82 lines
4.2 KiB
Markdown
82 lines
4.2 KiB
Markdown
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title = "Element raises $30M to boost Matrix"
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path = "/blog/2021/07/27/element-raises-30m-to-boost-matrix"
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[taxonomies]
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author = ["Matthew Hodgson"]
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category = ["General", "News"]
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[extra]
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image = "https://matrix.org/blog/img/matrix-logo.png"
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Hi folks,
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Big news today: Element, the startup founded by the team who created Matrix,
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just raised $30M of Series B funding in order to further accelerate Matrix
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development and improve Element, the flagship Matrix app. The round is led by
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our friends at [Protocol Labs](https://protocol.ai) and [Metaplanet](https://metaplanet.com),
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the fund established by Jaan Tallinn (co-founder of
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Skype and Kazaa). Both Protocol Labs and Metaplanet are spectacularly on
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board our decentralised communication quest, and you couldn't really ask for
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a better source of funding to help take Matrix to the next level. Thank you
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for believing in Matrix and leading Element's latest funding!
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You can read all about it from the Element perspective over at the
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[Element Blog](https://element.io/blog/element-raises-30m-as-matrix-explodes),
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but suffice it to say that this is enormous news for the Matrix ecosystem as a
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whole. In addition to transforming the Element app, on the Matrix side this
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means that there is now concrete funding secured to:
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* finish building out [P2P Matrix](https://matrix.org/blog/2021/05/06/introducing-the-pinecone-overlay-network)
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and get it live (including finishing Dendrite, given our P2P work builds on Dendrite!)
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* implement [native decentralised E2EE voip/video conferencing](https://twitter.com/matrixdotorg/status/1419820122143961093) for Matrix
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* fully build out our
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[relative decentralised reputation system](https://matrix.org/blog/2020/10/19/combating-abuse-in-matrix-without-backdoors)
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in order to combat abuse in Matrix.
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Obviously this is in addition to all the normal business-as-usual work going
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on in terms of:
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* getting [Spaces](https://element.io/blog/spaces-the-next-frontier/) out of beta
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* adding Threading to Element (yes, it's finally happening!)
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* speeding up room joins over federation
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* creating 'sync v3' to lazy-load all content and make the API super-snappy
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* lots of little long-overdue fun bits and pieces (yes, custom emoji, we're looking at you).
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If you're wondering whether Protocol Labs' investment means that we'll be
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seeing more overlap between [IPFS](https://ipfs.io) and Matrix, then yes -
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where it makes tech sense to do so, we're hoping to work more closely
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together; for instance collaborating with the libp2p team on our P2P work
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(we still need to experiment properly with gossipsub!), or perhaps giving
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[MSC2706](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/blob/travis/msc/ipfs/proposals/2706-IPFS.md)
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some attention. However, there are no plans to use cryptocurrency incentives
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in Matrix or Element any time soon.
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So, exciting times ahead! We'd like to inordinately thank everyone who has
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supported Matrix over the years - especially our Patreon supporters, whose
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donations pay for all the matrix.org infrastructure while inspiring others to
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open their cheque books; the existing investors at Element (especially [Notion](https://notion.vc)
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and [Automattic](https://automattic.com), who have come in again on this round); all the large scale
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Matrix deployments out there which are effectively turning Matrix into an
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industry (hello [gematik!](https://matrix.org/blog/2021/07/21/germanys-national-healthcare-system-adopts-matrix)) -
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and everyone who has ever run a Matrix server, contributed code, used the
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spec to make their own Matrix-powered creation, or simply chatted on Matrix.
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Needless to say, Matrix wouldn't exist without you: the protocol and network
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would have fizzled out long ago were it not for all the people supporting it
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(the matrix.org server can now see over 35.5M addressable users on the
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network!) - and meanwhile the ever-increasing energy of the community and the
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core team combines to keep the protocol advancing forwards faster than ever.
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We will do everything we possibly can to succeed in creating the long-awaited
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secure communication layer of the open Web, and we look forward to large
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amounts of Element's new funding being directed directly into core Matrix
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development :)
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thanks for flying Matrix,
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Matthew, Amandine & the whole Matrix core team.
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