Blockchain is the biggest buzz word on the tech streets right now, and for good reason. Deloitte analysts have confirmed Gartner Inc’s projection that blockchain technology’s business value-add will grow to an astounding 176 billion by 2025. This shared ledger technology has the potential to disrupt all industries; organizations can selectively share information and trade assets, and individuals are able to manage their own financial and medical recordsusing this platform. With this in mind, here are the 5 hottest blockchain startups captivating the attention of the most elite VC’s in the valley.

BLOCKSTACK

History: Founded by Muneeb Ali and Ryan Shay in 2013, the start up went through the seed accelerator Y Combinator in 2014. Union Square Ventures lead the seed round investment crusade, and became a public benefit corporation in 2017.

What They Do: Blockstack allows users to control their data and apps through a new decentralized internet, eliminating the need for remote servers. Users gain control over their own data, and develops can launch their own apps without worrying about storage costs and privacy.

Funding: $57,000,000

Token Sale: Taking place at the end of 2017, the token sale generated a total of 50 M, with over 800 individual participants including Union Square Ventures, Foundation Capital, and Blockchain Capital. Furthermore, vouchers for potential future purchases of tokens were allocated to over 8000 people.

Bottom Line: Blockstack allows general users and app developers to take back ownership over their data. Ownership over data is an extremely relevant issue, as corporations have slowly and unfairly gained intimate access to our personal information through our data. Blockstack provides a solution to this data debacle.

BLOCKSTREAM

History: Led by Adam Back and Gregory Maxwell, Blockstream was founded in 2014. It received 21 M in preliminary seed funding in 2014, and again was flushed with funds through a second round of 55 M in 2016.

What They Do: Blockstream has pioneered a technology allowing for for secure transactions without placing trust in a third party. They have managed to achieve this incredible feat through their innovative sidechain technology, a software built on blockchain fundamentals that allows digital assets to be effortlessly transferred from one blockchain to another. Liquid is the company’s main product, the “world’s first federated side chain” enabling “rapid, confidential, and secure bitcoin transfers.”

Funding: $76,000,000

Bottom Line: Sidechains are at the frontier of blockchain development; Blockstream will continue to leverage their unique product in the growing blockchain sphere. Additionally, their strategic partnerships with PWC and investment attention from several top firms are notable.

“Blockstream has the best technical team in the industry and we strongly believe in their approach of developing foundational infrastructure for various blockchain applications. We value Blockstream’s open source approach and its sidechain technology, which will allow interoperability between different chains and provide critical long-term success in this sector.” -François Robinet, Managing Partner, AXA Strategic Ventures

WE TRUST

History: WeTrust was founded by George Li, an entrepreneur who started off his career at McKinsey & Company as a business analyst and moved to Google to work as a Business Operations & Strategy manager. The company was founded in 2016 and received its first 20M batch of funding in April of 2017.

What They Do: WeTrust provides decentralized financial services to foster a more inclusive financial system that allows anyone to access fair, equitable financial services without an expensive trusted third party. Their main product is a decentralized Rotating Savings and Credit Association platformthat allows individuals to save and borrow together. This peer to peer banking program allows people to build blockchain based credit identities, where risk profiles are generated from past transactions.

Funding: $20,000,000

Bottom Line: The socially conscious mission of this company truly sets it apart from other players in the field. This unique motivation combined with cutting edge blockchain technology has crafted We Trust into a distincitly disruptive blockchain startup worth looking into.

CHAIN

History: Founded in 2014 and based in San Francisco, Chain has raised over 40 M in funding from Khosla Ventures and RRE ventures. Furthermore, Chain has cultivated strong partnerships with large institutions such as Capital One, Citigroup, and Nasdaq.

What They Do: Chain strives to create a “smarter and more connected financial system” through cryptographic ledgers. The open source chain protocol powers the chain core blockchain platform, allowing organizations to construct and operate blockchain networks that enable innovative financial products and services. Chain partners with customers to design, launch, and operate efficient networks under partners’ brands. Chain has worked with big names such as Visa, State Street, MUFG, and many more.

Funding: $43,000,000

Bottom Line: A 2017 Red Herring Top 100 Company in North America, Chain has revolutionized the finance industry and will only continue to grow.

LUNA

History: Founded by Andre Ornish, Luna received its first round of funding of 8M in January of 2018. The ICO took place in February of 2018 and has generated 12M.

What They Do: Luna is a blockchain built dating app that strives to develop the “safest, smartest, most powerful connection engine” by utilizing “machine learning algorithms” and “user platform incentive alignment.” Luna only generates revenue when people meet in person, and avoids choice fatigue that many face by limiting the amount of matches. Luna also factors in real world feedback into matching algorithms by asking users to rate people they met, improving match relevancy.

Funding: 8,000,000

Token Sale: 12,000,000 raised so far

Bottom Line: Luna is advised by CEO’s of the world’s two largest online dating platforms, in addition to a top Cryptofund and Korean VC. This expert team combined with an absolutely revolutionary idea has the power to drastically change the online dating industry.

These five startups demonstrate the broad range of applications and opportunities that blockchain technology has created. The most exciting part about the Blockchain revolution, however, lies in it’s unknown potential to change the world in ways we cannot presently imagine. Don Tapscott perfectly sums up this idea in this quote from his book Blockchain Revolution:

“Undoubtedly, its best applications are yet to come.”

[From https://medium.com/ai-trading-for-stock-and-crypto/the-5-hottest-blockchain-startups-caaf9ed1575d]

What is the best application of blockchain?

Often the Blockchain community speaks of Decentralization as the main property of the Blockchain technology. In fact when you see Bitcoin, it was the first copy-proof token that does not require a central coordinator in power. This is what makes Blockchain fascinating.

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