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Ethereum Blockchain Solutions Provider ConsenSys Acquires Fluidity
ConsenSys, a New York-based provider of full-stack Ethereum blockchain solutions, has announced the acquisition of "the team and technology" of its joint venture partner Fluidity, a Brooklyn-based blockchain technology company.
Fluidity is the primary developer of AirSwap, a platform that enables peer-to-peer trading on the Etherem blockchain. Ethereum is a public blockchain platform for building and deploying decentralized applications (DApps) and "smart contracts" (also called cryptocontracts).
Fluidity built AirSwap on the Swap Protocol, a peer-to-peer protocol for trading Ethereum tokens. Introduced in a May 2017 white paper by Fluidity cofounders Michael Oved and Don Mosites, Swap defines a profound shift in the way assets are traded by providing "a design for an open network to connect to peers based on common interest, to agree on a price through mutual cryptographic signatures, and to settle without intermediaries on the Ethereum blockchain."
Fluidity developed the AirSwap platform as part of a joint venture with ConsenSys. The acquisition of its venture partner is a signal that ConsenSys intends to strengthen its core product suite "to bring the market new innovations in financial infrastructure built on Ethereum," the companies said.
Fluidity is responsible for a number of industry firsts, including real-estate tokenization, tokenized securities trading, and systems to pledge real collateral to decentralized credit platforms. It's also the host of the Fluidity Summit.
"Bringing Fluidity fully into ConsenSys will unlock powerful synergies that we have identified over the past few months," said ConsenSys founder Joseph Lubin, in a statement. "The team has built best-in-class token trading technology for different niches that ConsenSys can now help bring forth at scale. We are excited to reinvigorate the longstanding close relationship."
The blockchain engineers and financial technology experts behind AirSwap will continue "to empower the world with frictionless trade by focusing on network growth and new token mechanisms," the companies said. As part of ConsenSys, they will have the support of the that company's business development, engineering, and marketing teams. Fluidity technology will also be leveraged by the ConsenSys Codefi blockchain operating system to power commerce and decentralized finance, they said. The AirSwap roadmap also includes delivering multiple building blocks for the DeFi [decentralized finance] ecosystem.
"The future is bright for decentralized trading, blockchain technology, and upgrading legacy financial infrastructure," Oved said in a statement. "Together with ConsenSys, the power of our systems can be fully realized."
The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
About the Author
John K. Waters is the editor in chief of a number of Converge360.com sites, with a focus on high-end development, AI and future tech. He's been writing about cutting-edge technologies and culture of Silicon Valley for more than two decades, and he's written more than a dozen books. He also co-scripted the documentary film Silicon Valley: A 100 Year Renaissance, which aired on PBS. He can be reached at jwaters@converge360.com.