California-based semiconductor manufacturer Intel appears to be dipping its toe in the digital currency space, following a bitcoin-related job posting.

The multinational company is looking for a cryptographic researcher to join its Special Innovation Projects Group, part of its in-house research organisation, Intel Labs.

An advertisement posted on job site Indeed notes the chosen candidate will be required to “investigate hardware and software capabilities that advance the performance, robustness, and scalability of open, decentralised ledgers”.

It continues:

“Working with a team of distributed systems, operating systems and security technologists you [the candidate] will focus on development of cutting-edge, cryptographic algorithms for improving […] transaction verification within an open, decentralised ledger”.

The advertisement also mentions the potential of the blockchain beyond peer-to-peer bitcoin payments, referencing the “many secondary uses that the research and startup community are exploring” – also known as bitcoin 2.0.

Interest in bitcoin

While Intel is the latest multinational to have expressed interest in the bitcoin space, it’s not the first.

As previously reported, IBM is rumoured to be creating a digital cash and payment system for traditional currencies that uses blockchain technologies.

In January the US-based tech giant also revealed its proof of concept for ADEPT, a system developed in partnership with Samsung that uses elements of bitcoin’s underlying design to build a distributed network of devices – a decentralised Internet of Things.

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