Blockchain solutions provider Emercoin is creating a laboratory that will focus on research and development of the blockchain technology. The lab will open later this year.

The research team will work both on the improving of existing services provided by Emercoin and on new projects, reads the company’s press release. Developing the company’s blockchain solutions and working out the possibilities of market implementation is necessary for the further expansion in the blockchain world.

The creation of the lab will also give way to new business contacts, induce a flow of investment and attract talented specialists, claims the company. It considers itself the leader in the field and notes that several new projects are ready for launching as soon as the lab is ready. According to Emercoin, these projects are supposed to be disruptive. Still, the organisation doesn’t specify which areas of the industry these projects are supposed to disrupt.

Emercoin not only produces its own cryptocurrency (EMC) but has created a whole ecosystem of blockchain services for businesses and personal use. To name just a few, the company provides EMCSSL (a system for passwordless authentication on the Internet), EMCDPO (digital proof of ownership solution for physical or digital goods and services), EMCLNX (decentralised pay-per-click advertising network) and Magnet (distributed torrent tracker for internet file sharing).

These services, as well as several others, make it possible for users to transfer money and information all over the world “at any time, quickly, securely and affordably,” reads the company’s website.

EMC is positioned as an alternative and rival to BTC. Besides backing its currency with a range of blockchain services, the company makes it clear that EMC itself is in a way better than bitcoin, because it is safer. Emercoin Chief Communications Officer Jason Cassidy recently told CoinFox that the consensus mechanism behind EMC is a mixture of PoW and PoS, as opposed to the proof-of-work-only model employed by bitcoin.

The launch of Emercoin’s blockchain R&D lab once again indicates the upward trend the company demonstrated when it recently partnered with Microsoft Azure joining its BaaS (Blockchain-as-a-Service) programme. But so far, EMC’s market capitalisation fluctuates around 7-8 million dollars, which roughly equals 0,001 of bitcoin’s market cap, and one EMC costs less than 0.0005 BTC.

Andrew Levich