Alpen Labs
Alpen Labs, founded in June 2022 by Simanta Gautam, Pramod Kandel, Chandan Sharma Subedi and Abishkar Chhetri in Brooklyn, New York, builds Bitcoin scaling infrastructure centered on Strata, a ZK rollup for Bitcoin. Its stack uses zero-knowledge proofs to extend Bitcoin with programmable smart contracts and low-cost transactions while anchoring settlement to Bitcoin security via BitVM-inspired constructions. Headquartered in Brooklyn with a research-heavy team across the US and Europe, Alpen emphasizes succinct verification, bridge minimization and developer tooling for Bitcoin-native DeFi and payments. Still advancing toward testnet and ecosystem partnerships, it contributes open research on Bitcoin interoperability and proving. Backed by Ribbit Capital and Castle Island Ventures, the team blends Bitcoin and ZK expertise. Expect a research-driven culture that values Bitcoin ethos, cryptographic rigor and building careful, verifiable extensions that respect Bitcoin's base layer guarantees.