Pantera Capital Backs Blockchain Security Startup’s $5.5 Million Round

San Francisco-based smart contract security startup Synthetic Minds has raised $5.5 million for its bid to roll out a technology that analyses blockchain networks for coding bugs.

Announcing the news on Monday, Synthetic Minds said the round was backed by blockchain investment firm Pantera Capital and Khosla Ventures, a California-based venture capital firm focusing on internet startups.

Founded in 2017, Synthetic Minds has just graduated from from startup accelerator Y Combinator’s summer program, during which it also received investment and launched the first version of its technology.

The company explained in its release that it is building its product using a computer science method called program synthesis, which is utilize by organizations dealing with high value and permanent programs, such as NASA with the space station and the Mars Rover.

Since space applications and blockchains share these characteristics, Synthetic Minds turned to program synthesis to design automation technology that it claims is able to “analyze (read) and synthesize (write) computer code better than humans can.”

The tech would allow blockchain and smart contract developers to focus on higher-level aspects of design, while the product itself would detect and optimize technological bugs found in blockchain networks’ code.

The startup states in the release:

“Eventually, using program synthesis we will be able to offload most of the programming for mission critical systems to software, leaving humans free to do high-level architectural design.”

The seed funding follows Pantera’s recent news that it has launched its third crypto fund, with over $71 million committed from 90 investors.

The venture firm has previously invested in major blockchain projects including zcash, ShapeShift, and more recently Bakkt, the crypto assets trading platform announced by ICE, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange.

Coding image via Shutterstock