London’s blockchain scene is burgeoning as the technology ventures into diverse sectors: Big Pharma, philanthropy, smart homes and, of course, FinTech.
If Blockchain is analogous to the internet’s rapid development, we are currently in the mid nineties, around the halcyon days of early-Amazon and Hotmail. At present, it’s unimaginable as to which brands and businesses will become the cultural cornerstones of this era. But that’s what makes Silicon Roundtable’s blockchain startup pitch event all the more exciting.
These are the brave new worlders effectively converting blockchain’s abstract potential into real world solutions. Of the five pitchers, an altruistic algorithm, really-smart real estate, and transparent Big Pharma supply chains are using blockchain to develop products driven by sound-ethics. While two new ICO’s continue to position City of London as the home of fintech.
Give Bytes
#GiveALittleByteOfLove is definitely the cutest hashtag of the night.
It’s also the philanthropic message behind one of the most profound platforms pitching. GiveBytes.com harnesses the same process as mining bitcoin to exchange crypto rewards in return for your computer’s processing power. Except, explained co-founder Jacob Piotrowski, with Give Byte, instead of harvesting coin for your own wallet, you are donating your rewards to crowdfunding campaigns of your choice.
And Piotrowski has a compelling case for 99.99% of the population on-boarding:
“Unless you use your computer for heavy computing operations like 3D rendering, you probably only utilize 10–30% of your Central Processing Unit (CPU)”.
Give Bytes’ platform goes live at 00.00 on Saturday 1st September 2018. No download is required: just visit the website, find a campaign you are interested in supporting, and click ‘SMART MINING’.
What are you waiting for?
ehab
In London, we have an empty home epidemic with 20,000 unlived properties, while house prices continue to rise exponentially.
Go to any city in the world and housing is a key issue, says twenty-something CEO Josh Graham. His startup ehab is aiming to disrupt this flailing market with affordable, smart housing solutions.
Their MVP is an interactive instrument for the beginning of any conversation about sustainable development: allowing for fundraising, community-consultancy collaboration, and smart contracts. ehab’s flagship pilot project in the Cambridge-to-Norwich corridor has the potential to build 26,000 new homes in the next ten years. And with a projected £78–231 million in revenue the future looks, well, sustainable.
Given the negative press on the imminent arrival of smart cities — especially around Big Data and Big Brother — ehab certainly buck the trend and appear to be a values-driven organization.
Very refreshing, indeed.
Veratrak
Veratrak position Big Pharma as the next global industry that is about to be revolutionized by blockchain.
Led by two Oxford University alumni, co-founder and tonight’s pitcher, Matthew Wilson, is confident “there aren’t many pharmaceutical supply chain experts in the room” and proceeds to give the crowd a quick crash course…
Essentially, in the global medical-system legal regulatory documentation needs to accompany all biomedical products as they travel from manufacturer-to-supplier-to-administrator-to-patient. However, there is no auditable track for these products so when things get lost as they invariably do, certain agents get into a lot trouble. Veratrak brings together the disparate pharmaceutical players onto one customisable workflow communications platform.
Veratrak also operate a think tank, EPOCH (or The European Platform on Changing Healthcare: a forum where supply chain experts and blockchain leaders can examine the future of the pharmaceutical supply chain, and “begin to disseminate the hype from the reality”.
DIGAX
If 2018 is the “Year of the Security Token”, then a digital asset exchange platform like DIGAX, is one of the calendars that records this important moment in the history of finance.
Founded only eighteen months ago and originally bootstrapped, CEO, Ben Morley’s background in bitcoin broking and asset trading has helped them achieve quick growth, with a two seed rounds behind them and a team of ten in place already.
They are currently at private beta level and looking to roll out to the public soon. According to Morley, “anecdotal evidence suggests the world trusts the UK for FinTech.”
It’s innovative startups like DIGAX that keep that faith alive!
Capexmove
The Debt Securities industry topped more than $100 trillion in 2017: 36% larger than the market capitalisation of all listed companies globally. But, questions, Capexmove CEO, Dario Scarcella, why has it become so expensive to borrow?
The answer is in the inefficiencies of the manual intermediaries in the dealing of bonds. And it is these inefficiencies — read, middle men — that Capexmove’s can supplant by leveraging the Ethereum blockchain and smart contracts. This disruption will reduce the cost of borrowing, and may, in time, provide a massive headache for the traditional bond market.
Situated in Level 39 — Canary Wharf’s new fast growing tech community in cybersecurity and fintech — Capexmove are in the right place to launch their funding round.
If it really is the mid-nineties of the blockchain life-cycle, let’s hope we are a long way away from the inevitable bubble burst.
Let’s see if these five — among hundreds of other blockchain startups — can deliver with the revolutionary new tech at their fingertips. And witness if decentralization will make for a better new world.