Bitcoin builders defend role of venture capital in layer-2 growth
Venture capital firms play a vital role in the Bitcoin ecosystem, providing necessary funding for infrastructure development, according to industry leaders at the Token2049 conference. Charlie Yechuan Hu, CEO of Bitlayer, emphasized the importance of VC support for early ventures, arguing against the common belief that outsider capital is detrimental. He stated that VCs contribute liquidity, resources, and connections essential for building infrastructure. Mike Jarmuz from Lightning Ventures expressed a preference for investing solely in the Lightning Network, criticizing projects with tokens that promise yields as potentially harmful. He highlighted the rapid growth of the Lightning Network, which has a cumulative capacity of nearly $452 million. Walter Maffione from Kaleidoswap noted that VC funding has been crucial for open-source development rather than speculative projects. Vikash Singh from Stillmark mentioned that investment decisions focus on security, adoption of non-speculative use cases, and application layer growth, supporting proof-of-work as the preferred consensus model.
