Bain Capital, Polychain, Lead $6M Funding Round For Privacy Protocol Firm Nocturne Labs

Nocturne Labs, the company behind the privacy on-chain accounts protocol Nocturne, announced Wednesday it raised $6 million in a seed funding round co-led by Bain Capital Crypto and Polychain Capital.

The funding round drew participation from other prominent investors in the Ethereum ecosystem, including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, Bankless Ventures, HackVC and Robot Ventures.

The money will be used to continue the development of the blockchain but also pay legal bills, Luke Tchang, the co-founder and CEO of Nocturne Labs told CoinDesk in an interview.

The Nocturne protocol is expected to launch during the second half of November, combining blockchain technologies like zero-knowledge proofs, account abstractions and stealth addresses to bring private accounts to public blockchain.

According to a press release, the accounts “function like conventional Ethereum accounts, but with built-in asset privacy.”

Nocturne could compete with other privacy-focused protocols such as Aztec or Railgun, Tchang said.

“People have kind of been afraid of the space for regulatory reasons. We’re kind of the belief that there’s a way to do this the right way and being measured along the way and speaking with regulators,” Tchang told CoinDesk. “This is of course still possible. Having privacy is not an impossible thing to ask for.”