Orange Silicon Valley announced its intention to invest in two bitcoin start-ups in the next few months, after holding a series of meetings. CEO Georges Nahon said, “There’s something intriguing in this technology, so we want to be there as early as possible. This could be a digital platform of the future.” Orange plans to invest USD 20,000 in each in partnership with a consortium investing up to USD 3 million per start-up.
Bloomberg writes that telecom operators have for the most part stayed away from bitcoin, although US satellite TV company Dish now accepts them. Several funds related to technology companies, like Google Ventures, have invested in bitcoin start-ups.
The technology can be modified to record changes in ownership of any asset in a public ledger using a distributed network of computers. This could help facilitate transactions at businesses such as carriers, banks, stock exchanges or insurance providers.
The recently launched Orange Digital Ventures fund aims to have supported 500 start-ups worldwide by 2020.
