News about Empirica, FinTech and software development.

Empirica starts development of institutional solutions for MetaTrader 5

Empirica has announced the development of brokerage solutions for MetaTrader 5. Our company has become the institutional software provider for companies using the advanced multi-asset platform. More brokers actively switching to MetaTrader 5 generate a demand for applications expanding and complementing the platform features, while tech service providers as Empirica strive to satisfy this demand by pushing further the development of the platform and its infrastructure. 

“For the last 6 years we have strengthened our market position as leading software partner for financial institutions and FinTech companies. We have developed a very strong algorithmic engine, that has already made one of our customers the fastest market maker on Warsaw Stock Exchange. We are pioneers in developing intelligent robo-technology based on machine learning. Now in cooperation with MetaQuotes we will support brokerage firms and investment companies in MetaTrader server extensions that will meet their specific requirements and needs in relation to the forex market. The customers of MetaQuotes can benefit from our ability to combine the high technical expertise and deep industry knowledge of our team”, — says Michal Rozanski, CEO at Empirica S.A.

 

Customers who have already benefited from strong competences and experience of Empirica are Warsaw Stock Exchange, Credit Agricole, brokerage firms and robo advisors like BOS Bank, InvestHelp and Swissborg. Empirica is headquartered in Poland and set up international units in Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Switzerland.

How AI will cause robo advice to completely outperform human advice

Most financial advisors are in a state of denial about robo-advice. They say clients value the human touch or need real people to understand the nuances of their financial lives. They’re wrong. Soon robo advice will be much more efficient than human advice ever was. The next step in wealth management is to get rid of it’s weakest and costliest part – the human advisor. 

In this article we would share the results of our analysis on most important areas where appliances of Machine Learning (or marketing term – Artificial Intelligence) will take wealth management to the next level. Those areas include:

  • ML in behavioural analysis that tracks typical investors mistakes and reacts on nervousness, not thought-through decisions, spontaneous reactions to market downturns etc. Contact the investors when they really need explanation and support.
  • Sophisticated portfolio allocation and rebalancing backed by algorithmic trading and execution algorithms
  • Real time adjustments in investment strategy (change in goals, life situation, job, location, marital status, remuneration) on finest level, that human advisors could not deliver
  • Combination of long term advice with ML analysis of current budget status (with integration all bank accounts) and spending and saving practices. The result would be high level plans combined with help in everyday execution.
  • Chatbot and voice technology – explaining the investment strategy and current market situation in most natural manner.
  • ML in in analysis and navigation of tax nuances

Implementing those AI functionalities in robo advice systems will be important step on the way to delivering more financial freedom. Professional advice, available to anybody, especially to those who can’t afford it now, but need it most. At friction of the current costs.

AI is beating humans in chess, go and recently even in poker. Now it’s time for a financial planning game. And these are not bad news, but not for the financial advisors but for the customers.

Voting

If you want us to elaborate on the topic of using Machine Learning in Wealth Management please vote for us to be part of incoming WealthTech Book:

WealthTechBook_big

 

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A brief guide to Initial Coin Offerings (ICO)

Initial​ ​Coin​ Offerings​ ​(ICO)

The introduction of Bitcoin in 2009 gave us resources and infrastructure to transact primitive digital tokens of value (bitcoin in the event of the Bitcoin blockchain) over the open public internet without trusted intermediaries. However, so as to create new tokens one either needed to scale and deploy a new blockchain network (likely forked from Bitcoin), or problem tokens on top of an existing blockchain network like Bitcoin (through metadata encoded into raw transactions). The former was an uphill struggle due to challenges of scaling and achieving network effects to get a new blockchain, and the latter was challenging due to the complexities of trying to encode sufficient information related to new tokens into raw Bitcoin transactions. Neither model was perfect.

But with the introduction of Ethereum in 2015 arrived the the Ethereum blockchain not only provided the infrastructure for transacting primitive digital tokens (ether in this case) but also provided the capability for easily creating and autonomously managing other secondary electronic tokens of value within the open public internet without reliable intermediaries.

Applying this concept of smart contracts, which can be effectively applications running a top a decentralized network, tokens can be generated and allocated to users, and made to be readily tradable. This process of creating tokens and distributing them to customers in exchange for a network’s primitive electronic token (cryptocurrency) is called an ICO process, and can be viewed as a novel distribution channel for assets.

