BLOCKCHAIN DIRECTORY

Founded: March 2016

Founders: Greg Schvey and Jeff Schvey

Technology:

Customers/Partners: ICAP, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citi, Credit Suisse, J.P. Morgan), The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), and Markit

Description:

The founders of Tradeblock, a company providing cryptocurrency trading execution and analysis tools, established Axoni as a separate venture focused on provision of permissioned blockchain technology.

Axoni in March 2016 assisted ICAP’s Post Trade Risk and Information division (PTRI) in testing a private, peer-to-peer, distributed ledger network using smart contracts.

On April 7, 2016, Axoni announced that it had completed a blockchain test involving four global financial institutions (Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citi, Credit Suisse, J.P. Morgan), The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) and Markit. Over the course of the multi-month project, the group established a blockchain trade processing network across a blend of hosted and locally-installed deployments of Axoni software.

Credit default swap (CDS) transactions were selected as the basis for this initial test case due to the variety of lifecycle events which apply, as well as the availability of an efficiency benchmark established by the DTCC Trade Information Warehouse (TIW), the global market standard for post-trade asset servicing of credit derivatives.

Articles concerning Axoni:

• Axoni, Markit Successfully Test Blockchain for CDS with Bank of America, Citi, Credit Suisse, JPMorgan, DTCC

• Tradeblock Founders Establish Axoni to Provide Permissioned Ledger Tech

• ICAP Completes Blockchain Proof of Technology Test with Axoni

Founded: 2014

Founders: Adam Back, Matt Corallo, Alex Fowler, Mark Friedenbach, Francesca Hall, Austin Hill, Gregory Maxwell, Erik Svenson, Jorge Timón, Jonathan Wilkins, Pieter Wuille

Technology:  Sidechains

Customers/Partners:

Description:

Blockstream’s core area of innovation is sidechains, a technology focused on improving on the blockchain, the most powerful public utility for distributed trust systems.

Sidechains are blockchains that are interoperable with each other and with Bitcoin, avoiding liquidity shortages, market fluctuations, fragmentation, security breaches and outright fraud associated with alternative crypto-currencies.

The extension mechanism of sidechains, the company’s initial area of focus, allows any number of so far unthought of developments to happen in an open and interoperable way. A champion of Bitcoin’s ethos, Blockstream supports values of decentralization, end-to-end security, user control, and open, permissionless innovation.

Blockstream’s major technology release is Sidechains Elements, functioning code and a testing environment for working with sidechains.

Blockstream has raised $76 million in venture capital in two rounds from 18 different investors. In November 2014, Blockstream received $21 million in a seed round led by Real Ventures and including AME Cloud Ventures, Blockchain Capital, Danny Hills, Embrase, Flight Ventures, Future Perfect Ventures, Innovation Endeavours, Khosla Ventures, and Mosaic Ventures. The startup’s Series B round closed in February 2016 adding $55 million and new investors, AngelList, AXA Strategic Ventures, Data Collective, Digital Garage, and Horizons Ventures.

Articles concerning Blockstream:

• Hyperledger’s Evolving Blockchain Fabric, Merging Blockstream, DAH, IBM Code

• Blockstream Raises $55M in 2nd Round Led by AXA, Horizons, Digital Garage

Founded: January 2014

Founders: Flavien Charlon

Technology: Open Assets Protocol and Openchain

Customers/Partners: Accenture, Microsoft Azure, PwC

Description:

Flavien Charlon of Coinprism developed the Open Assets Protocol and more recently Openchain.org. The Open Assets Protocol (OAP) is a protocol built on top of the Bitcoin Blockchain that allows issuance and transfer of user-created assets and is n evolution of the concept of colored coins. OAP has been utilized by Overstock for its cryptobond, Nasdaq for its Linq digital assets, and by Mizuho bank for cross-border security settlement.

Openchain is an open source distributed ledger technology that will allow any enterprise user, company or institution to set up their own ledger as well as issue and manage digital assets. Openchain utilizes a partitioned consensus system where every Openchain instance only has one authority validating transactions, each organization controls their own Openchain instance, chains can connect to each other, different transactions will be validated by different authorities depending on the assets being exchanged, and every asset issuer has full control on the transactions relevant to that asset.

Unlike blockchains, Openchain doesn’t use the concept of blocks. Transactions are directly chained with one another, and they are no longer grouped in blocks. While blockchains group transactions in blocks that introduces a delay, transactions in Openchain are linked to the chain as soon as they are submitted to the network and thus result in real-time confirmations. A more appropriate term for Openchain is a “transaction-chain” rather than a “blockchain”.

