layer-2
(7)
The Houseparty Guy Got Burned Twice. Now He Wants You to Own the Group Chat.
Ben Rubin built Meerkat and Houseparty, watched both die, and decided the problem was ownership. Towns Labs is his answer: a messaging protocol where the community holds the keys, not the landlord.
The Exchange That Ripped Its Own Name Off the Wall
It dropped the "E," paid the fine, opened in San Jose, and put its reserves on a Merkle tree. Inside OKX's bet that self-custody - not the exchange - is the actual product.
The Company Betting the Future of Finance Runs on Bitcoin
Adam Back's hashcash sits inside the Bitcoin whitepaper. A decade later, the company he co-founded is trying to build the rails everyone else runs on - sidechains, Lightning nodes, hardware wallets, and a satellite that beams the blockchain to Earth.
Consensys
It gave the world MetaMask, wired thousands of apps to Ethereum through Infura, and now wants to make the blockchain cheap enough to actually use. Meet the company Ethereum's co-founder built to onboard the rest of us.
OP Labs PBC
OP Labs PBC is the core software development company behind Optimism, an Ethereum Layer 2 network, and the OP Stack, the open-source framework that powers the Superchain - a network of blockchains including chains launched by Sony, Uniswap, Kraken and (until 2026) Coinbase's Base. Founded in 2019 out of the nonprofit Plasma Group, OP Labs raised $178.5M from Paradigm and a16z at a $1.65B valuation and structures itself as a Public Benefit Corporation committed to scaling Ethereum's technology and values, including funding open-source public goods.
Thesis*
Thesis* is a Bitcoin-focused venture production studio founded in 2014 that builds companies and protocols in-house rather than investing in outside teams. Operating under the banner "Money is power, Bitcoin is empowerment," it has incubated a portfolio spanning Bitcoin infrastructure and consumer finance - including tBTC (a decentralized, trust-minimized bridge that tokenizes Bitcoin on Ethereum), Mezo (an on-chain Bitcoin banking layer backed by the MUSD stablecoin), Fold (a Bitcoin rewards app), Acre (Bitcoin staking), and Taho (a community-owned web3 wallet). Led by CEO Matt Luongo, Thesis raised a $21 million Series A in 2021 and has become one of the most prolific studios building Bitcoin-native financial products.
Alpen Labs
Alpen Labs is a Bitcoin infrastructure company building Strata, a zero-knowledge (ZK) validity rollup and bridge that lets people borrow, earn, and transact in dollars directly on Bitcoin - without wrapped tokens or custodians. Founded in 2022 by a team of MIT alumni, the company uses ZK cryptography to bring programmable smart contracts and DeFi-style financial products to Bitcoin while preserving its security and decentralization.