Not all tokens are created equal

This post Isn’t supposed to be an introduction to the technically rich world of cryptography, blockchains and consensus mechanisms, for which there are numerous excellent entry level resources. However, the key point to bear in mind is that secondary tokens are not like primitive tokens (cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ether) that are inherent to the “structural integrity” of a blockchain network.

Open peer-to-peer worth transfer networks, for example Bitcoin or Ethereum, need to endure complex attack vectors within an open hostile environment – where all parties (hosting or accessing the community) are assumed to be self interested and focused on optimizing their own value. In this scenario the key question is how do all parties be incentivized to work for the greater good of securing the community while fulfilling their self-interest. This leads us into the real innovation of this blockchain network, the primitive token (or cryptocurrency).

In addition to being the subject of transaction between parties On the network (the users), the crude token is also used to incentive key parties competing to reach consensus (the miners) as quickly as possible on the state of this blockchain ledger (i.e. who owns what primitive token). The reward for securing the network and reaching consensus is either new supply of crude tokens or transaction fees. In this model, trust is made from mistrust through expending energy in the mining process, which makes the violation of the “sanctity of the blockchain ledger” costly and economically unfavorable to the option of procuring the system and being rewarded in the native store of value for the effort of doing this . It is a self-contained system that is simple and beautiful in its implementation, and requires no more controls and rules than are necessary.

Here you can see the core purpose and the unique nature of a cryptocurrency, and why it is fundamental to a blockchain network: cryptocurrency is the atomic element where the open public blockchain network is forged. On the other hand a secondary token, that is made in addition to a blockchain network, is merely a representation of some “property rights” that may (or may not) be external to the blockchain e.g. “real world assets” or access to products/services.

Inherent blockchain and its cryptocurrency to create and issue (through an ICO procedure) secondary tokens for any purpose, but this only uses the open public blockchain as an independent “custody or notarization” data layer.

ICO and token issuance

Among the most obvious and natural use cases for ICO based Secondary token issuances is to represent some form of conventional security e.g. equity, debt, participation in profit sharing, etc.. In addition to issuance, allocation and transferability being programmed into an immutable smart arrangement, one can also predefine a set of events like cash flow rules which could be triggered either at set times or by particular external events. There are a number of reasons why a public blockchain infrastructure is logical for the issuance and management of financial securities, which are mostly associated with custody regulations around how client money and asset are managed through their life cycle.

However, since the “offer and sale” of securities is in and Of itself highly controlled, many models have been devised by startups to allow the issuance of tokens through an ICO distribution version whilst not falling afoul of securities regulations. As well as the question around whether a token is a security or not there are also lots of other unanswered questions related to tax of capital gains and KYC/AML rules. These are a few of the regulatory and statutory financial considerations which are currently an ongoing area of development and appraisal.

Recent SEC investigative report, these aspects will be the most crucial on how ICO And the issued tokens are classified by regulators globally.

Empirica presented robo advisory software at FinTech Connect Live in London

Empirica took part in the biggest FinTech Event in Europe with almost 2500 attendees from 44 countries and 145 exhibitors & partners, taking place in London this December (6th & 7th). FinTech Connect Live combined a large scale expo, with 180 experts speaking in 120 dedicated conferences focusing on different FinTech subsectors, like WealthTech, InsurTech or PayTech with strategic discussion based sessions, keynote presentations, product demos and interactive workshops.

fintech-connect-live-2016Empirica proudly presented own white label solutions like an intelligent Robo-Advisory Platform, Algorithmic Trading Engine and FinTech Software Framework as well as development services among both tech giants and brand new start ups with sophisticated niche product offerings. Anyone interested in speaking with Empirica about building the bespoke FinTech solution behind own service could meet our team at the stand. We shared experiences gained for over 6 years of developing solutions for financial institutions and FinTech companies, including robo-advisors. We ran many interesting conversations about new market trends and needs, specially in wealth management space. Our Robo-Advisory Platform received huge attention from asset managers and investment companies participating in the event.

Empirica presented also company showcase demo at the showcase theater. While presenting our experiences, CEO of Empirica illustrated the most important issues of building tailored FinTech software.

fintech-connect-live-2016-sDuring the conference there were many interesting presentations and panel discussions about future trends of robo advice and advancements in the fields of InvesTech and WealthTech and other FinTech sessions like: the future of banking, blockchain rising, opportunities and risks in the data economy in FinTech, crowdfunding & P2P lending.

Thank you to all the participants who visited us at our stand or watched our showcase demo presentation! 

