Bitcoin-Focused Project Taproot Wizards Raises $7.5M to Advance BTC Innovation
Taproot Wizards, a project focused on Bitcoin, has raised $7.5 million in funding to further develop the BTC ecosystem. The project aims to bring together developers to build various applications and solutions on top of the Bitcoin Base layer, maximizing the potential of the Taproot upgrade implemented in 2021.
Taproot Wizards has been actively promoting innovation in the Bitcoin protocol since its inception. The project’s NFT collection features whimsical wizard characters, paying homage to the early “magic internet money” meme from Bitcoin’s cypherpunk days. The recent funding round was led by Standard Crypto, a venture capital firm specializing in Bitcoin development. Other prominent crypto investors, including StarkWare, Collider Ventures, and UTXO Management, also participated in the round.
The goal of Taproot Wizards is to encourage developers to create different applications and solutions that leverage the Taproot upgrade to enhance BTC’s privacy, security, and efficiency. Taproot enables complex smart contracts to execute on the Bitcoin blockchain in a privacy-preserving manner.
Udi Wertheimer, co-founder of Taproot Wizards, emphasized the urgency of the project, stating, “We went for a larger seed round of $7.5 million because we feel time is of the essence. We genuinely believe that the best time to build in bitcoin is now.”
Taproot Wizards is committed to enhancing scalability and privacy for the Bitcoin network by utilizing innovations such as zero-knowledge proofs and layer-2 rollups. These solutions enable private and complex transactions on Bitcoin without burdening the base layer. The project has already released open-source rollup code to advance scalability.
In addition to scalability and privacy, Taproot Wizards aims to foster an ecosystem where Bitcoin developers can collaborate freely to push the boundaries of what’s possible on the blockchain. The project sees the early Ordinals movement as a catalyst for innovation in Bitcoin, which has primarily been focused on its “digital gold” narrative.
Beyond expanding the crypto’s utility and showcasing its possibilities beyond storing value, Taproot Wizards also intends to continue building new Bitcoin applications, including NFTs, decentralized identities, private payments, and smart contracts.
With strong technical expertise and ample funding, Taproot Wizards is poised to accelerate innovation on Bitcoin. As more developers build on the blockchain, the next phase of Bitcoin’s evolution may be driven by builders expanding its utility beyond being just a digital asset.
