Report: The 10 most promising blockchain-based startups

In a report published today on Business Insider, bitcoin-business consultant Tim Swanson names his top 10 startups that use blockchain-based technology. Swanson limited his list to companies no longer operating in pre-launch “stealth mode,” and which he believes to already offer a viable service.

Several of Swanson’s picks are hardly unknown in the bitcoin community: San Fransisco-based exchange Kraken; P2P lending platform BTCJam; currency-agnostic payment system Ripple; and exchange/wallet/merchant-solution providers Coinbase and BitPay. Well-known international wallet provider Bifubao and Argentinian merchant service company BitPagos also make the list. Swanson’s other choices, however, are a bit more esoteric.

Bitcoin market-analysis startup Coinometrics meets with high praise from Swanson, who notes “clear analytics and corresponding interpretations of data” set the company apart from the army of “forum-based armchair philosophers” currently providing the bulk of the market insight. Developer tool and infrastructure provider Helloblock also gained high praise, as did application platform-as-a-service provider BlockCypher.

Perhaps the most surprising inclusion is Digital Tangible Trust, a largely unknown “liquidity provider and marketing partner” for hard assets that are difficult to monetize. At the moment, this mostly means blockchain-documented ownership of gold, although almost any property could be digitally represented included in the system. Given that DTT is deeply connected to long-troubled exchange Poloniex, however, it’s worth taking Swanson’s recommendation with a grain of salt.

According to the editor’s notes, Swanson is not an investor in any of the companies he recommended in the story.