Startups, at present, are driving by an alluring pattern of leadership, ambition, zeal to rise above all and an enthusiasm to revolutionize the world with technology. Technology like blockchain-that aims to digitalize and secure almost everything with utmost security.

The following eight startups have strived above all successfully:

Company Details

Founder: Halsey Mirror (Founder-CNET,Salesforce)

HQ: South Carolina, USA

Total Funding Received: 14.6 M$

Website: www.uphold.com

Services

Uphold (formerly Bitreserve) is a cloud-based financial services platform enabling members to convert deposits to their account via bank account, credit card in addition to cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin,Voxel, litecoin and ethereum into reserve-backed currencies and commodities allowing anyone with a device to send, receive, and exchange money and commodities. Uphold works directly with businesses developing tailored solutions for instant global transactions and costless forex. Uphold provides open and Free API for developers to build financial applications that store, convert and transfer any form of value.

Business Model

Revenue sources:

• Uphold invests their own reserve in low risk commodities.
• They may also generate fees from certain high volume and institutional customers who separately agree to those fees.

Technology Stack

They use Private-Institutional Blockchain

• Reservechain: The Reservechain enables anyone to trace a transaction all the way back to the point where it entered our network.
• ReserverLedger: The Reserveledger is a real-time publication of every change in our obligations to our members and every change in assets held in our reserve.

Target Market

Everyday consumer and Institutional Customer.

Company Details

Founder: Chris Larson(Lending Industry Veteran and and angel investor)

HQ: SF,USA

Total Funding Received: 93.6 M$

Services

Ripple is the name for both a digital currency (XRP) and an open payment network within which that currency is transferred. It is a distributed, open-source payments system that’s still in beta. The goal of the ripple system, according to its website, is to enable people to break free of the “walled gardens” of financial networks – ie, credit cards, banks, PayPal and other institutions that restrict access with fees, charges for currency exchanges and processing delays. Ripple is designed to connect different payment systems together. Ripple doesn’t collect transaction fees the way PayPal, banks and credit cards do. However, it does take “a small portion of a ripple (equivalent to ~1/1000th of a cent)” from each transaction. That amount is destroyed rather than retained.

Business Model

Revenue sources:

• Professional services provided to financial network operators being integrated with Ripple.
• Software built to integrate legacy financial systems with Ripple.
• Their native currency (XRP).Technology Stack.

Technology Stack

They use Private-Institutional Blockchain. Ripple Blockchain and XRP Currency. They don’t use Ripple Mining

Target Market

Financial Institutions, Liquidity Providers.

Company Details

Founder: Lawrence Orsini (Joint Venture between Consensys and LO3 Energy)

HQ: Newyork,USA

Total Funding Received: NA

Services

TransActive Grid is based on an open source, cryptographically secure decentralized application platform. Its business logic layer delivers real-time metering of local energy generation and usage as well as other related data. This open energy platform is transparent, auditable, non-repudiable, peer-to-peer, and cryptographically secure. Friction in the market is reduced by allowing different classes of users to transact openly on the platform. The first demonstration project is a neighborhood installation in Brooklyn, New York.

Business Model

This whole concept benefits the area you live in. By buying energy locally, rather than from a national entity, the money goes back into the pockets of people in the community.

In addition to generating benefits for the local community, this consensus-based microgrid model could also have a lower impact on the environment. With an estimated 6 percent of energy being lost because of long-distance transmission and distribution, any energy generated within the neighborhood microgrid means that less massive infrastructure is needed, making it a much more cost-effective and sustainable option in the long run.

Ultimately, it’s about giving residents more choices, and empowering them to take charge and participate in their local economy, whether it’s through hyper-local energy generation, or by purchasing electricity directly from the folks next door. Developing a connected network of distributed energy providers will also boost energy efficiency, and letting participants manage their own resources will strengthen community resiliency.

This new business model based on a distributed approach looks like it could disrupt the old way of getting your electricity, but in the bigger picture, it could create green jobs, and generate more financial incentives for ordinary people to switch over to renewable energy — something that’s not only good for everyone, but also for the planet too.

Technology Stack

Ethereum Blockchain

Target Market

Community Energy Market, Sharing economy

Company Details

Founder: Lawrence Orsini (Joint Venture between Consensys and LO3 Energy)

HQ: Newyork,USA

Total Funding Received: NA

Services

Vienna-based startup called Grid Singularity is also experimenting with blockchain to authenticate energy transactions. The company is targeting developing countries, where it wants to make pay-as-you-go solar more secure. Its eventual goal is to build a blockchain platform for energy systems that can be applied to any type of transaction on the grid.

GridSingularity is a valuable tool for a range of energy market participants – from regulators to operators, investors, traders and consumers. The new platform will support forecasting for grid balancing (smart grid management), facilitate investment, trade of green certificates/certificates of origin and eventually energy trade validation.

Business Model

The main advantage of the platform lies in its interoperability, leading to immense infrastructure cost savings compared to standard technical solutions that require a fully independent vertical integration for each energy market operation. The platform also renders some of the current key entry barriers to energy trade obsolete such as a need to have special accounts/deposits/certification with an intermediary financial institution. The reduced cost and complexity of the system will attract more market players and transform the energy market into a more competitive, and a generally more open and fair market.

Technology Stack

Ethereum Blockchain

Target Market

Energy market participants – from regulators to operators, investors, traders and consumers.

we will cover next four startups in next post. Stay Tuned.

Interesting startups to watch out in blockchain space – Part 2

Lending companies leveraging Blockchain technology

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Hitesh Malviya

Hitesh Malviya is the Founder of ItsBlockchain. He is one of the most early adopters of blockchain & cryptocurrency enthusiast in India. After being into space for a few years, he started IBC in 2016 to help other early adopters learn about the technology.
Before IBC, Hitesh has founded 4 companies in the cyber security & IT space.