Coinprism has partnered with PwC and Microsoft Azure, and entered Accenture’s Fintech Innovation Lab with Openchain in February 2016.

Founded: November 2014

Founders: Nick Williamson and Eric Benz

Technology: Proprietary blockchain platform-as-a-service

Customers/Partners:  Isle of Man, SETL.io

Description:

Credits is a blockchain technology provider that in April 2016 released a public beta of its Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) with tools for building secure and scalable blockchains to power enterprise applications. The blockchain platform enables enterprises to roll out blockchains that address the challenges of establishing provenance, authentication and reconciliation faced by many industries. The Credits framework is purpose-built to be seamlessly and securely interoperable with other legacy systems and blockchain providers.

Founded: July 2014

Founders: Don Wilson, Sunil Hirani, Yuval Rooz and Eric Saraniecki

Technology: Original Hyperledger code and more

Customers/Partners: 

Description:

Digital Asset Holdings builds distributed, encrypted ledger platforms utilizing technologies it has acquired since its founding. These companies include Hyperledger, Bits of Proof and Blockstack. Last year, the firm became a founding premier member of the Linux Foundation’s open source Hyperledger Project, to drive the adoption and standardization of Distributed Ledger Technology.

The company is led by CEO Blythe Masters, a famed JPMorgan economist and co-inventor of credit default swaps. Under Masters, the startup has raised more than $60 million from 15 industry leaders across the financial industry. These investors include ABN AMRO, Accenture, ASX Limited, BNP Paribas, Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc., Citi, CME Ventures, Deutsche Börse Group, Goldmand Sachs, IBM, ICAP, JPMorgan, Santander InnoVentures, The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) and The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.

On April 20th, 2016, Digital Asset announced the acquisition of Swiss tech firm Elevence for ability to develop modeling languages that are an alternative to smart contracts.

Digital Asset has also formed strategic relationships with Accenture, Broadridge and PwC. With the DTCC, the firm is developing a distributed ledger solution for repo clearing. In a partnership with the Australian Stock Exchange, Digital Asset is examining integration of the Australian markets with blockchain technology.

Articles concerning Digital Asset Holdings:

• SETL Launches Blockchain Powered Platform to ‘Revolutionize’ Settlements and Payments

• Digital Asset Acquires Swiss Tech Firm for Smart Contracts-Alternative Modeling Language

• BNP Paribas, SmartAngels Build Blockchain Share Register for Private Company Securities

• IBM, DAH Propose Code Merger as Hyperledger Project Code Foundation

• Hyperledger’s Evolving Blockchain Fabric, Merging Blockstream, DAH, IBM Code

• JPMorgan Tests Blockchain USD Transfers for Months Between London & Tokyo

• Digital Asset Forms Strategic Relationships with Accenture, Broadridge, PwC

• Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger Project Members Include Banking, Tech Giants

• Digital Asset Adds IBM, Goldman Sachs to Investors Raising Funding to $60M Plus

• DTCC Encourages Financial Sector Collaboration, Authorities Play “Leading Role” on Distributed Ledger Tech

Founded: 2015

Founders: Joshua Davis and Mary Davies

Technology: Ethereum DApp

Customers/Partners:

Description:

Dynamis is an Ethereum-based distributed application (DApps) providing peer-to-peer (P2P) insurance. The goal of the DApp is to create a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that meets policy holders’ needs in new ways and evolves with them, providing consensus mechanisms, transparency, auditability, and operating only in the interest of its policy holders.

The first service is supplementary unemployment insurance, where small business can provide severance coverage for layoffs and when the employee resigns. Each employee would have a Dynamis account, the company pays premiums into a smart contract, and if there are no claims, over time the premiums would go down. The employee later receives payouts while looking for a new job, and take the policy to the new employer.

By using s blockchain, it is ensured that severance funds actually belong to the employees and are not held by the company which could change terms.

Founder Joshua Davis put forward his concept of “Peer-to-peer Insurance on the Ethereum Blockchain” in his published whitepaper.

Blockchain in Insurance Articles:

• Blockchain Live Reveals Blockchain Potential Across industries

• Blockchain in the Insurance Industry, IBM and B3i Leverage Distributed Ledger Technology

• Aigang Provides Insights Into the Future Proof Digital Insurance Protocol on Blockchain

• Digital Insurance Protocol Launches Blockchain Demo Apps for IoT Devices

• Blockchain for Insurance as Start-Up Bridger Buys Out MGA