Secret Network Announces $400 Million Ecosystem Fund
Secret Network, a data-privacy-focused blockchain platform, recently announced a $400 million Ecosystem Fund. The fund is part of…
Secret Network, a data-privacy-focused blockchain platform, recently announced a $400 million Ecosystem Fund. The fund is part of Shockwave, a newly revealed growth initiative aimed at solidifying the network as a data privacy hub and critical pillar for Web 3.
Several top-tier investment firms such as DeFiance Capital, HashKey, Alameda Research, CoinFund, and Momentum 6 have since acquired SCRT positions and become part of the Secret Network ecosystem as crucial stakeholders. The fund is divided into the Secret Ecosystem Fund and the Accelerator Fund.
The Secret Ecosystem Fund
The $225M Secret Ecosystem Fund is the first part of the fund and comprises contributions from existing ecosystem partners and investors. This new initiative is designed to provide long-term support (both strategic and financial) to founders and developers building various applications on the Secret Network.
This fund’s primary goal is to ensure that every startup, team, or developer building on the network has a clear path to support and self-sustainability as they bring various products to life. The fund wants to ensure that developers build confidently in the ecosystem and don’t just produce narrow pilot programs or proofs of concept. The idea is to have ground-breaking privacy-first applications championed and adopted by millions of users.
Secret Network has registered great adoption across its four verticals: NFTs, DeFi, access control, and metaverse/gaming. Secret has seen historical trading volumes of over $1.3B in its DEXes (such as SecretSwap), successful funding rounds for apps (such as Shade Protocol), Altermail, and Sienna Network, and thousands of active NFT creators and collectors on Stashh.
Secret Network’s core development team, SCRT Labs, is the leader of this fund. The following are partners of Secret’s Ecosystem Fund:
With these partners, Secret Network will deploy capital across its ecosystem and provide ongoing mentorship, guidance, and substantial experience.
Secret Accelerator Pool
The Secret Accelerator Pool is currently valued at over $175M. The Accelerator Pool is managed by SCRT Labs and funded in SCRT. The Secret ecosystem will use the Accelerator to support various growth initiatives targeting user and TVL growth.
The Accelerator Pool is also a source of non-dilutive early-stage funding in a grant to teams making network-level improvements, ecosystem tooling, and building applications. The fund is intended to be a foundation for developers and creators before turning to Secret Ecosystem Fund.
Grants have already been approved for dozens of initiatives such as developers frameworks like Griptape and Polar, the Secret Monero Bridge, and the Secret NFT Reference Implementation.
The Secret Network Ecosystem
Secret Network claims to be the first blockchain with data privacy by default. It allows builders to create and use privacy-preserving and permissionless applications, a functionality that secures applications, protects users, and unlocks tons of new use cases for Web 3.
Typical smart contract blockchains, like Ethereum, are public by default. Therefore, the public can view all the data in a smart contract. Secret Network comes with data privacy for sensitive information as it supports encrypted state for smart contracts, encrypted outputs, and encrypted inputs.
dApps
Apps on this platform are built on Secret smart contracts that are privacy-preserving and powerful. These apps leverage the computational privacy of Trusted Execution Environments to provide products for DeFi, NFTs, gaming, and communications.
Tools & Wallets
Block explorers, tools, and wallets empower users to interact with the Secret DeFi ecosystem and Secret Network. The SCRT coin secures the Secret Network and is used for fees, governance, and staking. Multiple wallets support SCRT staking and transactions. Some tools include Staking Calculator, SecretSwap LP Calculator, Secret Analytics, Validator Rewards Calculator, and Staking Optimizer. Secret Network has various wallets such as Keplr, Ledger Nano, Cosmostation, and Citadel.one.
Exchanges
On top of the highlighted uses of $SCRT, they can also be traded on decentralized and centralized exchanges. Examples of DEXs include SecretSwap, Uniswap, PancakeSwap, and ApeSwap. Some of the CEXs include Binance, FTX, Huobi, and Gate.io.
Contributors
A group of independent decentralized contributors made the Secret Network what it is today. These contributors include funds, tool & wallet creators, validators, and developers.
Wrapping up
The riddle of what should be exposed to the public and what remains a secret is what the Secret Network seeks to solve. The fund will see more developers and creators join the Secret Network. Web 3 privacy is something creators are bound to benefit from, and we can only wait and see how Secret Network will contribute to this landscape.