Can Go Beyond Being a Store of Value
While some criticize Ordinals and NFTs as unnecessary congestion on the Bitcoin network, supporters of the move see them as a way to expand the crypto’s utility and showcase its possibilities beyond just storing value. Beyond this, Taproot Wizards also seeks to continue building new Bitcoin applications, ranging from NFTs and decentralized identities to private payments and smart contracts.
With its strong technical team and good funding, Taproot Wizards is ready to accelerate innovation on Bitcoin. As the protocol continues to mature and more developers build on the blockchain, the next phase of Bitcoin’s evolution may be driven by builders expanding its utility beyond just a digital asset.
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