Written by TACEO
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Small-town GmbH in the Big City

TACEO goes to NYC to join the a16z CSX Fall 2024 Cohort

We started TACEO with the simple but powerful idea that private computation should be foundational to the future of the internet. Now, as we prepare to join a16z’s prestigious CSX accelerator in New York, we’re more committed than ever to bringing that vision to life. From our small beginnings as a tight-knit team of researchers and developers, we’re growing into a company driven by a passion for excellence, open-source principles, and a deep belief in strong scientific foundations. This next chapter will be transformative—not just for us, but for the future of MPC encrypted compute.

This is a huge opportunity to learn from some of the industry’s best. Engaging with leaders who have scaled transformative companies will help us grow both as a team and as a company. We’re excited to apply those lessons to advance privacy-preserving computation in Web3. — Lukas Helminger, CEO

Who We Are

We are a small team that spun out from a research center and Graz University of Technology. As such, it should be no surprise that our work is rooted in a deep respect for the principals of science, where we focus on building systems that favor efficiency and precision. We strongly believe that technology can be both powerful and ethical, and this belief guides what we do.

We also believe in the principles of open-source and license-free development. Open-source development in not only an essential part of advancing knowledge and encouraging indiscriminatory collaboration, it’s particularly important for encryption and security sensitive software. By keeping our work open and accessible, we aim to contribute to the broader software community, while building trust through transparency and verifiability.

We place a strong emphasis on excellence in both our research and development processes. This can be highlighted by our history of contributions to cryptographic standards including SPHINCS+, its runner-up Picnic, the SHA3 finalist Grøstl, as well as ZK-friendly hash functions like Poseidon. We take this commitment to quality in order to be well placed to deliver secure software.

What We’re Building

We’re developing MPC-encrypted compute for Web3 with the ultimate vision to create a Secure Compute Layer (CLS) for the internet. As TLS was developed to secure communication on the internet, we believe there is a need to secure computation, ensuring that privacy and security are built into every interaction online. While this is an interesting technical challenge, it’s also a fundamental shift in how technology and our digital lives evolve.

We depart on this mission by building tooling for collaborative SNARKs, creating a foundation for decentralized, privacy-first applications. CoSNARKs allow multiple parties to collaborate on private shared state to jointly compute zero-knowledge proofs.

We’re focused on massively increasing the performance of our encrypted compute solutions and tackling some of the toughest open problems in the space. Joining a16z’s CSX School connects us with the expertise and further support to make those necessary breakthroughs." — Roman Walch, Lead Cryptographer

Why We’re Building It

Privacy is a fundamental human right. Overall, our goal is to create a digital world where people and organizations can trust and verify that their data is secure in transit and while being processed. We’re building tools to allow people to interact with dignity and freedom online.

Beyond individual privacy, we recognize that companies need privacy to innovate and grow. Without secure environments, organizations can’t push the boundaries of what’s possible. By creating encrypted computation solutions, we aim to foster a world where businesses can experiment, collaborate, and innovate, in the face of increasing privacy regulation, and without fear of exposing sensitive information.

Where We are Today

Still Early. We’re in the beginning stages of our journey where our vision is evolving through ongoing research and development. We’ve made some nice progress in building the foundational tools for MPC-encrypted compute, but much of the work ahead involves refining and scaling these ideas into robust solutions that can be adopted at a larger scale. So far, we’ve successfully demonstrated that MPC can be practical for industrial-scale use cases, such as iris uniqueness checks with Worldcoin. We’ve also shown that computing SNARKs in decentralized blockchain settings introduces no significant computational overhead, as evidenced by our work on coCircom. These projects have validated our core technologies and proven that our approach is both feasible and impactful from a user, industry, and regulatory perspective.

However, this is just the groundwork. The challenge now is to expand on these foundations and deliver tools and compute power that are accessible to a much broader audience. We’re focused on finding the most efficient, scalable ways to provide these solutions to the masses, ensuring they are ready for real-world applications.

This is why joining a16z’s CSX accelerator comes at such a perfect moment for us. This is the time where we plan to accelerate our product development and fine-tune our roadmap as we move from concept to implementation at scale.

I’m thrilled to have the chance to speak directly with leading researchers. As we flesh out our roadmap, these insights will be invaluable in shaping a product that truly impacts Web3. The timing couldn’t be better for us. — Lukas Götz, CPO

What’s Next

We plan to expand our tools, test new ideas, and engage deeply with developers, researchers, and partners who share our commitment to privacy and security in the digital space.

The a16z CSX accelerator will play a key role in helping us advance these goals. Through mentorship, collaboration, and access to resources, we’ll gain the support needed to take our prototypes to the next level, turning them into fully deployable solutions that can transform how computation is secured in Web3.

In the coming months, we’ll be doubling down on research, building partnerships, and sharing more about the progress we’re making. Our goal is to have a more complete, scalable solution ready for developers and organizations by next year—one that will make secure, private computation a reality for all.

Conclusion

We’re sharing this news now because it marks an important moment for TACEO—not just for our team, but for the broader vision we’re working to bring to life. Being selected to join a16z’s CSX School isn’t just a milestone, it’s an opportunity to accelerate our mission of building secure, encrypted computation for Web3. We are at a critical juncture where the support, guidance, and collaboration from a16z and their network will play a key role in helping us overcome the technical challenges ahead.

We believe that privacy and security should be fundamental in the digital world, and we’re committed to making that a reality. Today is more than just an announcement—it’s an invitation for you to follow our journey, share in our progress, and become part of the conversation around the future of secure computation.

Whether you’re a developer, researcher, or just someone who cares about the evolution of privacy in the digital age, we hope you take away one thing: the future we’re building is not just about technology. It’s about creating a world where individuals and organizations can trust that their data is secure and private at every step. We’re excited to share what’s next and look forward to having you with us on this journey.

Note: A GmbH is similar to a Limited Liability Company in the US.