Pi Squared Secures $12.5 Million in Seed Funding Led by Polychain Capital to Develop a Universal ZK Circuit Powered by Proof of Proof

Champaign, Illinois, July 2nd, 2024

Pi Squared, also known as Proof of Proof, has successfully concluded its inaugural capital raise, led by Polychain Capital. The funding round features participation from several prominent investors, including Bloccelerate, Generative Ventures, Robot Ventures, and Samsung Next. Notable angel investors supporting Pi Squared include Shumo Chu, Harish Devarajan, Justin Drake, Sreeram Kanaan, Csongor Kiss, George Lambeth, Yilong Li, Calvin Liu, Lucian Mincu, Karthik Raju, and Common Prefix.

Utilizing zero-knowledge (ZK) technology in a uniquely effective manner, Pi Squared aims to facilitate trustless remote computing, artificial intelligence, and interoperable smart contracts across various blockchains and decentralized applications (dApps). This initiative is centered around a compact ZK circuit designed to validate the integrity of mathematical proofs, offering verifiable computing correctness guarantees for all programming languages and virtual machines directly based on their formal semantics, without requiring translation to a common language or instruction set architecture.

“Our goal is to revolutionize verifiable computing by making it universally accessible for all programming languages and virtual machines, with a focus on correctness and speed,” stated Grigore Roșu, CEO of Pi Squared and a computer science professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. "This technology will pave the way for a universal settlement layer (USL) that enables all blockchains, both layer 1 and layer 2, to operate universally, correctly, inter-operably, and efficiently. Ultimately, our long-term vision is to establish a foundation for all scientific and knowledge-related applications on the USL."

Karthik Raju, General Partner at Polychain Capital, remarked, “Pi Squared’s Proof of Proof technology is set to transform the landscape of Web3 and beyond. The universal ZK circuit promises to broaden the reach and usability of Web3 for all stakeholders, from developers to end users.”

Pi Squared is poised to drive the next wave of verifiable computing that is both universal and scalable, relying on a minimal trust base. The company’s first product, the Universal Settlement Layer (USL), is designed for modular blockchains and includes the following key characteristics:

Universality: Computations can be performed in any high-level or virtual machine language without requiring compilers or translators.

Provable Correctness: The USL ensures mathematically proven correctness of computations, with independent verification available for external entities.

Trust Base Minimality: The USL highlights any trust assumptions in upper-layer computations, enhancing transparency and reducing reliance on trust through correctness proofs.

Application Interoperability: It supports interoperability among various application modules and networks (e.g., appchains).

Determinism and Reproducibility: Validation processes are reproducible and can be independently verified by external parties.

The USL thus provides comprehensive correctness guarantees for general computations while minimizing the foundational trust necessary for these computations. It advocates for verifiable computing as the primary paradigm in distributed computing, without favoring specific domain-specific languages, virtual machines, or execution settings, all while maintaining efficiency and scalability.

Pi Squared will be showcasing its work at events during EthCC in Brussels from July 8th to 11th. Attendees will have the opportunity to hear from CEO Grigore Roșu, who will speak at Restaking & Infra Day on July 8th and L2con on July 9th.

About Pi Squared

Pi Squared specializes in zero-knowledge proofs of mathematical proofs, employing ZK technology in an innovative and dependable manner. The company, led by Grigore Rosu, a pioneer in the K framework and Runtime Verification, is composed of researchers and founders renowned in the fields of formal methods, blockchain technology, and AI/ML.

For inquiries regarding meetings with Pi Squared’s CEO and team, please reach out via email.

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Head of Marketing
Chris Hazelton
Pi Squared Inc
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This article is based on information shared through Chainwire.