Empirica Team

 

See our Robo Advisor Software:

See our Robo Advisor Software

Empirica at FinTech Connect Live in London

Empirica takes part in the FinTech Connect Live! this December 6th & 7th in London. This is the most important event in a FinTech space, where finance meets technology. Empirica joined the Advisory Board of this annual global FinTech undertaking.

Were you can meet us?

 

On the Showcase Demo (7th Dec., 11:50 am)

Empirica will shortly present Robo-Advisory Technology for financial advisors as well as FinTech development services. We would like to invite to our presentation: Technology for Robo-Advisors – how to build great software behind your FinTech service?

While presenting our advanced Robo-Advisory Platform, CEO of Empirica will illustrate most important issues of building tailored FinTech software. We will share experiences we have gained for over 6 years of developing solutions for financial institutions and FinTech companies, including robo-advisors. We’d love to welcome all FinTech innovators interested in how properly implemented technology can move their businesses forward.

On our stand number 83

Anyone interested in speaking with Empirica about building the FinTech solution behind own service can meet our team on the stand.

– “FinTech Connect Live creates a global community of FinTech StartUps, financial institutions and investors, where we can exchange thoughts and experiences. That’s why this is a second time Empirica takes part with great interest in this event. Last year we presented our Algorithmic Trading Platform, which is the heart of our robo solution we are going to present this year. I am looking forward to speak with financial advisors who want to go robo as well as any FinTech StartUp about how to build great software behind FinTech service and quickly intruduce it to the market.” – Michał Różański, CEO of Empirica.

If you are interested in setting up an appointment with our team during the FinTech Connect Live, just let us know at: info@empirica-software.com.

 

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Are ICOs the new future of start-ups?

An ICO is a form of financing commonly known as ‘token sales’ That is particularly favourable for early-stage companies. These forthcoming business concepts are valued via artificially created currencies that, theoretically, can be quantified in terms of riches in the long run — when the thought starts making money. There’s not anything more than a guarantee that the business in question has a renewable future beforehand — no feasibility studies are undertaken. Nevertheless, investors are jumping on this bandwagon in great amounts, providing this tendency increasing momentum.

Gnosis, the decentralized prediction marketplace platform, increased Over $12.5 million at a Dutch token offering in just 15 minutes. Investors rushed to obtain Gnosis tokens (worth 250,000 Ether), which subsequently had the project valued at a whopping $300 million almost immediately. Money has been set down, not for the final product, but for a forecast, which was sufficient to kick-start the plan.

It has amassed over $1.3 billion to date this season for tech start-ups. In fact, in a number of the offerings, demand surpassed the amount of tokens available.

ICOs Happen in an intangible network, where cash is created, exchanged, and disposed of in the cloud. Cryptocurrencies are not anything more than a fixed variety of entries in a database which exist on a peer-to-peer digital money system, which is decentralized. These transactional entries are made and saved in blockchain engineering, with encryption methods being used to restrict the production of financial transfers and units. They are transactions that are initiated, accepted, confirmed, and shared by a community of peers at the ‘crypto-world.’

Start-ups interested in an ICO may create their own Cryptocurrency utilizing protocols such as Ethereum, Counterparty, or Openledger, and establish a value dependent on the amount of money a job is required to deliver to achieve the roadmap outlined in its whitepaper. This post is like a mini pattern that summarizes the project (what it’s about, what its objectives are, its conclusion milestones, the amount of funds required, the duration of the campaign, and the kind of money okay), providing a prospectus into the market to create interest. The secret is getting the people to like and believe in the thought, even though nothing yet exists in real form to show its feasibility or potential prospects. People worldwide are then able to buy the newly made tokens in exchange for established cryptocurrencies, such as Ether (ETH) or Bitcoins (BTC).

Interested investors may open their accounts on electronic currency exchange platforms and begin trading BTC and ETH for a variety of tokens for new projects. ICOs normally persist for a week or so, during which the price of the token fluctuates according to the arrangement set up from the issuers. For instance, the price can remain static to achieve a specific goal or financing goal for your undertaking. However, issuers might want to match the static provide with dynamic pricing, where the price of tokens increases in tandem with the amount of financing received. A third model might have a static cost set with a dynamic supply — for instance, where the worth of ETH 1 is set upon the inception of a token. This will continue until the startup reaches its funding target.

Read more about Blockchain and how can it change our lives.

ICOs can involve multiple rounds of fundraising, together with the this incentives investors to place their money in as early as possible to reap the maximum benefit.

