Japanese staffing firm, Recruit Holdings, on Thursday announced an investment in Blockstack, a US-based company which a blockchain protocol that aims to give users control of their data and identity.
The $50 billion Japanese tech giant is purchasing Blockstack’s STACK tokens as a part of the deal. In July, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved Blockstack‘s $28 million token offering under Regulation A+. In the announcement, Blockstack noted that Japan is one of the few countries that has a well-established regulatory framework for digital assets.
Like other blockchains, people can build apps on top of the Stacks blockchain. Many of Blockstack’s apps are focused on privacy. Perhaps as a sign of the competition to attract developers, Blockstack says it pays out $200,000 monthly to the best apps. A quality ranking by independent app reviewers determines how the $200,000 is apportioned. One app for decentralized personal data has received almost $139,000 to date.
“We believe that the world is moving from cloud computing to decentralized computing and with this strategic investment we plan to explore use cases of Blockstack in the different cloud verticals that Recruit operates in,” said BlockstackCEO Muneeb Ali.
Blockstack was founded in the U.S. in 2013. With this investment from Recruit, Blockstack plans to expand its reach in the island nation. The blockchain company is also increasing its presence in other parts of Asia as it believes the region has significant crypto users and developers. Earlier this year it announced an investment from Hashkey Group, SNZ and Fenbushi Capital.
Blockchain and staffing services
Recruit Holdings is one of the largest staffing firms in the world and owns Indeed and Glassdoor. The company is investing in Blockstack via RSP Blockchain Tech Fund Pte Ltd, which it uses to buy tokens in blockchain companies. Earlier this year, it launched a $25 million fund based out of Singapore.
Recruit is not the only staffing services provider which is delving in the nascent blockchain space. Last week, Kelly Services announced a partnership with Moonlighting to access its blockchain resume system.
