Dr. Ayo Akinyele’s Bolt Labs Secures $1.5 Million To Work On Lightning Network Payments Privacy

Bolt Labs Raises $1.5 To Improve Lightning Payments With A New Implementation

The cryptocurrency startup Bolt was able to raise $1.5 million during a funding round that was led by Dekrypt Capital. According to a recent press release, other firms that invested included ZCash Foundation, Ripple’s Xpring, Lemniscap, Access Ventures, and Branson Bollinger, among others.

BOLT Gathers $1.5 Million For A New Private Payment Channel

The intention is to develop a fast, private and secure crypto payment channel network. However, it will not work alone but it aims at being scalable and integrated with other solutions such as the Lightning Network, and other crypto networks. It is worth mentioning that the ZCash blockchain will be enjoying the benefits of this implementation.

The BOLT Protocol is currently being developed by the academic researcher Dr. Ayo Akinyele. At the same time, the CEO of Electronic Coin Company, Zooko Wilcox, is currently advising Bold Labs and helping them to create the first proof-of-concept. It will be available as soon as this summer for the ZCash (ZEC) network.

During a conversation with CoinDesk, Akinyele commented that the startup is working on compatibility for Bitcoin (BTC) and other virtual currencies. Their design is independent of the underlying currency, which could end up being very positive for the whole space rather than just for a specific digital currency.

The software will be working directly on the cryptocurrency node that communicates the payment information to the broader network. The main intention is to protect information about the account. With this implementation, when there is a payment processed from a channel, no one can link that uses a specific payment unless the information is disclosed by the sender.

About the compliance requirements such as the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, he mentioned that they consider it as a risk to privacy and also to compliance. If in the future, sites integrate wallets wit BOLT, it would help protect users in an effective way.

A Ripple spokesperson said to CoinDesk:

“We’re believers that the combination of Layer 2 solutions like Bolt and interoperability technologies like Interledger will improve the experience for both developers and end users, thereby paving the path for the mass adoption of crypto.”

In order for the project to be launched, there are several experiments that must be done before, said Akinyele.