BlockSpaces

Founded in 2017 by Rosa Shores and Gabe Higgins, BlockSpaces is a Tampa-based company focused on developing Bitcoin-native financial infrastructure. The founders have been involved in the blockchain sector since as early as 2012, where they identified a need to bridge legacy Web 2.0 applications with the emerging Web 3.0 ecosystem. This experience led to the creation of BlockSpaces, which initially operated similarly to an incubator for blockchain projects before evolving its focus.

The firm targets financial institutions and corporations, providing infrastructure to support the use of Bitcoin in capital markets. Its business model centers on offering programmable, trust-minimized financial solutions that enable clients to leverage Bitcoin as a collateral asset. BlockSpaces operates as middleware, meaning it does not act as a lender or custodian of funds but provides the technology to facilitate transactions between parties. Revenue is generated through a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, which includes a flat fee plus additional charges based on consumption, such as the frequency of blockchain interactions.

The company's flagship product is ARCC (Auto Reconciled Collateral Contracts), a collateral and risk management platform. ARCC is an API-driven middleware solution that delivers smart contract-like functionality natively on the Bitcoin network without relying on sidechains or wrapped tokens. It allows institutions to automate and scale high-volume, Bitcoin-backed financial contracts, including structured lending, forward contracts, and BitBonds. The platform is built on BlockSpaces' proprietary Smart Channel™ technology, which uses Hash Time-Locked Contracts (HTLCs) to create a trust-minimized environment for executing these financial instruments, thereby reducing counterparty risk.

BlockSpaces has secured significant funding to support its growth, raising a total of nearly $10 million across multiple rounds from investors such as Axiom and Leadout Capital. A recent $2 million strategic funding round is designated to fuel the launch and expansion of the ARCC platform. This reflects a strategic pivot from its earlier, broader goal of connecting various business applications to multiple blockchain networks to a more specialized focus on Bitcoin-native infrastructure.

Keywords: Bitcoin infrastructure, financial technology, collateral management, risk management, capital markets, SaaS, digital assets, blockchain API, smart contracts, institutional finance