BANGALORE:  Samsung electronics is collaborating with IBM to use bitcoin technology for new applications. Bitcoin is most popularly known as an online currency, and while its price has plummeted in recent months, the technology underlying the currency is still very valuable.

This is because the technology can be used to authenticate changes in ownership of any kind of asset in a public ledger, which could help facilitate all types of online transactions. The Samsung Research America division has researchers working on the bitcoin blockchain to come up with better ways to verify "that what you say is authentic is authentic," says Steven Rahman, director of strategy.

"The blockchain technology is very interesting in general, and it can be applied in a lot of areas,” said Rahman. "Currency, it's just the first use case. You could imagine that anything, like prescriptions, could be managed with the blockchain technology."

Samsung Research America usually develops technologies that can be deployed in commercial products within a span of two to five years.

Bitcoin blockchain applications could make file storage and money transfer much cheaper. Currently, most companies spend a lot of many on servers and other service providers. Samsung is not the only company that has become interested in bitcoin technology.

Orange's venture-capital arm has said it's looking to invest in bitcoin startups. The Nasdaq OMX Group also licensed its technology to a bitcoin trading company this year, while the New York Stock Exchange invested in bitcoin startup Coinbase. Steve Tomasco, a spokesman for IBM, declined to a request for comment. 

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