RChain Cooperative Member Pithia Invests $2.4M to Boost Local Blockchain Economies

Venture capital firm and RChain Co-op ecosystem member Pithia has joined forces with local blockchain economy platform DigitalTown in a new investment deal that will accelerate the development of distributed ledger technology-based smart city solutions.

Pithia announced the $2.4 million investment in DigitalTown on May 17, contributing to the Welsh-based organization to accelerate the development of their turn-key hosted smart city solutions.

Pithia's capital injection into the DigitalTown platform is the third such investment by the Seattle-based VC fund in the last few months, continuing the firm's strategy of accelerating the development of the blockchain 3.0 ecosystem.

DigitalTown, launched in 2005, has been working toward the creation of discoverable online communities and digital local economies for over a decade, and recently re-launched in 2016.

DigitalTown's latest iteration focuses on offering local businesses the opportunity to create online storefronts that leverage blockchain technology to facilitate fee-free digital purchases.

"The investment in DigitalTown brings foundational services via blockchain to consumers in everyday businesses such as restaurant, hotels and other services. It is one more of the layers of infrastructure services bringing us another step closer to impactful, real world use cases for performant blockchains. Pithia is thoughtfully building the underpinnings of the blockchain era, and nothing is more foundational than the cities we live in and how we interact with one another."

The DigitalTown project builds upon both the RChain and LifeID platforms in order to create infrastructure and services that blockchain developers use to develop decentralized apps.

DigitalTown projects are currently being implemented in the Central Texas corridor from Austin to San Antonio.

"DigitalTown has a history of securing value-added investors. The Pithia team are seasoned and knowledgeable executives from a range of operating backgrounds. RChain is on the cutting edge of high performance distributed Internet. The combination is a potent one and allows us to accelerate execution of the DigitalTown vision of thriving, sovereign and connected communities, both online and offline."

Lerner will be joining the DigitalTown board of directors as a result of the investment, assisting with the creation of localized, blockchain-based equivalents to international juggernauts such as Airbnb or Expedia.