Cardano (ada) 
Robin Linus, the author of the BitVM whitepaper, has criticized Citrea, claiming that the projectβs marketing contains “overclaims and misleading statements.” Citrea, a zero-knowledge rollup for Bitcoin, recently secured $2.7 million in seed funding from Galaxy Ventures, but has come under scrutiny for allegedly misleading the public.
In a post on May 30, Linus expressed concerns about Citreaβs promotional materials, suggesting they falsely imply a closer affiliation with the BitVM project to attract investors. He stated that Citrea’s marketing efforts are “full of overclaims and misleading statements.”
Orkun KΔ±lΔ±Γ§, co-founder of Chainway Labs, the team behind Citrea, responded to the allegations, emphasizing that Citreaβs marketing accurately reflects its developments and specifications. KΔ±lΔ±Γ§ highlighted their teamβs expertise in zero-knowledge technology and previous innovations, stating, “We have a background in ZK and have invented different products like PoI and PP. We donβt need any affiliations and have never needed them.”
Citrea aims to build an execution layer atop the Bitcoin blockchain by leveraging zero-knowledge proofs to scale the Bitcoin ecosystem. Zero-knowledge proofs are cryptographic methods that allow one party to prove their knowledge of a value or possession of certain information without revealing the information itself. These methods have been deployed in cryptocurrency to enhance privacy and scalability, with notable implementations including zk-SNARKs in Zcash and zk-rollups in Ethereum.
According to Citrea’s technical documentation, Citrea proofs “are inscribed in Bitcoin and optimistically verified via BitVM.”
βWe have a background in ZK and have invented different products like PoI and PP. We donβt need any affiliations and have never needed them.β
In February, Citrea raised nearly $3 million in funding from multiple investors, including Galaxy Digitalβs Galaxy Ventures, Delphi Ventures, Eric Wall, and Anurag Arjun. At the time of the funding announcement, Pantera Capital forecasted a substantial opportunity for the Bitcoin network in decentralized finance (DeFi). Pantera suggested that Bitcoin could potentially attract up to half a trillion dollars in value by enabling decentralized applications (dApps), making Bitcoin-based DeFi a significant contender in the crypto market.
Currently, Ethereum dominates the DeFi landscape, hosting the majority of related activities. According to Pantera Capital, decentralized applications on Ethereum have historically accounted for 8% to 50% of Ethereumβs market capitalization, with the current figure at approximately 25%. Applying these proportions to Bitcoin, analysts at Pantera project that the network could draw around $225 billion in value through Bitcoin-based dApps.
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