The Next Wave of Bitcoin Companies
The quotes in this article were taken from questions answered on ZapChain. If you would like to be quoted in a future ZapChain article, sign up here and start answering questions.
Exchanges, mining pools, mining hardware, wallets, and merchant tools. That’s what today’s Bitcoin landscape looks like.
But what’s next? What will the next generation of Bitcoin related companies look like?
I decided to do some research, talk to some of the Bitcoin experts on ZapChain, and see if we could come up with a list of companies that will spring up because of the current needs of the Bitcoin industry.
Here is what I found out.
1. Decentralized Applications
Bitcoin is a decentralized application. It’s built on top of a blockchain, there is no centralized governing force, and all the data is distributed equally around the world. But, Bitcoin is but one example of what can be built in a decentralized environment.
Future Bitcoin related applications, some of which are already being built today, will not be currencies. They will be utilizing blockchain technology for completely different use cases such as fundraising, signing contracts, proving ownership of assets, and even data storage.
Some examples of these types of applications being built today include Ethereum, SWARM, and MaidSafe.
2. Fraud Protection and De-Anonymization of Blockchain Transactions
One of Bitcoin’s initial advantages, and how it attracted early adopters, is the ability to do financial transactions completely anonymously. No government, corporation, or prying eyes, would be able to track your spending habits. This sounds great, and definitely has it’s perks, but it doesn’t yet work in today’s world.
Why not? Well, I will explain.
In order to make large purchases, sellers are usually going to need to know that you are a real person, and that your money is “clean”. You can’t sell a house, car, or plane ticket, without knowing the identity of the buyer. This is just a fact.
This is the problem services like bonafide.io, onename.io, and Blossom are trying to solve.
“Blossom – fraud prevention technology. I know first hand how important and difficult this aspect of running a bitcoin company is. Fraud is unfortunately a very common occurrence, especially for companies that are converting between bitcoin and fiat. A service that manages to prevent some or all fraud relating to bitcoin is a company worth investing in.”
- Teemu Päivinen, CEO of Coinmotion
3. Localized Bitcoin Services
While Bitcoin may be meant as an easy to use world wide currency, it is still not easy to purchase Bitcoin’s worldwide. When it comes to the rules and regulations involving Bitcoin, it varies country to country. In the United States we are lucky to have services like Coinbase, which make it easy for us to hook up our American bank account to buy and sell Bitcoins, but in other parts of the world this is not yet available.
Expect a huge wave of localized Bitcoin services that follow their own unique set of regulations, both focused on consumers and merchants. Basically, “Coinbase for [insert country here]“. Already there is Coinmotion (Europe), Palarin (Philippines), CoinHako(Singapore), Unocoin (India), and many more.
“I believe that localized Bitcoin brokerages in key regions will drive global bitcoin adoption and provide tremendous value in emerging markets. Regional bitcoin service providers can tailor their products and services to the specific needs of each respective market and integrate with existing processes and infrastructure. For instance, Volabit has partnered with a country-wide chain of convenience stores to leverage their vast array of locations for cash-in and cash-out transactions. Ultimately, local exchanges will play a critical role in disrupting the Global remittance market currently is valued at $540B+ by enabling facilitating cross-regional transfers of value.”
Brian Gamido, CEO of Palarin
