Ark Labs
Bitcoin layer-two protocol for fast, off-chain payments.
| Date | Investors | Amount | Round |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | investor | €0.0 | round |
* | $2.5m | Seed | |
| Total Funding | 000k | ||
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Ark Labs is developing a layer-two protocol for Bitcoin, known as Ark, designed to facilitate scalable, low-cost, and seamless payments. Founded in 2024 by co-founder and CEO Marco Argentieri, the company aims to address usability challenges in the Bitcoin network, particularly those associated with the Lightning Network like inbound liquidity and payment channel management. Ark Labs launched in June 2024 and by August 2024, it had secured $2.5 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Tim Draper and Draper Associates, with participation from Fulgur Ventures, Axiom Capital, and angel investor Stephen Cole.
The Ark protocol, originally proposed by developer Burak in 2023, functions as an off-chain transaction batching mechanism. It allows a large number of users to share a single on-chain transaction output (UTXO), which spreads the on-chain fees across all participants and minimizes individual costs. The system operates through a network of Ark Service Providers (ASPs), which are trustless servers that coordinate transactions but cannot access user funds, ensuring users retain self-custody. Users interact with the network via light wallets on their smartphones, which eliminates the need to run a full node or manage complex payment channels. Transactions on Ark are represented as virtual transaction outputs (vTXOs), which can be exchanged off-chain instantly and at low cost.
A key differentiator from the Lightning Network is that Ark users do not need to acquire inbound liquidity to receive funds, simplifying the onboarding process. While the Lightning Network excels at enterprise applications, Ark Labs positions its protocol as a complementary solution for consumer-facing payments and remittances. The protocol is designed to be interoperable with other layer-2 solutions like the Lightning Network and Liquid Network, allowing for atomic swaps between them. The company has made its reference implementation open-source and is developing products like the Ark Node, an Ark-enabled wallet, with a broader rollout expected by the end of 2024.
Keywords: Bitcoin layer-2, off-chain transactions, payment protocol, scalable payments, self-custody, liquidity management, vTXO, Ark Service Provider, Lightning Network, blockchain