Templar Protocol - Pre-Seed

Templar Protocol, a startup developing a cypher lending platform for Bitcoin and other digital assets, today announced it has raised $4 million in a pre-seed funding round. The round was backed by leading blockchain investors including Robot Ventures, Digital Asset Capital Management (DACM), and NEAR Foundation with additional participation by Blackdragon VC, Proximity Labs, and strategic angels including Zaki Manian, Will Price, Loi Luu, Yessin Schiegg, Sam Kazemian, and more.

Templar's goal is to allow anyone to borrow Bitcoin, or any asset, without trusting centralized institutions. Current BTC lending solutions require users to surrender their Bitcoin to a centralized custodian, like Coinbase, creating risks of seizure, censorship, and counterparty failure, like what happened with BlockFi and Celsius. Templar's Cypher Lending Protocol solves this by using multi-party computation (MPC) networks and open-source smart contracts built on NEAR, ensuring that borrowers retain full control of their collateral without the need for trusted third parties (TTPs). This solution was originally proposed by Cypherpunk legend and inventor of term smart contracts, Nick Szabo, in his writing Trusted Third Parties are Security Holes.