Israeli startup Chain Reaction raises $70M to develop blockchain chips

• The Tel Aviv-based blockchain chip startup is developing its next-generation chip.
• The new chip will be a “fully homomorphic encryption” chip.
• The startup wants to start mass production in the first quarter of 2023.

Israeli-based startup Chain Reaction has successfully raised $70 million to support the development of its next blockchain chip. The funds will go towards expanding the startup’s engineering team working on developing the next chip.

The CEO and co-founder of Chain Reaction Alon Webman noted that the chip will be a fully homomorphic encryption chip that will allow users to work on data while the chip is encrypted. He said:

“Today if you have data (which) is encrypted into the cloud and in order to do any data operation or data analytics, do A.I., you have to decrypt the data.”

Webman noted that organizations and major industries that would otherwise use cloud services are restricted from doing so because of security concerns since once the data is decrypted it becomes vulnerable to malicious users looking to read, steal or change it.

Access to data under encryption

The new chip allows users to access data under encryption and Chain Reaction plans to launch the chip by end of 2024.

Chain Reaction is already working on starting the mass adoption of its current blockchain chip Electrum in the first quarter of 2023. The Electrum chip is designed to support fast and efficient hashing and could also be used for mining cryptocurrencies.

Chain Reaction is not the first company to develop a blockchain chip since software developer Intel in February 2022 partnered with Nvidia Corp to launch a blockchain chip. Nvidia also individually produces chips specific for Ethereum mining.