Blockchain and cryptocurrency are making headlines and everyone is talking about them. According to the data from CoinMarketCap, there are now about 1,494 cryptocurrencies with market capitalization of $565 billion as of January 27, 2018. Bitcoin dominates with 34.4 percent of the the total market. In addition, global investment in cryptocurrency sector is increasing. In 2017 alone, investors poured more than $1 billion into cryprocurrency startups, according to data from the PitchBook Platform. Even though the focus has been on cryptocurrency, however, its adoption, utilization and use cases will transform the way we do business and change our way of life. Innovative startups are already harnessing the power of blockchain and cryptocurrency to transform existing industries and solve the problems in new ways. Earlier this month, we look at blockchain startups to watch. Today we want to take a look at startups in the cryptocurrency space. Here is a list of ten cryptocurrency startups to watch in 2018.
Cypherium – Cypherium is a cryptocurrency-based startup founded by a team of engineers from Amazon, Google and Microsoft. Cypherium is a highly scalable & permission-less hybrid blockchain platform based on proof-of-work and Byzantine fault tolerance consensus. The design goal of Cypherium is to address the flaws and scalability in the current blockchain by focusing on achieving the apex of scalability, decentralization, and commercialization viability. The startup is partnering with the Initiative for Cryptocurrencies and Contracts (IC3) research group to develop new blockchain scaling solutions. The company is surrounded with industry leaders and advisors Emin Gun Sirer and Jeremy Gardner. The company is also utilizing the Bitcoin-NG technology pioneered by IC3 co-director Emin Gün Sirer. Bitcoin-NG was designed to solve scaling issues with blockchains by using two different types of blocks.
Coinbase – San Francisco, California-based Coinbase is an online platform that allows merchants, consumers, and traders to transact with digital currency. It allows its users to create their own bitcoin wallets and start buying or selling bitcoins by connecting with their bank accounts. In addition, it provides a series of merchant payment processing systems and tools that support many highly-trafficked websites on the internet. The company was founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam with a mission to create an open financial system for the world. The company has raised a total of $225.3 million funding to date.
Storj – Storj which is pronounced as “storage,” is the first decentralized end-to-end encrypted cloud storage that uses cryptography and blockchain technology which provide security to your files. Storj does not have a data center of its own. Instead, Storj allows users to sell their unused storage space on the Hard Drive. Storj leverages cryptocurrency, blockchains, and the power of the crowd to create the world’s largest, cheapest, and safest cloud. Each year, 2/3s of all new hard drives are put directly into PCs. These drives are rarely used to capacity. By scavenging these wasted resources, Storj provides unlimited cloud storage at a fraction of the cost of a traditional data-center. Your files are encrypted, shredded into little pieces called “shards”. These shards are stored in a decentralized network of computers around the globe. No one but you has a complete copy of your file not even in an encrypted form. Storj is the cloud share by the community. Storj is an open source project which provides the first fully decentralized, secure and encrypted cloud storage platform. Like a Bitcoin, Storj serves as a peer-to-peer payment system.
HumanIQ – HumanIQ is a humanitarian Blockchain startup aimed at empowering emerging economies with financial inclusion tools. It utilizes blockchain technology to open up a vastly underserved market among the unbanked populations of the world. Two billion people in the world don’t have access to banking. HumanIQ’s mission is to empower the world’s emerging economies by bringing financial services to everyone – making banking a right not a luxury. Humaniq is a next generation financial services built on the open-source Ethereum platform with a shared API for quickly integrating new startups and services from existing companies. With its free app, anyone can send, receive, and request funds (all with little to no internet connection). Founded in 2015, the company has raised a total of $5.2 million in funding
Rentberry – Rentberry is the first rental platform powered by blockchain. It streamlines negotiations between landlords and tenants, eliminates the hassle of paperwork and helps properties get their true market price. Rentberry is able to utilize blockchain and enhanced contracts technology to make all stages of rental process faster, easier, and safer for everyone involved. With Rentnberry, you can market your property listings, benefit from custom offers, make use of tenant screening, and collect rent online if you’re a landlord. It also enables its customers to take advantage of an intuitive search tool, transparent application process, e-signed lease, and online rental payments as a tenant. Rentberry was founded in 2015 by Aleksey Perfilov, Alex Lubinsky and Lily Ostapchuk. The startup has raised a total of $4 million in funding. It currently has over 120,000 customers.
