U.S. blockchain company in tie-up on medical artificial intelligence

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. technology company The Bitfury Group has formed a partnership with Insilico Medicine, a Baltimore-based medical artificial intelligence (AI) firm, to create new applications for the healthcare industry using blockchain, Bitfury's chief executive officer said on Friday. Blockchain is a digital ledger of transactions that gained prominence as the software underpinning the digital currency bitcoin. The technology, being developed in the public and private sectors, has gained attention globally for its ability to permanently record and track assets or transactions across all industries. The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding last month for collaboration to study and develop blockchain and AI solutions for sharing, managing, tracking and validating healthcare data, said Bitfury founder and CEO Valery Vavilov in an email to Reuters. The collaboration is in an early stage and there were no details available about potential projects or specific uses.