Enterprise blockchain company Nuco Inc. has raised $22 million in an initial coin offering for its interoperable blockchain platform Aion.

Described as a third-generation blockchain network, Aion is a multitier blockchain system designed to address unsolved questions of scalability, privacy and interoperability in blockchain networks. Put another way, it’s a blockchain to bridge other blockchains together, a literal “blockchain-to-blockchain” platform. The Aion protocol enables the development of a federated blockchain network, making it possible to integrate dissimilar blockchain systems in a multitier hub-and-spoke model, similar to the internet.

The platform addresses scalability and performance by using a new high-performance virtual machine. It enables applications to operate across multiple chains while allowing users to create custom blockchain designs, including different consensus algorithms and virtual machines, without sacrificing interoperability with other blockchains.

“The Aion blockchain network is like a computer network that makes it possible for dissimilar systems to communicate,” the company explains. “The Aion network will pass logic and value among participating blockchains as freely as liquid assets, where every transaction occurs without centralized intermediaries.”

In addition to the fundraising, the company also announced that it had signed a deal with control system manufacturer Moog Inc. that will see the company use Aion to interoperate and share data with other major blockchains in industries such as banking, auditing and insurance.

“The blockchain landscape is like the railroad system of the 1850s, when there were multiple switching networks,”. James Regenor, director of transformative technologies at Moog, said in a statement. “At some point there had to be a consolidation of gauges so that railroads could use each other’s tracks to reach more customers. That same phenomenon exists today in blockchain. There’s going to need to be a hub. Aion will allow us to move data between the multiple blockchains that could be present in our supply chain.”

Image: Nuco