VR Firm Magic Leap Seeks Blockchain Engineers for User Data

Disclaimer. This article has been updated to reflect that Magic Leap is an augmented reality startup, rather than a virtual reality startup.

Augmented reality (AR) startup Magic Leap is seeking blockchain engineers according to recent listings on employment website Greenhouse. The firm is looking for a senior blockchain architect and blockchain engineers.

Among the duties listed for the senior blockchain architect position, the individual will be “planning and execution of a portfolio of blockchain, smart contract, and Ricardian contract technologies in support of the implementation of our Lifestream business function.”

In a recent interview with virtual reality (VR) industry publication UploadVR, Magic Leap CEO Rony Abovitz said that Lifestream is: “all the data that you experience and the data of the world around you and how that needs to be protected…” At a conference last October, he noted the importance of protecting the data set, which he characterized as critical.

The job listing seeks an individual with experience in the Red Belly and Hyperledger blockchain frameworks and experience with Java, Node,js, Python or Go. Magic Leap also prefers that the engineer has experience writing smart contracts for blockchain networks like Hyperledger Fabric, Hyperledger  Sawtooth, Ethereum and Corda.

Magic Leap has grown significantly since its inception in 2010. Crunchbase reported last year that the firm is the top-funded AR startup on the market, having aggregated 41% of VC funding in the AR market worldwide in 2018.  

Earlier this month, Ethereum-based digital asset tokenization startup Enjin announced that it will launch a Software Development Kit for the Unity game engine, which supports VR and augmented reality app development.