$100M fund aims to support the growth of decentralized machine economy

IoTeX, a blockchain platform focused on the Internet of Things (IoT), has announced the launch of a $100 million sustainable ecosystem fund.

The new fund will back over 1,000 decentralized machine economy startups developing use cases for connecting more than 10 million smart devices to the MachineFi portal within the next three years.

The decentralized machine economy is a developing economy in which machines, rather than people, are the driving force behind economic growth. This new economy is powered by blockchain technology and artificial intelligence (AI), and it has the potential to create a more efficient, secure and sustainable way of doing business.

MachineFi refers to a new paradigm based on Web3 that underpins the new machine economy. Machine resources and intelligence can be monetized to provide value and ownership to individuals rather than centralized corporations. Simply put, MachineFi may be described as the financialization of machines or, more precisely, internet-connected gadgets.

MachineFi's goal is to take the profits generated by device-financialization from big-tech and distribute them to actual users, which is precisely what web 3.0 is all about: altering the internet (and now devices) financial model from platform advertising to user ownership.

IoTex’s Head of Investment and Ecosystem Jing Sun explained that the fund is designed as an ever-green vehicle that may support over 10,000 MachineFi-focused businesses in the next ten to 20 years, connecting tens of billions of devices to the IoTeX MachineFi portal.

The IoTeX Foundation will examine all DApp developers thoroughly to ensure that they effectively enable machine financialization and, if successful, “they will receive all the support they need to be successful,” Sun explained.

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In Nov. 2021, IoTeX rebranded to concentrate on "The rise of MachineFi" in order to integrate machines, the Metaverse, and the traditional workforce. MachineFi aims to tackle the confluence of smart gadgets, machinery, and finance through the use of blockchain technology and follows the era of DeFi and GameFi.