Earlier this month, arguably the biggest blockchain week in the world kicked off in New York City with CoinDesk’s Consensus event. A previous interview that covered blockchain technology led to a deeper look at the technologies, founders, and companies that are emerging in the industry.
While some of the best projects on display were infrastructure-related, like public blockchains, others were more focused on ancillary services. The teams of these innovative blockchain startups are global, cutting-edge and typically include early blockchain adopters as founders.
This list showcases 10 companies working to make blockchain more accessible, prominent and mainstream. Some you may have heard of; others are new to the scene. The companies come from all regions of the world. Each offers something unique with the potential to disrupt traditional industries as well as gain support from legitimate entities.
BiKi.com was founded in June 2018. Headquartered in Singapore, it is a leading digital asset exchange focused on the global market. It accumulated 1.1 million registered users and 100,000 daily active users in under a year. Backed by Du Jun, co-founder of Huobi, BiKi is one of the fastest-growing exchanges. It focuses on the global incremental market, with a mission to bring digital assets to the mainstream.
Berlin-based, publicly listed Advanced Blockchain AG (ABAG) was started by German crypto pioneer and co-founder of peaq.io, Robert Küfner. The company is an innovator of blockchain solutions for corporations, building a DLT solution for one of the largest automotive manufacturers in the world. ABAG was recently selected to participate in the Silicon Valley chapter of the German Accelerator, which empowers high-potential German companies to successfully enter US markets. Further approaches using peaq.io’s proprietary DAGchain remain confidential.
Built by leading scientists and cryptographers, YottaChain is a public blockchain that uses a unique economic model and governance structure, as well as proprietary technology, to connect global computing and storage resources. In layperson’s terms, everyday people can now tap into the power of a supercomputer and large-scale storage previously reserved for enterprises. This is done by connecting decentralized storage resources while providing de-duplication after encryption. In 2018, YottaChain was a top 20 finalist at the Founder World Championship in Silicon Valley.
Based in Barcelona, HeroToken is the continued mission from the success story of PawnHero. Founder David Margendorff, together with a solid team of technology experts, is working on HeroToken to build the prospect of a better future for billions of unbanked and underbanked funds globally. This solution leverages the blockchain to provide a transparent loan marketplace that connects lenders with borrowers worldwide.
With a global development team of former Google, IBM, Huawei and GE engineers, Bitconch is using a proof of reputation (POR) consensus algorithm to enable its beta network to reach 100,000 transactions per second, which is reported to be the highest performance in the blockchain environment. Bitconch established an intelligent three-dimensional node reputation system, with POW (proof of work) + POS (proof of stake) + POA (proof of activity), which contributes to an open node pool and anti-centralization. The company recently partnered with Cryptic Labs to help scale up their efforts.
BREACH was founded with one goal in mind: to ensure your digital assets. Backed by PJC, the leading early-stage venture capital firm based in Boston, BREACH is partnering with global insurers, cybersecurity experts and exchanges to offer products to safeguard user investments. With nearly $1 billion of cryptocurrency stolen from exchanges in 2018, the use case for insurance products in the blockchain industry has never been stronger.
Based in Germany, Karatbars International GmbH is the parent company of KaratGold Coin and a robust gold-based ecosystem of cross-border blockchain solutions. Their latest product, the IMPulse K1 Smartphone, is the first phone using Voice Over Blockchain Protocol (VOPB). Currently, KaratGold allows consumers to trade or purchase gold on more than 500,000 acceptance points worldwide. With all of the recent talk about Bitcoin versus gold, this company provides the best of both worlds.
Backed by Matrix Partners, ZhenFund and Metropolis VC, BISS is a membership-based crypto exchange like Costco where members can enjoy exclusive offerings. The platform is also the world’s first crypto-to-security exchange where users can seamlessly exchange tokens for securities, minimizing the downside of crypto volatility. These kinds of innovative solutions have gained a lot of attention from mainstream financial investors and institutions. This early success has helped BISS gain 300,000 monthly users in just four months.
LiteLink is a publicly traded company developing enterprise platforms and digital wallets that use blockchain to solve problems in the logistics and payment industries. LiteLink’s flagship 1SHIFT logistics platform offers real-time transparency and tracking, which allows brokers, shippers and carriers to track shipments and settle payments without breaking stride. uBUCK Pay is a multicurrency digital wallet with a U.S. dollar–backed stable token built on Waves blockchain that supports traditional fiat and digital currencies.
MetaHash is a self-sustained network for DApps and digital assets with a vision of creating a new internet. MetaHash also offers a set of tools for developers and solutions for enterprises. Its protocol, based on advanced data synchronization, supports over 50,000 transactions per second with three seconds of consensus time, thus solving the industry’s key speed issue. With hundreds of community-operated servers, MetaHash is rapidly nearing its goal of becoming the fastest fully decentralized blockchain.
Joresa Blount is the founder of GoFlyy, an author and creator of Brown Girls Innovate too which provides tools and connections for women in tech.
