{"id":12087,"date":"2022-01-09T21:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-09T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ci02968826f00026c3"},"modified":"2025-10-01T13:27:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T18:27:17","slug":"how-blockstream-grew-in-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/business\/how-blockstream-grew-in-2021","title":{"rendered":"Blockstream\u2019s 2021 In Review: How Bitcoin\u2019s Biggest Infrastructure Company Grew Last Year"},"content":{"rendered":"
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2021 was a tremendous year for Blockstream and the Bitcoin ecosystem in general. Thanks to our talented and dedicated team of Bitcoiners, we continue to be at the vanguard of many of the industry’s most influential and cutting-edge projects.<\/p>\n

In the spirit of the new year, we wanted to reflect on some of our most ambitious undertakings in 2021 their impact, and where they currently stand.<\/p>\n

Growing With Bitcoin <\/h2>\n

This year, bitcoin achieved new highs, became legal tender on a nation-state level and reached another leg up in its quest for worldwide adoption. We at Blockstream had a similar breakout year, with the successful close of $210 million as part of our series B financing on a valuation of $3.2 billion<\/a>, officially reaching unicorn status.<\/p>\n

The acquisitions of Adamant Capital<\/a> and Spondoolies<\/a> helped further our mission of building financial infrastructure on Bitcoin by spawning several new initiatives, including our new ASICs division that will launch the industry’s first enterprise-grade miner and the introduction of Blockstream Finance<\/a> that is serving as an on-ramp for Bitcoin-focused financial products like the Blockstream Mining Note<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We continue to integrate Bitcoin Layer 2 solutions like the Lightning Network and the Liquid sidechain, farther into the Blockstream product and service suite (i.e., Elements, Green, AQUA, Jade, Satellite, c-lightning), all free and open<\/a> to developers.<\/p>\n

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Solving Energy Inefficiencies With Proof Of Work<\/h2>\n

During the first half of 2021, our Blockstream Mining division scaled at an impressive pace, signing high-profile clients to colocation services and announcing a slew of partnerships focused on alternative energy solutions. The most notable were collaborations with Macquarie to pilot a carbon-neutral Bitcoin mining facility and with Square (now Block) to develop a $5 million open-source, solar-powered Bitcoin mine in the U.S<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Ultimately, the Macquarie and Block mining facilities will demonstrate how we can incentivize the creation of more zero-emission power infrastructure through Bitcoin’s innovative proof of work and help drive the transition to cleaner energy. Contrary to the mainstream narrative surrounding Bitcoin and energy use, we believe it can provide a market-oriented solution to many of the energy sector’s problems today. For example, hundreds of thousands of megawatts of electricity go unused and wasted in West Texas<\/a> alone. Bitcoin fixes this.<\/p>\n

We believe in being part of the solution, so we launched a new service, Blockstream Energy<\/a>, which leverages our modular mining units (MMUs) with Blockstream Satellite to deliver scalable energy demand to power producers. The service is able to tap stranded and otherwise wasted energy to maximize energy production efficiency and, in turn, improve the economics of renewable projects around the world. <\/p>\n

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Championing Lightning Network Scaling And Decentralization<\/h2>\n

Layering functionality and complexity on top of a minimal base layer allows Bitcoin to remain a decentralized form of hard money. In 2021, BTC capacity and the number of payment channels on the Lightning Network have more than tripled year-over-year, laying the groundwork for the wide-scale use of P2P payments on Bitcoin’s second layer. We expect the rapid adoption of Lightning and other Layer 2 protocols to compound in the near future, especially as nation states like El Salvador rely on them to onboard their citizens to the new Bitcoin economy.<\/p>\n

We believe our Greenlight<\/a> service and other Lightning infrastructure projects will play an integral part in meeting the scaling and onboarding demands of hyperbitcoinization. Greenlight, in particular, allows everyday citizens and small businesses to easily access the Lightning Network without having to run a node themselves and do so without handing over custody to their private keys and funds. <\/p>\n

Low cost, on-demand node management will also help streamline the development and innovation of Lightning-enabled apps by removing technical barriers. Apps such as Sphinx<\/a> and Lastbit<\/a> are already running Greenlight, and we expect a further rollout to the general public in 2022.  <\/p>\n