Share this article
Blockchain Firm Bitfury Turns to AI for Big Data Mining
The Bitfury Group has launched an artificial intelligence division with the aim of creating value out of the vast amounts of data now available.
Updated Apr 10, 2024, 2:23 a.m. Published Aug 13, 2019, 8:19 a.m.
Make us preferred on Google
The Bitfury Group may soon be known as a data miner, as well as a crypto mining firm.
In an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, the firm's co-founder and CEO Valery Vavilov said Bitfury has launched an artificial intelligence (AI) division in order to break down the world's vast amount of data and derive value from it.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
Calling data "the next oil," Vavilov said that 98 percent of all data is just sitting waiting to be analyzed.
While giving away few details, he added that the data analyses would utilize blockchain. “We also need to trust that data so that’s where blockchain comes in,” Vavilov said.
offers a number of blockchain services, as well as making computer and crypto mining hardware and running crypto mining data centers.
Last November, Bitfury closed an $80 million funding round led by venture capital firm Korelya Capital. Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital, Macquarie Capital, Dentsu Inc., Armat Group and others, also participated.
A month prior, the firm was said by Bloomberg sources to be considering holding an initial public offering (IPO) via a stock exchange listing in Amsterdam, London or Hong Kong. The sources said Bitfury may be valued as high as $3 billion–$5 billion if it goes public within the next two years.
Bitfury’s AI division is currently in “research mode,” according to Vavilov, with a clearer vision of its potential use cases and products expected at the end of the year or early 2020.
He said in a statement:
“Just as blockchain technology enables us all to fix our most broken and distrusted systems, artificial intelligence will bring new and extraordinary benefits to nearly every facet of our lives. To help this incredible technology achieve maximum impact, Bitfury is expanding our mission to offer hardware and software solutions designed especially for AI applications.”
To head up the new unit, the firm has appointed tech veteran Fabrizio Del Maffeo, formerly vice president and managing director of AAEON Technology Europe, a firm that focuses on AI and IoT as part of the ASUS Group.
Prior to that, Del Maffeo held positions at at Advantech, Esprinet and Accenture, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Data image via Shutterstock
More For You
Pudgy Penguins is building a multi-vertical consumer IP platform — combining phygital products, games, NFTs and PENGU to monetize culture at scale.
What to know:
Pudgy Penguins is emerging as one of the strongest NFT-native brands of this cycle, shifting from speculative “digital luxury goods” into a multi-vertical consumer IP platform. Its strategy is to acquire users through mainstream channels first; toys, retail partnerships and viral media, then onboard them into Web3 through games, NFTs and the PENGU token.
The ecosystem now spans phygital products (> $13M retail sales and >1M units sold), games and experiences (Pudgy Party surpassed 500k downloads in two weeks), and a widely distributed token (airdropped to 6M+ wallets). While the market is currently pricing Pudgy at a premium relative to traditional IP peers, sustained success depends on execution across retail expansion, gaming adoption and deeper token utility.
More For You
Anthony Scaramucci-linked AVAX One tumbles 32% on uncertainty around shareholder sales
The firm, which holds AVAX tokens and related Avalanche ecosystem assets, registered roughly 74 million shares held by insiders.
What to know:
- Shares of AVAX One, a digital asset treasury firm advised by Anthony Scaramucci, fell more than 30% after the company filed to register up to nearly 74 million shares held by insiders as available for sale.
- The registration, which enables early investors to resell previously restricted stock, stoked fears of dilution.
- AVAX One's move reflects broader pressures on crypto-native public firms whose stocks trade at steep discounts to the value of their token holdings, though it remains unclear if or when the registered shares will be sold.
Top Stories
