Airbitz Rebrands, Partners with Matryx to Bring Digital Token to Virtual Reality

Edge (formerly Airbitz), is bringing blockchain to virtual reality in a new partnership with Matryx, a platform for decentralized collaboration currently based on the UC San Diego campus. Matryx, which is a project of the biotechnology firm Nanome Inc., will use Edge technology as a secure identity framework on its multiple virtual-reality-for-science platforms.

Specifically, Matryx will incorporate Edge SDK applications, allowing for a seamless blockchain experience in a virtual reality environment. Matryx, whose current focus is on the use of 3D virtual reality imaging and complex mathematics visual tools for the ‘STEM’ fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), has at present three products, two of which are used at the research and development level at pharmaceutical and chemistry multinationals, like Solvay.

“In an ideal world, users wouldn’t have to remove the VR headset to communicate with a blockchain platform,” Edgardo Leija, Matryx Co-Founder, stated in a blog on the VR and blockchain company’s website. “Edge’s integration into VR products is essential to improving our user experiences.”

Matryx CEO Steve McCloskey, who is a graduate of the world’s first nanoengineering department on the campus of UC San Diego, told Coin Telegraph in a text chat that virtual currencies and virtual reality will be synonymous in short order.

By incorporating Edge blockchain-inspired security and identity tools, he said, researchers and users of his company’s VR and blockchain suite will enjoy a “safe and comfortable” user experience.

“We believe users should be in control of their own assets and effectively manage their own private keys,” Matryx CEO Steve McCloskey said on the Matryx blog. “Through our partnership with Edge we are adding value to our customers by offering a secure and reliable private key management system while they interact with the Matryx platform.”

Edge Security allows Matryx platform users to encrypt their data client-side and create backup private keys. Neither Edge nor Matryx, the latter of which is currently conducting a crowdsale of its VR-compatible ERC20 token ‘MTX’, know have access to user keys or private information.

“Edge is excited to partner with organizations like Matryx to bring zero-knowledge security solutions to its users,” said Paul Puey, CEO of Edge, in a blog posted to the Edge site. “Projects like Matryx are the first glimpse into how blockchains will be used as tools to do many things in a new way. They have an excellent team with a proven track record delivering products to market.”

The Edge SDK decentralizes security and keeps data in the hands of users. “The six pillar platform known as Edge Security secures data with blockchain-inspired technology to provide high security standards in an easy to use app,” Puey has said of Edge Security. “The Edge SDK locally encrypts data on end user devices, synchronizes it across devices, provides automatic, encrypted backups, and enables one-touch Two Factor Authentication. The platform is zero knowledge meaning that even Edge doesn’t have access to user data. While best known for their bitcoin mobile app, Edge applies the same techniques to allow for several types of data to be secured on end user devices.”

Nanome Inc. has built out a formidable software suite including Calcflow, a VR mathematics toolkit, nano-one, a VR interface for nanoscale design and simulation. Matryx, which has mostly focused on developing tools atop the Ethereum blockchain, is designed to bridge Nanome’s various products using distributed blockchain technology.