Domain registry Donuts Inc. has made an investment in Netki, a Los Angeles-based startup whose technology generates user-friendly “wallet names” for the bitcoin digital currency and other blockchain-based applications, replacing complicated alphanumeric wallet addresses.
It’s the second investment by Bellevue, Wash.-based Donuts out if its new Donuts Labs initiative, through which it’s investing in startups that create new uses for domain names or otherwise complement the company’s core strengths. The first investment, made in May, was geofence management firm GeoFrenzy.
Netki’s technology leverages domain name system security extensions, better known as secure DNS, to connect wallet names to blockchain-based public addresses. Blockchain is a database that holds a constantly growing set of records.
“Netki is addressing an unmet market need in the rapidly growing blockchain space,” said Donuts co-founder and CEO Paul Stahura in a statement. “Their use of the DNS to simplify the sharing of wallet addresses by creating wallet names is novel and is an idea that will make this technology more secure, adaptable, and user-friendly.”
Donuts didn’t disclose the amount of its investment in Netki or the size of its resulting stake.
Donuts, which controls domain extensions like .cash, .email and many others, was in the news most recently for making an unsolicited $70 million public bid for the registry business of Kirkland, Wash.-based Rightside Group. Rightside rejected the offer.
