Bitfury Expands into a Full-Service Blockchain Operation

The leading Bitcoin infrastructure provider Bitfury has just announced the firm is expanding into a full-service digital asset technology company. In a blog post written by CEO Valery Vavilov, the founder says he “deeply believes in the transformational power” of these emerging protocols. Vavilov states the business isn’t abandoning its mining sector but is merely broadening the company’s focus which is making blockchain solutions “easy, fast, cost-effective, and secure.”

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Bitfury’s latest announcement of expansion lets the community know that the Bitcoin infrastructure provider is all about promoting these new technologies worldwide. The company wants to ensure any business, organization, individual, or government can “successfully plug into the Blockchain.”

Vavilov says the firm has had much success over the years and now the time has come to bring a whole suite of software to the growing industry. Vavilov explains the expansion won’t change the company’s current projects but build on top of their past projects to create a bigger operation. Vavilov says:

We remain true to our mission as we expand our technology offering to include the software platform capabilities. The Bitcoin network and community continue to evolve and so do we.

Blockchain-Based Property Rights Registry

The first of the mentioned new efforts is a blockchain-based property rights registry. The business announced this project last week and will be working on it in its Republic of Georgia facility.

The venture has added a new advisor to the team — the economist Hernando de Soto — who has an extensive background in the study of property rights.

Bitfury will also partner with the National Agency of Public Registry of the Republic of Georgia who will help with the researching and testing. The company believes blockchain technology will bring security to data like never before because the information cannot be corrupted. It will also provide a frictionless environment for property titles and be auditable by the public bringing transparency.

Blockchain Analytics

The analysis of blockchain transactions has become a popular subject lately with companies like Chainalysis monitoring the Bitcoin distributed ledger to help law enforcement. Bitfury says they plan to join in on the surveillance of the blockchain and provide data analytics.

“We plan to partner with law enforcement agencies globally, just as we have in the U.S. through the Blockchain Alliance, a public-private forum formed by the Bitcoin community to help combat criminal activity involving Bitcoin and the blockchain,” Vavilov said.

However, this particular part of the announcement didn’t sit well with some in the Bitcoin community and they voiced their adverse opinions throughout forums. One redditor commented on the r/bitcoin forum’s thread saying “the value of Bitcoin, like all good money, hinges on its fungibility. It should make no moral distinction between good or bad, criminal or legitimate.”

Lightning Network

Bitfury believes in the power of the Lightning Network. Vavilov says that the overlay network will provide utility, instantaneous microtransactions, scalability, and a “solid foundation for new applications.” The company believes Lightning is one of the industry’s “most important” projects when it comes to expanding Bitcoin. Vavilov explains the importance of the Lightning Network in the announcement saying:

We believe that the Bitcoin Blockchain and its extensible elements such as Lightning Network have the capacity to enable a trillions-of-transactions-per-year economy within a decade.

Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)

Another software creation Bitfury is working on is a digital assets platform-as-a-service (PaaS) framework. The architecture of this project will be used for both permissioned and permissionless blockchain environments. The service will use cloud technology, on-premises solutions, and also allow anchoring to the Bitcoin blockchain. Bitfury says that blockchain protocols tethered to a cloud-based platform can reap more benefits to a wider user base.

Informational Web Portal

It’s also establishing a web portal that will provide “Bitcoin and blockchain-related statistics and news.” The firm will collect resources from both novices and experts within the industry and the ultimate goal is to “demystify the blockchain.” This means giving the mainstream information that is easy to understand and relatable to the everyday person. Bitfury wants the portal to be a trustworthy data and a media hub that bolsters distributed ledger technology.

Bitfury Will Still Provide Infrastructure, Mining Operations & Hardware

Vavilov ends his blog announcement by letting the public know it is still committed to current operations such as mining and securing the network. Bitfury is still betting on Bitcoin’s success, and the firm will continue to provide the same services and products they have produced in the past.

“We believe the world is changing and we are on the front lines of this groundbreaking evolution,” stated the CEO.

What do you think about Bitfury’s expansion? Let us know in the comments below.

Images courtesy of Bitfury