IOV Labs and Coinsilium Announce £250K Joint Venture to Expand RSK in Asia

Last July, IOV Labs partnered with Coinsilium to establish Singapore’s RSK Adoption Hub, and this week the pair have announced a further collaboration in the form of a Strategic Investment Agreement. IOV Labs, the parent company of Bitcoin smart contract platform RSK, will form a landmark joint venture company – also based in Singapore – with the blockchain venture builder. The goal is to promote RSK and RIF OS blockchain solutions in the Asia Pacific region.

For IOV Labs, the agreement is the latest in a series of ventures in the region, having already formed alliances with Japan’s biggest blockchain accelerator BinaryStar, as well as Singapore’s first government-backed accelerator, Tribe. It is hoped that the IOV Labs’ £250K investment into Coinsilium, part of which will be apportioned to joint initiatives, will lead to greater adoption of RSK’s products, services and technologies throughout the blockchain-curious Asian enterprise markets.

RSK allows developers to build the kind of decentralized applications that have made Ethereum the DeFi network of choice - on Bitcoin. The RSK Infrastructure Framework Open Standard (RIF OS), and the RIF token that powers the ecosystem, enables the creation of digital identities, the establishment and enforcement of agreements, and the ability to finalize commercial transactions without the need for intermediaries. Speaking of the RIF token, IOV Labs recently joined forces with Money on Chain to develop a RIF dollar, which lets token holders access defi services developed for Bitcoin.

It seems not a day goes by without fresh news about blockchain initiatives, whether in China, Japan, Vietnam or another Asian nation. Leading Japanese consulting firm Nomura Research Institute (NRI) just announced plans to launch a tradable cryptocurrency index, alongside crypto investment provider Intelligence Unit (IU). A global consortium of Chinese, Japanese and Korean companies led by iFang Korea, meanwhile, is working on an ecosystem of physical businesses which transact internal business via blockchain using the Olefang token.

It’s not just enterprises that are getting in on the act: central banks in the Asia Pacific region are racing to develop digital currencies, with a digital yuan expected to land in 2020. Singapore is considered especially forward-looking when it comes to blockchain, and is the base for a number of fintech firms. It is little wonder, therefore, that IOV Labs and Coinsilium chose to open the RSK Adoption Hub in the republic with the goal of broadening RSK adoption.

Companies delivering blockchain solutions in the Asia Pacific are commonly found headquartered in Singapore, whose registered entities include CoinGecko, the Litecoin Foundation, TRON, QTUM, and TomoChain. More than 600 crypto firms are reported to have set up shop in the sovereign island city-state. From here, they can tap into the demand for blockchain solutions across the region, including countries such as Malaysia, Japan, and South Korea. In planting their flag in Singapore, IOV Labs and Consilium have demonstrated their intent to capture a slice of the lucrative Asian blockchain industry which is dominated by native companies. With Consilium’s local knowledge and connections, IOV Labs seems confident it can secure real world adoption of RSK and RIF OS and onboard businesses eager to build smart contract-powered applications.