General Electric invest in blockchain technology

General Electric saw big potential in blockchain technology.

A branch of venture capital from the industrial conglomerate - General Electric (GE) is one of the participants in the series of fundraising for Xage, a cyber security startup. The company uses blockchain technology to securely connect industrial devices in Internet of Things (IoT). Other investors in the fundraising round run by March Capital Partners are City Light Capital and NexStar Partners.

The technology developed by Xage creates a distributed network of devices that are able to authenticate the digital fingerprint of each machine. In this way, anomalies existing on one device are detected by a decentralized system, which prevents the spread of attacks via a centralized network.

Making industrial control systems safe will be a challenge, as a large part of them has been produced long before of the latest security threats. In addition, ensuring optimal cyber security can be difficult because the machines come from different manufacturers.

GE Global Research is another subsidiary of General Electric, which is actively seeking benefits from blockchain technology. GE's research and development department is exploring ways to use blockchain technology to connect consumers with renewable energy producers, such as solar and wind farms, and enable them to make purchases using cryptocurrencies.

“You could buy kilowatts of energy immediately using a digital currency and a smart contract that make sure that you don’t overwork the battery or consume more power than you need”

Said Ben Beckmann, the lead scientist in GE Global Research’s complex systems engineering lab.