Blythe Masters’ Digital Asset Holdings just bought blockchain start-up Blockstack.io
Blythe Masters’ Digital Asset Holdings just bought a blockchain start-up.
The company announced it would be buying Blockstack.io, a cloud-based blockchain system that offers "blockchain-as-a-service" for financial players. Masters, the former JPMorgan Chase executive, confirmed the takeover today:
Blockstack’s solutions will enhance the existing Digital Asset technology stack and Miron, a renowned pioneer in the blockchain world, adds tremendous technical expertise to our development team.
Blockchain, the hyped distributed ledger technology underlying digital currencies like bitcoin, is rapidly winning ground among more traditional financial institutions, not least because of its transparency.
Masters has said that blockchain is far more interesting than controversial bitcoin, saying in an interview with Bloomberg earlier this month to “forget bitcoin and embrace the blockchain”:
I never became particularly enamoured with cryptocurrency.
Masters’ move follows hot on the heels of the news that Nasdaq will be launching a blockchain platform. The platform, Linq, will use blockchain technology to open up privately held companies, helping investors keep track of share issues and transactions.
And this is far from the only recent instance of financial giants moving towards blockchain, as the technology moves into the mainstream.
Australia’s stock exchange is “seriously considering” replacing its current clearing and settlement system with blockchain technology, and Barclays has also recently teamed up with two blockchain startups as the bank’s bitcoin experiment expands.