BitVM creator: Galaxy Ventures-backed Citrea’s marketing is ‘misleading’

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As an experienced financial analyst, I find Robin Linus’s concerns regarding Citrea’s marketing campaign quite intriguing. Having closely followed the blockchain and cryptocurrency space for years, I have seen my fair share of projects making overzealous claims in their promotional materials. However, it is essential to maintain transparency and accuracy when communicating with potential investors and the public.

Robin Linus, the writer of the BitVM whitepaper, criticized Citrea strongly. He pointed out that their marketing materials contain excessive claims and misleading statements.

As a crypto investor, I’ve been following the developments of Bitcoin zero-knowledge rollup project Citrea with great interest. The news of their successful $2.7 million seed funding round led by Galaxy Ventures was initially exciting. However, I’ve recently become concerned after hearing allegations that they may have misrepresented some aspects of their marketing campaign to the public.

Robin Linus, the author of the BitVM whitepaper, expressed his concerns in a Reddit X-post on May 30th, pointing out that Citrea’s marketing materials contain excessive claims and misrepresentations regarding their proposed implementation of Ethereum-like smart contract functionality on Bitcoin.

As a crypto investor, I’ve come across concerning information regarding Citrea. Linus has raised doubts about Citrea’s marketing strategies, suggesting that they may be misleading potential investors by implying a closer relationship with the BitVM project than what actually exists.

I’m surprised that despite having several lines of communication open between our teams, you chose not to approach me directly before raising this issue. I had anticipated that we would discuss any concerns firsthand, given the tone of your team’s public demeanor over the past few months. This situation has unfortunately cast a shadow over…

— orkun 🍊🍋 (@0x_orkun) May 30, 2024

Orkun Kılıç, the co-founder of Chainway Labs and the mastermind behind Citrea, countered Linus’s accusations by asserting that his comments undermined the significance of his contributions. Kılıç underlined the accuracy of Citrea’s marketing materials in portraying its advancements and features, showcasing the team’s proficiency in zero-knowledge technology and earlier breakthroughs.

As a seasoned crypto investor with experience in Zero-Knowledge (ZK) technology, I’ve been involved in creating innovative solutions such as Proof of Integrity (PoI) and Proof of Proximity (PP). Rest assured, there are no hidden partnerships or affiliations in my background that could potentially influence my decisions.

Orkun Kılıç

“Using zero-knowledge proofs, Citrea aims to construct a scalable execution layer on top of the Bitcoin blockchain.”

Zero-knowledge proofs represent cryptographic techniques that allow one entity to validate to another that they possess specific knowledge or a value, without disclosing the actual information. These methods have gained popularity in the realm of cryptocurrency, particularly for enhancing privacy and scalability. Notable examples include zk-SNARKS used in Zcash for confidential transactions and zk-rollups employed in Ethereum to facilitate efficient and large-scale transaction processing.

Based on the technical information for the project, Citrea verifications are recorded on the Bitcoin network and then confirmed through BitVM with a positive assumption.

I’m thrilled to share that in the month of February, I was part of the crypto community that witnessed Citrea securing a substantial investment of close to $3 million. This round was led by esteemed industry players such as Galaxy Digital’s Galaxy Ventures, Delphi Ventures, Eric Wall, and Anurag Arjun. Their support is a testament to the potential of Citrea’s project in the crypto space.

When Pantera Capital revealed their investment, they highlighted a considerable prospect for Bitcoin within the realm of decentralized finance (DEFi). According to their estimation, Bitcoin had the potential to draw in as much as half a trillion dollars in value by facilitating decentralized applications (dApps). Consequently, Bitcoin-centric DEFi emerged as a substantial competitor within the crypto sector.

Ethereum currently leads the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector, as a significant portion of related activities take place on its platform. Based on historical data from Pantera Capital, the value of decentralized applications (dApps) on Ethereum has ranged between 8% and 50% of its total market capitalization, with the current estimate being around 25%. By applying these percentages to Bitcoin, analysts at Pantera predict that Bitcoin could potentially support a value of approximately $225 billion through Bitcoin-based dApps.

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2024-05-30 11:16