Samsung Next and Draper Dragon Lead IoTeX’s MachineFi Lab Investment Round To Build An Internet That Rewards Smart Device Users

Samsung Next and Draper Dragon invested in the company creating cutting-edge Internet technology helping people earn rewards with their smart devices and machines by carrying out everyda y  activities such as walking, riding a bike, watching television, driving safely, and even sleeping.

A report reveals that today nearly 85 % of the global population has a smart device. MachineFi Lab’s objective with the recently finalized $10 million seed round and the concurrent ones they have planned is to enable these 6.6 billion users to earn rewards from billions of smartphones and other intelligent devices by using and contributing their intelligent gadget resources.

According to a McKinsey  research, by 2030, 120 billion intelligent devices and machines could be on the Internet, including refrigerators, washing machines, stoves, security cameras, automobiles, and other vehicles. 

Today, the intelligent device market is worth approximately $500 billion but could grow to $12.6 trillion by 2030, a wealth that MachineFi Lab and its investment partners are unlock ing  for people globally .  

MachineFi Lab has plans to use the raised funds to expand its  team of technolog ist and support thousands of developers to build machine-share-focused applications that give people back control over their smart devices and machines  and use cases to benefit from them by contributing data and carrying out previously mentioned daily routine activities.

Samsung Next, Draper Dragon, Xoogler Ventures, Hanwha Impact, IOSG, WEMADE, Jump Crypto, Escape Velocity, and many others are excited about this revolutionary technology and its potential to shift the balance of IoT wealth in favor of users  from every corner of the world .

“We invested in MachineFi Lab because we think its platform has the potential to unify large-scale machine networks and to provide the infrastructure needed to enable each device to act as an autonomous market participant, providing incentives for consumers to help construct the network,” said Samsung Next in a blog announcing their partnership with IoTeX’s core developer.

Samsung Next, Draper Dragon,  Xoogler Ventures, Hanwha Impact, IOSG, WEMADE, Jump Crypto, Escape Velocity, and many others are excited about this revolutionary technology, and that is why they got involved.

Ericsson recently wrote that if we observe the IoT today, we will discover over 29 billion connected. That means billions of TVs, cars, smart homes and smart cities, wearables, and healthcare globally are already on the Internet, generating nearly half a trillion dollars. 

Nearly every device we own will ultimately be on the Internet, including refrigerators, washing machines, stoves, security cameras, automobiles, and other vehicles.

But how can we earn from our smart devices ?

Great question? The IoT connects us in ways we have not even imagined. The IoT is a network of intelligent devices that collect and share vast data. The collected data sits in a central cloud-based server. It is collected and combined with other data creating even greater value. MachineFi Lab has created the tools developers can use to unlock ways for users to get rewarded for contributing smart device and machine data and resources in exchange for rewards.

Here are some basic examples of how people can benefit from a decentralized internet or Web3.  Health Blocks enables users to earn from exercising. It works with wearables, and users get rewards from walking and other healthy activities. Those rewards come from healthcare or health insurance providers who lower costs to those whom they see represent fewer risks because they lead healthy lives and can prove it in a verifiable and trusted way.

Many people grin when they hear about sleep-to-earn. How wonderful would that be, right? Nevertheless, from an employer’s perspective, it actually is great. They can incentivize employees to have a good night’s sleep and come to work well-rested because they know that they will be far more productive if they do. So, more productivity and more income for employers who can share that in the form of bonuses or incentives with their employees.

Drive-to-earn. When an auto is connected to the Internet via a MachineFi Lab decentralized internet application, its data goes onto a blockchain in an immutable, verifiable, and trusted way. When auto owners drive safely, the app triggers rewards; when they do not, they do not receive anything. So, that incentivizes sensible driving habits in exchange for lower car insurance premiums.

Most TVs today are “Smart,” meaning users can connect them to the Internet. However, currently, we do not receive any benefits from watching TV. Nevertheless, how about an app enabling TV users to collect their viewing habits to a market research pool. That unleashes the fantastic opportunity for TV consumers to pay for the television by contributing their consumer behavior to these market research pools. Marketing researchers need to know consumer trends and pay for that data, such as which commercials they watch and how long they tune into them. Their favorite shows. How often and how many hours in the day do they sit in front of the screen. The use cases are endless. 

The funds and why investors got involved

The $10 million MachineFi  Lab  recently raised will be used to expand their team of developers and support others to build onto this platform to bring hundreds of millions of users and their devices into the Web3 machine-share economy.

“HashKey’s priority is one all of us in the blockchain space share: mass adoption,” said HashKey Capital CEO DC. “As we head towards a new era of trillions of smart devices and machines in the hands of billions of people globally, MachineFi will lead the way in bringing mass adoption.”

Draper Dragon has invested in Tesla, Skype, Coinbase, SpaceX, Twitter, and PayPal. Their Partner, Andy Tang, said his firm is bullish on the MachineFi potential and explained how it is relevant to their investments in Tesla and SpaceX. “The MachineFi platform is ideal for empowering community-owned machine networks, therefore, perfect for a shared autonomous vehicle network that rewards users and owners with a self-governance model,” Tang added.

“MachineFi will—for the very first time—enable developers to connect IoT devices to permissionless blockchains seamlessly,” said Escape Velocity Co-Founder Salvador Gala. “This unlocks a massive design space for crypto applications that provide real-world value for consumers, businesses, and governments at scale.”

Jump Crypto Partner Saurabh Sharma said, “the ability to track the real-world activity on-chain can be an interesting lego block for native applications on top of which to compose. We see the potential for people to financialize real-world value captured by smart devices and machines.”

Christopher Fong of Xoogler Ventures also shares the MachineFi vision. “We are excited to contribute with developers and help them create dApps on top of the IoTeX MachineFi Platform. MachineFi Lab has built the technology that enables developers to launch smart machine-related applications much faster and easier than most other blockchain networks.”

“We will continue investing in projects with great potential like IoTeX’s MachineFi Lab to expand our WEMIX ecosystem,” said Wemade CEO Henry Chang.

“During the last five years, we have witnessed several IoT-related blockchain projects come out, yet few remain active players in the market,” said IOSG. “MachineFi Labs and IoTeX is the team that keeps building the infrastructure and bravely explores interesting on-chain crypto use cases (DeFi, crypto games, social apps) supported by real-world data and assets. Now it is the time to prove they can empower the whole Web3 world based on the real-world IoT industry and their extensive crypto experience.”

The CEO’s final words

MachineFi Lab CEO and Co-Founder Raullen Chai said other MachineFi Lab investors are interested in bringing Web2 companies and consumers into Web3 by combining the IoT with blockchain. “We will shortly announce a new funding series,” he added.

MachineFi is a new paradigm fueled by Web3 that underpins the new machine economy, whereby smart device resources and intelligence can be financialized to deliver value and ownership to the people, not centralized corporations, he concluded.