As cryptocurrencies move towards mainstream users, the demand for privacy protection is becoming more urgent than ever.
Written by: Nicky, Foresight News
With privacy coins like ZEC recently experiencing a price surge, the privacy sector has once again become the focus of market attention. a16z crypto recently posted on social media, emphasizing that "as cryptocurrencies reach more mainstream users, the demand for privacy is more urgent than ever."
Against this backdrop, the privacy blockchain project Seismic announced the completion of a new round of financing amounting to $10 million, marking the second time a16z crypto has led investment in this project this year. The project has completed two rounds of financing, totaling $17 million. In March 2025, it announced a $7 million seed round led by a16z crypto, with participation from Polychain, 1kx, and others; on November 12, it completed another $10 million financing, with a16z crypto continuing to lead and new investors like Amber Group joining in. The funds will primarily be used for technology research and development and ecosystem expansion.
Project Positioning and Technical Features
Seismic is a privacy-protecting blockchain specifically designed for fintech scenarios. The project is built on EVM, allowing developers to use the familiar Solidity language for development, with additional syntax to control privacy settings. This design reduces the learning curve for developers while providing the necessary privacy protection capabilities.
The project's core technical features are reflected in three aspects. Through protocol-level encryption and secure hardware support, Seismic achieves default privacy protection settings. The project employs Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) technology instead of zero-knowledge proof schemes, requiring all nodes to operate within TEE to ensure data security. The system has introduced masked data types, including masked integers, booleans, and addresses, enabling developers to conveniently handle private data.
Additionally, Seismic Reth, as its native execution client, further enhances privacy capabilities: it supports private storage, encrypted transactions, and integrates six new precompiled contracts (such as AES-GCM encryption, ECDH key exchange), making it easy for developers to quickly access privacy features. This client was open-sourced in October 2024 to lower the entry barrier for developers.
Seismic was founded by Lyron Co Ting Keh, who holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Mathematics from Stanford University. He previously founded an edtech company, developed a Ruby on Rails training platform, and participated in tool development for privacy projects like Zcash and Aztec.
Core engineer Peter He previously led the development of Ethereum application-specific blockchain frameworks and specializes in distributed systems and privacy technology. He is currently responsible for the technical implementation of Seismic. Business development head Terence focuses on promoting fintech collaborations, aiming to extend Seismic's privacy capabilities to more financial scenarios. Although the team has not disclosed all members, public resumes indicate that many come from institutions like Wintermute, Google X, and Apple R&D.
In September of this year, the first application built on Seismic, Brookwell, was officially launched. This fintech product, developed by entrepreneurs Ravi and Rohan, aims to allow users to earn DeFi yields while using traditional payment channels.
Brookwell chose to build on Seismic primarily for its privacy protection capabilities. The application handles sensitive personal financial transactions, including rent payments and salary disbursements, which are not suitable for public visibility on a public blockchain. Through Seismic's privacy protection technology, Brookwell can connect cryptocurrencies with traditional financial systems while safeguarding user privacy. The project's official website has opened a Waitlist application.
免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。
