Reglikedomain industry desk

Donuts invests in Blockchain technology firm

Donuts makes an investment in Netki.

Donuts has made its second investment under its Donuts Labs program.

Netki, Inc. is billed as a digital identity startup dedicated to democratizing digital currency. Just how does this relate to DNS? Here’s how Donuts explains it:

As a distributed database, the blockchain maintains a continuously growing list of data records. Blockchain-based applications, such as bitcoin wallets, utilize complicated, 32-character alphanumeric wallet addresses; Netki’s Wallet Name Service makes blockchain applications user-friendlier by generating easy to remember “wallet names.” Netki leverages “secure DNS” (known formally as domain name system security extensions, or DNSSEC) to map wallet names to blockchain-based public addresses. End-users can then safely share their wallet names in a way that improves security and privacy when compared to current practices.

In May, Donuts disclosed an investment in geofencing firm GeoFrenzy.

I’m not surprised that Donuts invested in a blockchain firm. When I interviewed Donuts COO Richard Tindal and CEO Paul Stahura in May, blockchain came up many times.

Also on the wire

Other reporting from the domain desk.