Tokens do not give investors any ownership rights or asset claims. Rather, they behave as bearer instruments, providing users rights about the particular project itself, not to the company that’s launching the project. While owning the tokens doesn’t entitle their holders to vote on the direction of this job, these rights are embedded within the ICO itself, in which engaging investors give input throughout the project’s lifespan. Users may be paid for a right prediction or to receive the content they contribute through a proposal. Investors get involved in these types of actions in anticipation that the value of tokens belonging to successful projects will grow drastically, generating a greater yield on their investments.

There’s no doubt that ICOs have become highly popular, not Just with fintech start-ups, but with individuals from all walks of life. They look ideal for anybody who would like to raise capital quickly for an idea. There are a variety of motives for this. Mainly, it is the speed at which money could be raised to get a project that exists solely as a vision — that in contrast to VC financing, where shareholders will run greater examination on the direction dynamics, market size, potential dangers etc.. The simple fact that this is largely an unregulated field also make ICOs attractive in terms of there being few or no duties and costs for compliance. For example, ICOs provide their issuers with numerous rounds of fundraising, with few (if any) intermediaries. These token earnings are likewise not subject to direct taxation, with shareholders being liable to cover only capital gains taxation, depending upon the jurisdiction. What makes this process much more appealing is the ease with which cryptocurrency tokens can be made, used in trades, and traded thanks to technological growth. Issuers might no longer need to mine with complicated codes to use this kind of funding.

But entrepreneurs are not the only winners. Investors also Enjoy taking part in ICOs for a variety of factors. This includes the opportunity to create enormous profits, which may be seen by the huge yields in 2016 from Monero and NEM start-ups. ICOs also offer greater liquidity, which isn’t readily accessible VC funding where exit options may be minimal. Here, profits could be pulled out easily by converting cryptocurrencies into Bitcoins or Ether, and then into fiat money. Platforms such as Coinbase, Kraken, Poloniex, and Yunbi allow investors to market their electronic riches and obtain quick returns on investments as costs vary drastically through the day.

$25 million using its ICO. While the company had already raised $20 million from traditional VCs, additionally, it raised capital through tokens for its product Omise Go — a decentralized payment system that allows users to share money without having to deal with maintaining a bank account and incurring support or cross-border charges. Omise Go’s initial services will go live from Q4 of 2017, where nominal holders can earn money by being a part of the network.

The ICO marketplace has grown at an exponential rate over the Past couple of months. The risk that this might be another bubble, like the dotcom Crash in 2000, has generated unease. Regulators particularly believe that such a highly open market is more likely to extreme volatility. It’s a dynamic place, where numerous tokens could be made and filtered out every day. Too much need by investors (due to speculation) can lead to tragedy. The rapid development Of ICOs as a source of financing is exciting but the sustainability of ICOs and Cryptocurrencies as a whole has yet to be proven.

Free version of Algorithmic Trading Platform for retail investors

We have just released beta of Empirica – Algorithmic Trading Paltform for retail investors! It’s lifetime free for development, testing and optimizing of trading algorithms.

Our development team (exactly this team who implemented the entire system) also provides full support in algorithms development as well as connectivity to brokers. If you need help just contact us.

Among many features what is unique is our exchange simulation where you can influence market conditions under which you test your algorithms. No others software offers such a realistic level of simulation.

In paid versions we offer the execution of algorithms in robust server side architecture.

Download free version of Trade Pad at www.empirica.io. We strive for your feedback!

Algorithmic Trading Software

How traditional asset managers GO ROBO. Omni-channel advice and hybrid-robos.

As the robo-advice industry grows it is attracting the attention of traditional asset management firms. These companies want to offer what their clients need — easy money management — while at the exact same time attract more funds to manage. Today they may be losing assets to the startup robo-advisor firms. Last year, Fidelity Investments, Charles Schwab Corp. and The Vanguard Group have either created their own digital services unit or partnered with an existing robo business. We are sure the other large firms will join the trend.

After the great success of robo advisors launched by Ameritrade, Vanguard or Charles Schwab the main question for traditional financial advisors is not ‘if to invest’ in new robo-technology but ‘how to bridge the gap’.

robo-advisors-chart

Traditional financial advisors decide on a hybrid model

Following in the footsteps of the stand-alone digital robo-advisor is a hybrid model, combining both automated and traditional human services. The model offers a live company-employed financial advisor in combination with online automated services in areas such as asset allocation and rebalancing.

