Stone Ridge launches accelerator for Lightning Network blockchain startups

The asset-management firm Stone Ridge Holdings Group has launched an accelerator program for startups focused on the Bitcoin Lightning Network (LN). About this, TechCrunch.

The initiative, named Wolf, has already opened applications for its first cohort, with four cohorts expected each year.

Each cohort will consist of 8-12 teams focused on LN and the Taro protocol.

The Lightning Labs team introduced Taro in April 2022. The solution enables issuing digital assets on the Bitcoin network and using them in LN. In September, developers launched an alpha version of the protocol.

Participants in Wolf will receive funding of $250,000, and one winner of the cohort an additional $500,000.

In addition to Stone Ridge, and its subsidiary NYDIG, projects will receive mentorship and venture investments from venture firms.

“We at Stone Ridge have been watching Lightning for some time. Over the past 12 months the network has reached critical mass, and now has sufficient throughput to reliably carry out real-world tasks,” said Kelly Brewster, head of Wolf.

In October, the ability to make bitcoin payments via LN was added to the Cash App by Block, Jack Dorsey’s company.

As of the start of the month, the capacity of the second-layer network reached 4,878 BTC, and the number of nodes stood at 17,449, according to the analytical ForkLog report.

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