We’re thrilled to announce $11M in funding to realize this vision.
Today’s developers have to make a choice: they can build within the constraints of a one-size-fits-all blockchain, or they can build their ideal product as an appchain, but face the challenge of retrofitting interoperability and bootstrapping their own ecosystem.
Developers shouldn’t be forced to make this choice. If we could redesign blockchains with all the learnings we have today, we think they would look like delta.
delta believes developers should have maximal local control without sacrificing global connectivity.
delta is a network of autonomous execution environments that are connected via a decentralized, censorship resistant base layer. delta separates (1) execution and ordering from (2) data availability and settlement. (1) takes place on the domains (similar to rollups/execution shards), and (2) is provided by a network of validators that operate the base layer. The totality of these components make up the unified global state machine.
While global state is shared, domains will have full control over their blockspace. They can be application specific or generalized compute platforms; they can use any existing VM or develop their own custom programs; and their operating model can be decentralized, centralized, or even permissioned. Any app, business, or service provider can permissionlessly set up its own domain. Their users can pay fees in any token, via an off-chain subscription, or not at all.
Users derive censorship resistance from the base layer. They determine how their assets are used and maintain the ability to self custody – their funds are safe and they have the right to exit domains permissionlessly. Assets live on the base layer and therefore do not require independent implementations per domain.
The base layer facilitates native interoperability between domains. For users, delta offers an instant, nearly free, and bridge-free experience for moving assets from domain to domain.
Key to achieving these properties is zk-settlement. Similar to rollups, domains can take many forms but all settle to the same base layer. Unlike rollups, they achieve settlement through verification of a zero-knowledge proof that has been integrated directly into the base layer. This approach of "enshrined" zk-settlement enables a level of global interoperability between local networks that has never been possible before. Domains can interoperate with each other, even atomically, without requiring global coordination as in a blockchain.
delta’s state model enables a leaderless consensus protocol which is considerably more performant than that of any blockchain. Domains within delta inherently segregate the ability to make changes to global state based on spending. Because of this constraint, no total ordering of transactions is needed on the base layer. Without ordering, domains can continually stream out their state changes using a minimal Byzantine Reliable Broadcast (BRB) protocol. Beyond lowering the communication overhead per transaction, delta's leaderless, orderless consensus is more robust and scalable than the total ordering consensus implemented by all blockchains to date. Unlike these systems, delta can scale throughput linearly just by adding more machines.
We believe in a world in which platforms and applications have as much optionality as in Web2 and are as composable as smart contracts on the same blockchain. Unfortunately, appchains and rollups do not have the right form factor. They require complex interoperability solutions to “glue together” independent blockchains. The downsides of this approach currently heavily outweigh the benefits of sovereignty.
As an example, consider the challenges that new chains face in onboarding users.
All onchain applications should have a seamless experience for new users to deposit assets such as stablecoins. Today, the options for a new chain to facilitate this experience pose significant challenges:
As it is an integrated system, delta solves the most important challenges associated with launching an appchain or rollup:
Distribution
Interoperability
Barrier to entry
Returning to the stablecoin accessibility challenge above, this challenge does not exist for domain builders on delta. On delta, a stablecoin issuer would deploy once, and all domains enjoy equal access to its holders and liquidity without sacrificing control and reasoning about interop complexity.
delta will supercharge appchains and the horizontal scaling vision more broadly. But delta doesn’t just solve problems with existing approaches, it creates a whole new design space that has never been possible.
delta provides two inalienable rights to its users — the right to self-custody and the right to exit permissionlessly. With these guarantees underpinning the network, delta can safely reintroduce a spectrum of trust models at the execution layer. For the first time, chains can offer permissioned services while still ensuring user funds are totally safe and can be taken out at any time. This enables a new category of enterprise, gaming, or even government chains to live on a public network alongside trustless and decentralized chains, with a level of interoperability between them that has never before been possible.
To realize this vision, we are thrilled to share that we have raised $11M across our pre-seed fundraise, led by Figment Capital and Maven 11, and seed fundraise, led by Variant and DBA, with participation from Reverie, Castle Island Ventures, Credibly Neutral, Ambush Capital, Robot Ventures, Delphi Ventures, Public Works, Komorebi Collective and our stellar group of angels.
We encourage you to read our litepaper.
Stay tuned for our series of technical blog posts that will dive into each component of delta’s architecture. Subscribe to our mailing list so that you don’t miss it! Follow us on X at @deltadotnetwork.
