Bitcoin in Argentina is on the up – RSK Network purchases Taringa

Most of the news to come out of Argentina is about the country’s economic woes and political instability. Inflation is high and life is becoming increasingly difficult for its population of around 44 million.

Yet, it’s not all doom and gloom for Argentina, especially when it comes to blockchain tech. The scene is growing daily and now Bitcoin-powered RSK is planning to take the technology to the masses through its acquisition of social media platform Taringa.

The significance of the Taringa acquisition by RSK Network

You may not be familiar with Taringa, yet it’s the largest Spanish-speaking social media platform in the world. It’s also the fourth largest in Latin America with a user base of around 30 million. Through this acquisition, RSK Network will introduce its ecosystem to the “largest Hispanophone-oriented social network in the world”.

IOVLabs, the company behind the RSK Bitcoin Smart Contract platform and the RIF token, announced the acquisition of Taringa last Friday. As well as being the largest Spanish speaking social network worldwide, the platform has over 1,000 active online communities. RSK Network is widely considered the securest Smart Contract platform in the world, since it relies on Bitcoin’s hash power.

RSK Network and Taringa will integrate both its RSK and RIF tokens into the platform. This will be in a bid to incentivise users to participate in communities by commenting, liking, and sharing content. By tokenising the platform, Taringa will be able to offer a peer-to-peer token exchange and a working marketplace for decentralised applications (dApps) to offer their products and services.

Diego Gutierrez Zaldivar, CEO and co-founder of IOVLabs, told Coin Rivet:

“The Taringa acquisition is one of many steps we plan on taking in order to empower the Bitcoin ecosystem and to bring RSK technologies to the masses. We are now able to reach 30 million users across Latin America and Spain, locations with strong communities that are emerging hubs for crypto adoption and development.”

Leveraging Taringa’s large user base

The acquisition seems like a marriage made in Heaven. Taringa users will be rewarded for carrying out simple actions. They’ll also start to benefit from the innovative consumer products and services that IOVLabs plans to create.

For RSK Network, gaining access to such a significant and targeted user base will provide the company with volumes of invaluable data and a test base for its decentralised infrastructure. It will be able to roll out new decentralised apps that are powered by RSK technology using the RIF token on a large scale. Gutierrez Zaldivar further commented in the announcement:

“Blockchain is a powerful technology, but it needs mass adoption to create meaningful value. This acquisition puts us at the forefront of adoption in distributed ledger technologies. Having access to such a large community will also be invaluable for gathering quick feedback from users of all the RIF-powered tools and protocols we are launching in the near future.”

He went on to say: “We see Taringa as the first step towards massive adoption of both RSK and RIF platforms, and a great step forward for our long-term vision of empowering individuals through decentralisation. We can’t wait to share more news about the first products very soon, as we continue building the Internet of Value.”

IOVLabs is bringing blockchain technology to the masses

CEO of Taringa, Matías Botbol, enthused:

“We are very excited about joining forces with the creators of RIF and RSK, as we truly believe that our users and communities should benefit from the contributions they make to our social network. We are already building our first tool to allow Taringa users to get rewarded by being active participants in their communities…

…Once this is in place, we envision adding more features, including peer-to-peer token exchanges, a marketplace for other dApps to start offering products and services to our users, and more. Our ultimate goal is to create a new open, decentralised Internet that respects individuals’ freedom of speech and privacy.”

This is not the first acquisition for IOVLabs. The company behind RSK has been developing decentralised infrastructure and products through partnerships since its mainnet launch in January 2018. Its mission is to create a “blockchain-based financial system that will enable worldwide financial inclusion and bridge the gap between these nascent technologies and mass adoption”.

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