IOG announces strategic investment in Blockfrost

Since its release in 2020, Five Binaries’ Blockfrost API has grown to become a key element of Cardano infrastructure, utilized by numerous developers who require access to the blockchain without the need to run a dedicated, resource-intensive, local Cardano node. Blockfrost performs a valuable and trusted function for projects building on Cardano, offering DApp developers a cost-effective, highly scalable solution to take their applications from testing through to full deployment.

Blockfrost’s value to the Cardano development community is reflected in its widespread usage. To help accelerate its continuing development as a core piece of infrastructure, IOG is excited to be investing in and partnering with the team to support Blockfrost’s ongoing evolution.

IOG and Five Binaries share a vision and commitment to evolving Blockfrost towards a decentralized, sustainable, and community-centric future. This strategic investment intends to facilitate the decentralization of Blockfrost’s data provisioning and mempool access services.

As part of the investment terms, alongside continuing to helm Blockfrost, founder & CEO Marek Mahut will also bring his significant experience to bear in helping IOG explore several other technical projects currently in the innovation stage. Marek has been a leader within the Cardano ecosystem since its earliest days. Setting up the first stake pool on Cardano’s Shelley incentivized testnet (ITN), creating the first smart contract, and minting the first Cardano NFT count among his many achievements.

In the near term, Blockfrost will continue to be run as a fully independent business, continuing to serve its developer customers as it has always done. Longer-term, our shared goal is to create a structure to support Blockfrost’s development in line with its users’ and the wider developer community’s best interests. To this end, we are jointly exploring potential structures to provide the ownership framework for its future decentralized operating model and will share further updates on this at the appropriate time.

Mike Ward, chief product officer at Input Output said: 'Over the past few years, Marek and his small team have done a phenomenal job in establishing a product which brings significant value to the Cardano developer ecosystem. We’re delighted to be partnering with him to help support an exciting decentralized future for Blockfrost and its community of users, and draw on his skills and experience to bring further value across IOG’s evolving product suite.'

Marek Mahut, Five Binaries and Blockfrost founder said: ‘Over the years, Blockfrost has established itself as a leading infrastructure provider within the Cardano ecosystem, supporting thousands of developers in bringing their projects to life. We are very excited to be partnering with IOG to ensure that Blockfrost continues to fulfill this function while also building a more decentralized future for the benefit of the Cardano developer community.’