US-based Blockchains LLC has acquired slock.it – a Germany-based development company focused on connecting real-world devices to the blockchain.

The acquisition will boost Blockchain LLC’s technical capabilities and speed up development of the company’s digital asset custody and digital identity solutions, the governance model for its planned distributed collaborative entity, along with a number of other projects. Apart from this, slock.it will receive Blockchains’ support for further development and expansion of its product line, including Incubed, which connects IoT devices to Ethereum, and its IoT-layer solution that resolves security and interoperability issues in most of the existing IoT systems.

In terms of personnel placement, slock.it founders Christoph and Simon Jentzsch will become Blockchains’ vice presidents of technology and director of blockchain development, respectively. Blockchains CEO and founder Jeffrey Berns, said: “This is a natural marriage. With Blockchains’ partnerships and slock.it’s technical prowess, this union allows us to fulfill the promises of blockchain technology and foster an ecosystem that applies blockchain solutions to better our everyday lives.”

A MarketsAndMarkets report published in April predicted a major spike in the blockchain IoT market, surpassing £2.31bn by 2024. According to the report, the market will reach $113.1 million (£86.36m) in 2019. The researchers argued that while IoT has innumerable benefits, it also carries a range of risky situations where security is compromised with day-to-day increasing cyber-attacks. However, solving security problems like these is said to be the main reason behind the huge growth in the blockchain market.

Later that month, sister publication IoT News reported the collaborative work between the University of Nevada and Reno’s Intelligent Mobility initiative to develop a latest standard based on blockchain IoT tech for attested data integrity between self-driving cars and road infrastructure. The smart city mobility project is being conducted via the University’s Nevada Center for Applied Research, and is designed to enhance communication as well as safety between self-driving vehicles and surrounding infrastructure with LIDAR and dedicated short-range communications devices mounted at intersections.

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