Monday, June 6, 2016

Swirlds Scores Seed Funding For Blockchain Alternative

College Station-based Swirlds, a developer of a software platform aimed at replacing Blockchain, the backing technology behind the Bitcoin standard, has raised a round of seed funding. The funding came from Ping Identity. Swirlds says it has launched a "hashgraph distributed consensus platform" which is an alternative to Blockchain, and in particular, its use of "wasteful" mining. The Blockchain technology requires the use of computer resources to generate bitcoin, via the application of computing power to solve extremely complex---but otherwise useless--equations. The vast amount of computer power being applied also consumes an enormous amount of energy. Swirlds is targeting its technology for use in distributed identity directories, online auctions, stock markets, cryptocurrencies, and multiplayer games. Size of the seed funding was not announced. More information »