The blockchain-based art registry startup Artory recently acquired auction house database Auction Club, according to a tweet from the startup on March 21. The database, which is subscription-only, contains sales information from more than 4,000 international auction houses, as Cointelegraph reports.

The Art Newspaper reports that Artory plans to make Auction Club’s sales data, which is said to be gathered from nearly 250 businesses in 40 countries, public for the first time. The report states that the data will become available in the beginning of May and can be found on Artory’s registry.

“We couldn’t pass up this opportunity to acquire millions of data quickly that we can leverage to improve our products,” Artory’s CEO, Nanne Dekking, said in the publication.

Concerns were raised following the company’s announcement, in which many feared that with such a large amount of data under one company, it could easily contradict the idea of the distributed nature of blockchain technology. Paul Stabe, Artory’s chief product officer, replied to these concerns, stating:

“The decentralization of blockchain is a security benefit, not a solution. And for the art world, being able to leverage blockchain to provide access to credible data that are free is a huge benefit.”

Christie’s, an auction house with a history that dates back over 250 years, announced plans in October 2018 to try out using blockchain for auction data with Artory. The partnership proposed using blockchain to provide additional details and even certificates of purchase to buyers.