Blockchain development platform Reach banked $12m in funding to expand its offerings and launch a commercial version of the toolkit.
Founded in October 2019 by Chris Swenor and Jay McCarthy, Reach plans to use the funding to create a commercial version of its platform for smart contacts to handle larger volumes of transactions as well as higher-value assets. The firm also intends to build further features into the platform, expand its team, develop further instructional materials and pursue potential developer acquisitions.
The platform currently supports the development of decentralised applications (dApps) for both Ethereum and Algorand and seeks a “growing pool of partner protocols.” Reach likens its platform to the launch of Apple’s iOS platform for mobile apps, suggesting that it will make it easier for developers to design and launch their own blockchain-powered apps and services.
Reach now claims to have 1,000 developers building on the platform, which have thus far produced decentralised games, auctions and non-fungible token (NFT) crypto-collectables projects and more through several hackathon-style events hosted in partnership with the Algorand Foundation and Boston Blockchain Week.
Ethereum is the leading smart contract platform for decentralized app development, although its network congestion and high gas fees have pushed some developers to look at competing blockchain platforms or adopt layer-2 scaling solutions on top of Ethereum.
Ethereum is in the process of transitioning from the current, energy-intensive proof-of-work consensus model to a more efficient proof-of-stake model called Ethereum 2.0.
Algorand was built from the ground up as a proof-of-stake blockchain designed around a dual-layer architecture, providing fast transactions and comparatively low fees compared to Ethereum. However, Ethereum’s market cap is almost 58 times larger than Algorand’s cap as of this writing, according to Nomics.
Commenting on the firm’s future plans, Algorand CEO Steve Kokinos said, “Reach’s focus on accessibility and safety, when combined with the powerful Algorand Virtual Machine, provides the safest, easiest, fastest, and cheapest smart contract platform available. We believe it is critical to empower all developers with simple languages that put safety and correctness at the forefront. This is aligned with our vision for the future of finance where smart contract infrastructure will support billions of dollars of value and exchange around the world.”
Echoing a similar sentiment, Swenor added, “This investment accelerates our path to becoming the primary method the world builds decentralized applications that will form the basis of global interaction.”
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