Alpen Labs Raises $10.6M to Bring Smart Contracts to Bitcoin Using Zero-Knowledge Proofs

• Alpen Labs raised $10.6 million in seed funding led by Ribbit Capital to develop Bitcoin rollup infrastructure • The company aims to bring smart contract functionality to Bitcoin using zero-knowledge proofs • Zero-knowledge proofs allow secure, private data transfers and can be used to scale blockchains • Bitcoin developers have historically prioritized simplicity and security over new functionality • Recent interest in scaling Bitcoin while preserving its security properties motivated Alpen Labs’ startup