Blockchain This Week: Berkeley Assets Acquires Cryptech, Huobi Invests $100 Mn In Public Blockchain, And More

Blockchain is witnessing increased acceptance across segments, markets, and states in India. Telangana, in association with government think tank NITI Aayog, is ready to host another International Blockchain Conference in August. The Andhra Pradesh government is pursuing another ambitious blockchain project where collated data is stored in an encrypted form in a secret vault while anonymous genomic data is parked in a cloud and accessible for research uses.

After implementing blockchain-based KYC, Indian banks have now turned to blockchain again to speed up their loan approval process. Niti Aayog, meanwhile, aims to place the entire drug inventory in India on a blockchain system.

As per Dailyhodl, some of the biggest Global Forbes 2000 companies that have either invested or are betting big on blockchain are: the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, which has filed a patent on how blockchain can be used to organise company data and prevent customers from having to file the same document twice; JPMorgan Chase, which has created its own open-source blockchain platform called Quorum and also holds a patent on using blockchain for cross-border payments; and Apple, which has filed a patent for a blockchain system that details how verified timestamps can be used to fight hackers and certify digital signatures.

Let’s take look at the developments in blockchain this week.

Berkeley Assets Acquires Blockchain Investment Firm Cryptech

London and Dubai-based multi-asset firm Berkeley Assets has acquired global investment and advisory services firm Cryptech, a blockchain organisation, which provides investment opportunities to individuals and institutions who want to explore the technology.

With offices in Dubai, UAE, and London, Cryptech has been investing in ideas and blockchain or cryptocurrency-based startups. Cryptech has expanded its reach globally, attracting interest from investors across the world who are eager to explore opportunities that offer substantial short-term growth in blockchain and trading in cryptocurrencies.

Commenting on the acquisition, Mike Clark, partner at Berkeley Assets, said, “Our acquisition of Cryptech makes perfect sense because Berkeley Assets has a history of investing in firms which lead from the front, show innovation, and are forward thinking. While technology makes up the smallest sector of our business model, because it represents a higher risk compared to our core focus of tangible assets, we made the decision to invest because it is essential to establish the right opportunities in order to provide the maximum benefit to our clients.”

Huobi Invests $100 Mn In Public Blockchain Project

China’s Huobi Group, a global financial services provider, has announced an investment of $100 Mn or 20 Mn of its tokens to build a public blockchain, reported Reuters.

According to the report, the public blockchain will be called the Huobi Chain and take 21 months to build. Once completed, Huobi will use the online platform for its operations.

Gordon Chen, a senior executive at Huobi leading the project, said, “We believe in a decentralised future where some form of autonomous organisation will replace corporations today. Huobi wants to make history and lead this transition. We see this as a grand experiment. We also think this new world needs a new financial infrastructure, which is what we are hoping Huobi Chain will be.”

The Huobi Group has already launched a $1 Bn dedicated to investments in blockchain companies. The fund focuses on the Chinese market and will finance startups and advance blockchain technology research.

GANA Technologies Combines AI, Blockchain To Personalise Medicine

Estonia-based Green and Nature Association (GANA) Technologies has been working on creating an optimised narrow artificial intelligence (ANI) solution for individuals and research groups in the medical sphere.

While hundreds of companies, including such giants as IBM, Google, and NVIDIA, are working on their own ANI solutions, GANA Technologies will explore ANI’s ability to process vast amounts of records and search for patterns and correlations that can help medicine enter a new age.

The company will use blockchain to ensure transparency in the learning process. The data will be collected from a large community of GANA’s mobile application users — medical institutes, patients, researchers, drug producers, and distributors — thus providing a sufficiently large amount of diverse data to minimise chances of bias.

This will help implement ANI in personalised medicine. ANI can also be used in early detection of diseases and abnormalities, to find the best treatment, interpret CT scans, perform tests, and discover new drugs.

Grayscale Investments Launches Resource Library for Digital Currency Investing

New York-based Grayscale Investments, a digital currency asset management company, has launched an online resource library for institutional and individual investors. The new website, called Insights, will showcase Grayscale’s content and analysis to help investors make more informed digital currency investing decisions.

As per Michael Sonnenschein, MD, Grayscale, “There is a tremendous appetite in the investor community for better information and clarity around digital currency investing. We are trying to demystify this market by offering clear-eyed analysis that demonstrates how digital currencies, when sized appropriately, may fit into a traditional investment portfolio.”

In line with the launch, the company has also published a paper called A New Frontier: How Digital Assets are Reshaping Asset Allocation, demonstrating that digital currencies may enhance strategic asset allocation and help investors build diversified portfolios with higher risk-adjusted returns.

In other news, Ant Financial, the parent company of online payments platform Alipay, recently raised $14 Bn in Series C funding. Ant Financial, an Alibaba Group company, in its statement said that it would utilise a major part of the funding to accelerate its R&D in the areas of blockchain, IoT and AI.

Stay tuned to Inc42 for the latest updates on blockchain related developments!

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