Venzee launches the first middleware to optimize blockchain-bound data

Since 2014, Venzee has made its living as a data transformation platform between manufacturers, vendors and e-commerce retailers.

That is, it helps prep and clean data so it can be used by those various players in the retail ecosystem for product information management, inventory management, time sheets, invoices and the like.

Today, the Vancouver-based firm is moving into the blockchain ecosystem with the launch of a closed beta of what it says is the first middleware — an API framework called Mesh — that is designed to provide a similar kind of data transformation, but optimized for blockchains. The full release version will be available in the first half of next year.

“Since [blockchain is] a decentralized database of immutable records,” CEO Kate Hiscox said in a statement accompanying the announcement, “there are serious concerns about accidentally [using] wrong or sensitive information.”

“Blockchain doesn’t magically fix data standards,” she pointed out.

Mesh has layers to import data, merge it, filter it, clean it and validate it before it is made compatible for a specific purpose, such as data for a smart contract on a blockchain.

Several of Mesh’s features are specifically optimized for blockchain: a final, custom fail-safe check before data is delivered; the ability to export executable code, such as for smart contracts; and smart contract templates.

Hiscox said that, except for Mesh, companies would have to employ a developer to write transformation software to prepare data for blockchains.

While Venzee has previously focused on the e-commerce retail ecosystem, Mesh can be used by any of the industries, such as healthcare or financial, that are currently exploring blockchain. Mesh is supporting the Ethereum blockchain plus some private blockchains, but other kinds will be added.

Venzee is the latest firm to advance the support system for blockchain. Last week, for example, San Francisco-based Mobius Network announced a universal API to connect any application, website, device or data source to a blockchain, as well as an app store that lets any resident app accept Mobius’s blockchain-based tokens.

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About The Author

Barry Levine

Barry Levine covers marketing technology for Third Door Media. Previously, he covered this space as a Senior Writer for VentureBeat, and he has written about these and other tech subjects for such publications as CMSWire and NewsFactor. He founded and led the web site/unit at PBS station Thirteen/WNET; worked as an online Senior Producer/writer for Viacom; created a successful interactive game, PLAY IT BY EAR: The First CD Game; founded and led an independent film showcase, CENTER SCREEN, based at Harvard and M.I.T.; and served over five years as a consultant to the M.I.T. Media Lab. You can find him at LinkedIn, and on Twitter at xBarryLevine.