SINGAPORE (Nov 28): Marvelstone Group’s financial technology (fintech) initiative, Lattice80, has inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Germany-based IOTA Foundation to open an innovation lab in Singapore.
Lattice80 is said to be the world’s largest fintech hub, whereas IOTA Foundation is the creator of IOTA cryptocurrency and open-source distributed ledger IOTA, which operates on a quantum-proof Directed Acyclic Graph, IOTA Tangle.
Through the innovation lab, the two companies intend to explore mutual interests between ecosystems as well as run joint initiatives on DLT, Internet of Things (IoT), and cryptocurrency.
Lattice80 and IOTA Foundation will run both independent and joint activities to demonstrate and communicate the strengths, unique capabilities, as well as the potential of these technologies to the community through meetups, demo days, IOTA Lab sessions, and more, say the companies in a joint press release on Tuesday.
They add that the innovation lab will streamline access and support to the IOTA technology to Lattice80’s ecosystem of startups and innovators – while catalysing the development of capabilities needed for developing and deploying solutions based on IOTA within Lattice80’s ecosystem.
Areas of collaboration may include research & technical training activities; the joint development of technical integrations between various protocols and IoT devices; and the testing of data exchange design parameters and business models.
“While we have been vocal in our interest in cryptocurrencies, we feel it’s time to commit to more serious future involvement in the broader blockchain and IoT ecosystem. IOTA is a global leader, advocate, and evangelist of these new technologies,” says Joe Seunghyun Cho, Founding CEO of Lattice80 and Chairman of Marvelstone Group.
As a new stakeholder in the blockchain/cryptocurrency space, Lattice80 also recently announced plans to conduct an initial coin offering (ICO) in 2018.
