VC blockchain investments on the rise

A new study from Juniper Research has found that more than 30 startups have receiving funding in 1H of 2016. More than a third of all investment was accounted for by Circle, a social payment provider, Blockstream, a sidechain developer, and Digital Asset holdings, a distributed ledger solutions provider

The report called The Future of Blockchain: Bitcoin, Remittance, ID Verification & Smart Contracts 2016-2021 highlighted that the banking sector is being particularly proactive, with several banks having already adopted the Ripple blockchain protocol and others piloting competing solutions.

The study claimed that in areas like transaction settlement, the introduction of a blockchain-based system would substantially reduce both the risk of error and the time taken for error checking. More than that, it argued that in cross-border remittance, the technology could allow new entrants to offer services at significantly lower costs to consumers.

Still, the research warned that if smart contracts use blockchain technology, then their contents, including, potentially, bugs or flaws, are visible to all the users of that blockchain. It cited the recent case where a flaw on the DAO (Decentralised Autonomous Organisation) network was exploited by a third party, resulting in the misappropriation of cryptocurrency worth nearly USD 80 million.