Institutional Giant A16Z Leads $102 Million Funding Round in Dfinity 'World Computer'

Dfinity, a Switzerland-based blockchain startup, has secured $102 million in funds from venture capitalist firm Andreessen Horowitz and crypto fund Polychain Capital to support its "World computer" project, according to Fortune.

In March 2018, Dfinity raised $61 million from the same set of investors, which indicates a robust, and presumably competitive, product offering is in the cards for the "Web 3.0" advocate.

A16Z's Chris Dixon believes the project is unlike the majority of other blockchain startups, courtesy of Dfinity's impressive technology team.

In this regard, Dfinity boasts several blockchain breakthroughs, primarily relating to scalability and network security, with the seed capital it raised earlier.

"Decentralized computation networks like Dfinity stand to bring us closer to a world where digital platforms can be constructed from trustless, autonomous, and open source software that is owned and governed by communities of users and developers, rather than companies."

In short, Dfinity's decentralized computing vision cuts out intermediate, monopolized servers, middleware and costly cloud-based services, all while allowing the creation of open-source programs and dApps.

Although the project seeks widespread adoption, Dfinity founder Dominic Williams acknowledged infiltrating a market led by Amazon and Microsoft is a mammoth task.

Accessing the Dfinity network is done via its token, TBA. Earlier this year, in May, over $35 million of the tokens were "Airdropped" to registered participants and crypto-enthusiasts.

The latter offers more of Dfinity's capabilities and triumphs at providing robust smart contracts to customers, despite older code and lack of institutional backing.

A16Z received TBA tokens instead of equity for the Dfinity investment, signaling the start of a sharp turn in the way traditional investments are made.