IOVLabs, the parent company behind RSK‘s bitcoin smart contract network, today announced its acquisition of Spanish-language social networking platform Taringa. With the deal, IOVLabs announced it will also integrate RIF, RSK’s native token, into Taringa.
In a release, IOVLabs said Taringa will both integrate and test RSK decentralized applications and infrastructure.
One of the largest Spanish social media apps, Taringa claims to have some 30 million users, 1,000 active communities, and 8 million daily shares on its platform.
“IOVLabs chose Taringa because of its strong dominance in Latin America and Spanish speaking audience and the unique position the region has to lead cryptocurrencies mass adoption,” the company told CoinDesk.
Based in Gibraltar with offices in both South America and East Asia, RSK launched its main net in January 2018 and the RIF token the following November. RSK’s smart contract network is based on the bitcoin state’s hashing power which the company claims to give its network high security.
“We see Taringa as the first step towards massive adoption of both RSK and RIF platforms,” Diego Gutierrez Zaldivar, CEO of IOVLabs, said in a statement.
In a partnership with bitcoin custodial service Xapo, Taringa integrated bitcoin into its app in 2015. Under the deal, top content creators on Taringa received bitcoin tips for their work.
Commenting on the acquisition, Taringa CEO Matías Botbol said Taringa is excited to bring more advanced digital products to its users.
“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, decentralized Internet that respects an individual’s freedom of speech and privacy.”
Past the acquisition itself, IOVLabs has allocated some $5 million in assets towards developing products for Taringa, the company told CoinDesk.
RSK image via CoinDesk archives