IBM Buys Into Digital Asset Holdings, a Blockchain Tech Company

Bloomberg recently reported that IBM, along with the Goldman Sachs Group Inc., made a move in the race to commercialize blockchain technology in financial markets. They both have invested in Digital Asset Holdings (DAH), one of a group of startups looking to break into the space. The newest investments bring the total sum raised by the company to $60 million, according to an official statement released on Feb. 2.

DAH Covers Australia

Today, the trading of securities relies on a central authority that coordinates the transfer of cash for traded shares. DAH wants to link all participants to the same database of transactions, which would allow almost real-time asset movement.

DAH is headed by former JPMorgan Chase & Co. banker Blythe Masters. Its products serve the entire financial ecosystem through the creation of tailored business logic applications, which use privately permissioned networks that employ a cryptographically secure shared infrastructure.

Last month, DAH finalized a contract that should greatly speed up settlement for the stock market in Australia. The contract added a layer of stature to the startup since it will be the first operational project of its kind using the blockchain-distributed ledger technology.

DAH hopes to achieve settlement of shares in Australia in mere minutes, compared to the three days now typical in the U.S. The company won out over 400 applicants for the contract to remake the country’s clearing and settlement system.

The Linux Blockchain Framework

This isn’t the first time IBM and DAH have collaborated. In December, they both joined with the Linux Foundation to create an open-source distributed ledger framework.

IBM contributed tens of thousands of lines of its existing code base and corresponding intellectual property to the effort. DAH contributed the Hyperledger mark — which was chosen as the project name — as well as code and developer resources.

“A broad, cross-industry and open-source approach is critical to advance the potential for blockchain and make it mainstream,” said Arvind Krishna, senior vice president and director at IBM Research, at the time. “Even beyond building out standards, creating common code will allow organizations to focus on creating industry-specific applications that enhance the value of this technology.”

A blockchain conference hosted by IBM will be held in February.

Larry Loeb

Principal, PBC Enterprises

NIST’s role in the global tech race against AI

4 min read - Last year, the United States Secretary of Commerce announced that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been put in charge of launching a new public working group on artificial intelligence (AI) that will build on the success of the NIST AI Risk Management Framework to address this rapidly advancing technology.However, recent budget cuts at NIST, along with a lack of strategy implementation, have called into question the agency’s ability to lead this critical effort. Ultimately, the success…

Researchers develop malicious AI ‘worm’ targeting generative AI systems

2 min read - Researchers have created a new, never-seen-before kind of malware they call the "Morris II" worm, which uses popular AI services to spread itself, infect new systems and steal data. The name references the original Morris computer worm that wreaked havoc on the internet in 1988.The worm demonstrates the potential dangers of AI security threats and creates a new urgency around securing AI models.New worm utilizes adversarial self-replicating promptThe researchers from Cornell Tech, the Israel Institute of Technology and Intuit, used what’s…

Passwords, passkeys and familiarity bias

5 min read - As passkey (passwordless authentication) adoption proceeds, misconceptions abound. There appears to be a widespread impression that passkeys may be more convenient and less secure than passwords. The reality is that they are both more secure and more convenient — possibly a first in cybersecurity.Most of us could be forgiven for not realizing passwordless authentication is more secure than passwords. Thinking back to the first couple of use cases I was exposed to — a phone operating system (OS) and a…

Security Intelligence

{{title}}

{{title}}

{{title}}

Topics

DAH Covers Australia

The Linux Blockchain Framework

More from

NIST’s role in the global tech race against AI

Researchers develop malicious AI ‘worm’ targeting generative AI systems

Passwords, passkeys and familiarity bias

Topic updates