Singapore has been one of the most cryptocurrency-friendly nations in the world, and their adoption of blockchain technology follows. Even the local government sees the value in these assets, which is why one government body named Enterprise Singapore has partnered with other companies in a new effort to support a blockchain accelerator project. The decision to collaborate with the creator of the project, Trive Ventures, was announced by The Straits Times on December 4th.

Trive Ventures is a local venture capital firm in Singapore, and they’ve launched the project that is being called Trive Accelerator. The goal is to help later-stage startups over the course of six months, though the support will center around blockchain, decentralized applications, and back-end digital solutions. The project will begin with eight startups at the Q1 2019 launch. Along with Enterprise Singapore, the initiative is being supported by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Venture Hub and Icon Foundation.

Ng Yi, a partner for TRIVE, told CoinDesk,

“As the accelerator targets later stage startups past their Series A funding rounds, Tribe will offer significantly more value as it provides startups with access to its network of governmental and business mentors, technical support, technical talent and ultimately gain global exposure, which will help incubated startups translate their blockchain concepts into real products.”

Jonathan Lim, the director of startup and global innovation alliance for Enterprise Singapore, added,

“By working with Tribe Accelerator, we hope to create more innovative and disruptive blockchain startups to capture growth opportunities locally and overseas.”

The progression that Singapore has made in crypto-related technology has been substantial. One state investment firm, Temasek Holdings Pte, invested in R3 during a $107 million Series A fundraising round, which happened in May 2017. To further support the crypto efforts, Singapore’s Exchange Limited (SGX) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore both tested the way that blockchain technology could be used for tokenized assets settlement. Their test also included a collaborate with the NASDAQ stock market.

In November, Singapore’s central bank worked to finalize the official regulations for cryptocurrency, helping to protect investors from losing funds, while reducing the risk that cybercriminals will use it. Cybersecurity is of the utmost importance, and the Singapore central bank supports that by overseeing the payment systems involved.

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