Coinlancer – Coinlancer is a decentralized job market built on Ethereum platform, which empowers burgeoning freelancers and clients from across the globe. Coinlancer is trying to change and revolutionize the traditional ways of freelancing. The startup sees problems in the current freelance markets and decided to solve it by leveraging blockchain technology to help freelancers keep up with the trend of freelancing. Coinlancer wants to improve the freelance process in a safe and secure fashion and address problems such as unexplained account suspensions, unaddressed or prolonged. Founded in 2017, Coinlancer is a decentralized job market built on Ethereum platform, which empowers burgeoning freelancers and clients from across the globe.
Coinify ApS – Coinify ApS is an established global virtual currency platform actively offering solutions in Europe, Asia and other regions. Coinify offers blockchain currency trading and payment processing services and allows white label solutions for partners via API. Coinify team consists of strong backgrounds in payments, finance, risk, e-commerce, and compliance areas and experience in working with digital currencies since 2010. The company was foundedin 2014 by Hans Henrik Hoffmeyer, Kris Henriksen, Lasse Olesen and Mark Højgaard. It is backed by Nordic Eye Venture Capital, SEED Capital Denmark, SEB Venture Capital and Accelerace. Recent industry awards and recognitions include: Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Award: ‘Global Blockchain Financial Service Provider 2017’; ‘Top 100 FinTech Europe’ 2017 & 2016; Nordic Startup Award ‘Best Fintech Startup Denmark 2017’; and ‘Top 50’ Financial IT Pathfinder Ranking.
CanYa – Founded in 2015, Melbourne, Australia-based CanYa is a hybrid between an on-chain cryptocurrency payment layer using CanYa Coins, and a fast off-chain service that enables users to find and book services, and for service providers to list their skills and services. The CanYaCoin ICO is only the beginning for this ambitious Australian technology company. The Australian entity is now well on its way to becoming the first ever Decentralised Autonomous Organisation for peer-to-peer (P2P) services, where consumers can engage directly with providers looking to both make payments, and be paid, through cryptocurrencies. Having already established a platform that hosts more than 10,000 users and 4,000 service providers domestically, it is well on its way to achieving this international long-term goals.
OpenBazaar – Washington DC-based OpenBazaar is a decentralized cryptocurrency marketplace that enables its users to trade online. Think of it as Bitcoin powered “eBay.” OpenBazaar is a new way to trade online. By running a program on your computer, you can connect directly to other users in the OpenBazaar network and trade with them. This network isn’t controlled by a company, it’s a decentralized network that isn’t run by any organization at all. This means there are no mandatory fees to pay, and that your trade is censorship-resistant. OpenBazaar uses Bitcoin, a digital currency that is also cheap to use, decentralized, and censorship-resistant. This project is open source, which means the code is publicly available, can be reviewed, and anyone can join the project and suggest changes. The startup was founded in 2015 by Brian Hoffman, Dionysis Zindros, Samuel Patterson and Washington Sanchez. The startup has raised a total of $4.2 million in funding.
TenX — TenX lets anyone spend any cryptocurrency anytime and anywhere in the world. TenX has a very mission: they believe it should be easy to spend your cryptocurrency anytime and anywhere in the world. TenX found that nobody can actually spend cryptocurrencies at 99% of businesses without having to wait days to exchange it through a centralized exchange bank, or jump through other major hoops. So the company decided to solve the problem by creating IOS, Android, and Web app that allows anyone to pay or transfer funds in just a few clicks. The company was founded in 2015 by Julian Hosp, Michael Sperk, Paul Warrunthorn Kittiwongsunthorn and Toby Hoenisch
