Blockstream
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| Corporation | |
| Industry | software |
| Founded | 2014 |
| Founders |
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| Headquarters | San Francisco, California, U.S. |
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Key people
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Number of employees
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10–50 (2014) |
| Website | www |
Blockstream is a blockchain technology company co-founded by Adam Back, Gregory Maxwell, Austin Hill and others, and led by Adam Back and Gregory Maxwell. Blockstream provides funding for the development of Bitcoin Core, the predominant network client software.
The company is focused on developing bitcoin applications specifically sidechains, as well as other applications. Blockstream has raised $76M to date from investors including Horizons Ventures and Mosaic Ventures. Blockstream employs several prominent bitcoin developers, including Adam Back (President, Blockstream), Gregory Maxwell (CTO, Blockstream), Mark Friedenbach (Co-founder, Blockstream), Pieter Wuille (Bitcoin Core developer), Samson Mow (CSO), and Christopher Allen (co-author of IETF Transport Layer Security. Blockstream is one of the largest contributors of funding for Bitcoin Core.
On October 12, 2015, Blockstream announced the release of its Liquid sidechain which could allow for the transfer of assets between the sidechain and the main blockchain. Blockstream produces software that facilitates interoperability between the main chain and the sidechain. Blockstream claims that Liquid reduces the delays and friction involved in a normal transfer of bitcoin. Blockstream asserts participating exchanges–Bitfinex, BTCC, Kraken, Unocoin and Xapo can make near instant exchanges between their accounts and orderbooks. The company has proposed that the Liquid sidechain, which is a pegged sidechain, be added to the bitcoin protocol. The source code for sidechains has been released on an open source basis.
In addition to its corporate initiatives, blockstream is also involved in a number of community steering and open source programs.
Blockstream is one of the largest contributors of funding for Bitcoin Core.
Blockstream hired Rusty Russell, a well-known developer famous for his work on Linux kernel, to develop an implementation of the Bitcoin Lightning Network (LN). Russell has a four-part LN explanation on his blog. The Lightning network proposes to reduce transaction costs by allowing nodes to hold some transaction data in the cache before submitting it to the chain.
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Wikipedia