Modular blockchain developer Lava raises $15 million and offers reward points called Magma.
Modular blockchain infrastructure developer Lava Network has raised $15 million in a seed funding round ahead of its mainnet launch.
Jump Capital, Hashkey Capital and Tribe Capital co-led the round, with participation from North Island Ventures, Dispersion Capital, Alliance DAO and Finality Capital Partners, Lava said Thursday. Lava added that unidentified executives from Celestia, Cosmos, StarkWare, Filecoin and other blockchain ecosystems also participated in the round.
Lava was founded in 2022. Yair Cleper, the company’s CEO, declined to comment on when Lava began raising money for its seed round and when it closed. He also declined to comment on the round structure and valuation.
What is Lava Network?
Lava is a modular blockchain network focused on providing data access through remote procedure calls (RPC) and indexing. In web3, application developers need to make RPC requests to send and retrieve blockchain data, and indexing helps to retrieve specific data from the blockchain network.
“Developers use Lava to retrieve and transfer blockchain data (‘blockchain access’),” Cleper said. “New chains and APIs are added to Lava without permission. This means the network can dynamically and quickly support access to all of web3.”
Lava can be compared to Celestia, a popular modular blockchain network, but the latter focuses on data availability while the former focuses on data access, Cleper said.
The Lava network is currently on testnet. Last month we launched an incentivized public RPC service for NEAR, Evmos, Axelar, and other blockchains, and we plan to add more chains in the near future.
Blockchain node operators join Lava and receive rewards for providing high-performance RPC. “Rewards are distributed based on the quantity provided and the quality of service (e.g. speed, uptime, accuracy), thus optimizing performance for developers and users,” said Cleper.
Lava is aiming to launch the mainnet in the first half of this year. Lava currently employs 26 people, 20 of whom are blockchain engineers, Cleper said. He added that the project plans to hire more people.
In the future, Lava aims to serve as a “permissionless repository for all web3 services” by introducing a modular approach to oracles, sequencing, and other blockchain data infrastructure.
Lava Reward Point Magma
Ahead of mainnet, Lava today introduced a rewards points program called Magma. Users can earn Magma points by switching RPC connections to Lava, Cleper said. He declined to comment on whether Magma points could be exchanged for Lava’s own tokens in the future.
Points are becoming increasingly popular in cryptocurrency projects to reward loyal users. As The Block recently reported, the cryptocurrency project has given out over 40 billion reward points to date.
Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet delivering news, research and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor in The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the cryptocurrency space. Cryptocurrency exchange Bitget is an anchor LP of Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to provide objective, impactful and timely information about the cryptocurrency industry. Below are our current financial disclosures.
© 2023 The Block. All rights reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not provided or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial or other advice.
