Last week we saw some major backing of the Secret Network blockchain, as significant blockchain players Arrington Capital and Blocktower Capital invested in the privacy-first smart contract platform. What this is signaling is the rise of privacy-oriented financial blockchain projects, which are crucial if “DeFi” (decentralized finance) is to have any kind of future. We have come to expect privacy in our “normal” financial lives, so we will expect it in the blockchain world.
Today there’s a new signal that this privacy movement in DeFi is taking off with the announcement from privacy decentralized finance company Sienna Network that it has raised $11.2 million from institutional investors and its public supporters. Of that raise, the private token sale raised $10 million from investors, including NGC, Inclusion Capital, Lotus Capital, FBG, Skyvision Capital and others. It also raised $1.2 million on the DaoMaker and Polkastarter exchanges.
Sienna Network is built on the aforementioned Secret Network, and pitches itself as a privacy-first and cross-chain decentralized finance platform, allowing asset holders to switch to privacy-oriented tokens.
Sienna is one of an increasing number of blockchain startups tackling the industry-wide problem of “front-running”. This — says Sienna — is where bad actors hijack future trades on public DeFi blockchains.
Monty Munford, chief evangelist and core contributor to Sienna Network said: “Sienna helps access to the privacy-preserving blockchain in a user-friendly way due to the blockchain’s inherent privacy design. Sienna saves no login information, no wallet data, no transaction data, or anything else. It does not even track its website or give any information to any third party.”
Here’s how a front-running scam works: A transaction on Ethereum can be preempted by someone else simply by them paying a higher transaction fee. It’s the close equivalent in the real world of trumping a trade on the stock market, just because you paid a higher fee to a broker. In other words, it’s a disaster if it continues to happen, and the entire infrastructure of decentralized finance is threatened because of this threat.
Commenting, Tor Bair, CEO Secret Network said: “We believe Sienna will be a key pillar of Secret DeFi and help drive mass adoption of a more secure decentralized financial ecosystem.”
