Taiko secures $37M to develop web3 infrastructure for an internet free from censorship

Amid the speculation and volatility in the crypto world, there remains a subset of individuals who advocate for blockchain’s potential to decentralize various aspects of human activities for the greater good. Taiko’s founder, Daniel Wang, is one of these idealistic founders.

A serial entrepreneur, Wang initially aimed to bring decentralization to social platforms. He believes that decentralized networks like blockchains help resist censorship through distributed data storage and community-based content moderation.

“I hope the next generation can grow up being free and able to say anything on the internet,” he expressed in November at an Ethereum developer conference. “There won’t be progress if there is no freedom to criticize.”

Wang intended to build the decentralized app on Ethereum, the blockchain co-created by Vitalik Buterin. Ethereum has attracted numerous developers who utilize “smart contracts,” lines of computer code that automatically execute predetermined terms, to enable crypto applications beyond simple value storage.

After extensive research, however, Wang realized that none of Ethereum’s “Layer 2” solutions, primarily designed to scale transactions on the network, were truly decentralized.