Hybrid Robos = Combining Human and Automated Wealth Advice

The report by My Private Banking Research projects a robust future for the hybrid model of the robo-advisor. The research implies that the hybrid models will grow to $3.7 trillion assets world-wide by 2020 and $16.3 trillion by 2025, 10% of all investable worldwide assets.

robo_advisor_digitalization2

The main expectation for robo-advisors is to utilize more human-like interfaces and features, and for human advisors to adopt more robo-advisor-like features.

See our Robo-Advisor Software:

See our Robo Advisor Software

Who is moving FinTech forward in continental Europe? Thoughts after FinTech Forum on Tour.

By Michal Rozanski, CEO at Empirica.

In the very centre of Canary Wharf, London’s financial district, in a brand new EY building, a very interesting FinTech conference took place – FinTech Forum on Tour. The invitation-only conference targeted the most interesting startups from the investment area (InvestTech) from mainland Europe. The event had representative stakeholders from the entire financial ecosystem. As Efi Pylarinou noted – the regulator, the incumbents, the insurgents, and investors, were all represented.

 

Empirica was invited to present its flagship product – Algorithmic Trading Platform, which is a tool professional investors use for building, testing and executing of algorithmic strategies. However, it was amazing to see what is happening in other areas of the investment industry. There were a lot of interesting presentations of companies transforming the FinTech industry in the areas of asset and wealth management, social trading and analytics.

 

The conference was opened with a keynote speech by Anna Wallace from FCA. Anna talked about the mission of FCA’s Innovation Hub; that is to promote innovation and competition in the financial technology field and to ensure that rules and regulations are respected. Whilst listening to Anna it became clear to me what the real advantage of London holds in the race to become the global FinTech capital – London has Wall Street, Silicon Valley and the Government in one place – and what’s most important, they cooperate trying to push things forward in one direction.

 

FinTech Forum on Tour

 

Robo-advisory

A short look at the companies presenting themselves at the event leads to the conclusion that the hottest sector of FinTech right now is robo-advisory. It’s so hot, that one of the panellists noted it’s getting harder and harder to differentiate for robo-advisory startups. On FinTech on Tour this sector was represented by AdviseOnly from Italy, In2experience,  Niiio, Vaamo and Fincite – all from Germany. Ralf Heim from Fincite presented an interesting toolkit ‘algo as a service’ and white label robo-advisory solutions. Marko Modsching from niiio revealed the motivation of retail customers, that “they do not want to be rich, they do not want to be poor”. Scalable Capital stressed the role of risk management in its offering of robo advisory services.

 

Social analysis/Sentiment/ Big Data

The social or sentiment analysis area, keeps growing and gains traction. Every day there’s more data and more trust in the results of backtesting as that data builds up over the years. The social media space is gaining ground. Investment funds as well as FinTech startups are finding new ways to use sentiment data for trading. And, it’s inseparably related with the analysis of huge amounts of data, so technically the systems behind it? are not trivial.

Anders Bally gave an interesting presentation about how to deal with sentiment data and showed  how his company Sentifi is identifying and ranking financial market influencers in social channels, and what they discuss.

Sentitrade showed its sentiment engine for opinion mining that is using proprietary sentiment indicator and trend reversal signals. Sentitrade is concentrated on German-speaking markets.

 

Asset management

From the area of asset management an interesting pitch was given by Cashboard, offering alternative asset classes and preparing now for a  huge TV marketing campaign . StockPluse showed how to combine information derived from social networks and base investment decisions on the overall sentiment. United Signals allows for social investing by making it possible to trade by copying transactions of chosen trading gurus with a proven track record, all in an automated way. And, finally BondIT, an Israeli company, presented tools for fixed income portfolio construction, optimization and rebalancing with use of algorithms.

 

Bitcoin and Blockchain

An interesting remark was given   by one of the panelist: ‘we have nearly scratched the surface for what blockchain technology can be applied to in financial industry’. Looking at the latest news reports that are saying that big financial institutions are heavily investing in blockchain startups and their own research in this field, there is definitely something in it.

A company from this sector of FinTech – Crypto Facilities, represented by its CEO Timo Schaefer, showed  the functionalities of its bitcoin derivatives trading platform.

 

Other fields

Hervé Bonazzi, CEO of Scaled Risk, presented its technologically advanced Big Data platform for financial institutions for risk management, compliance, analytics and fraud detection. Using Hadoop under the hood and low latency processing. Ambitious as it sounds.

Analysis of financial data for company  valuations, Valutico presented a tool that’s using big data, AI and swarm intelligence. Dorothee Fuhrmann from Prophis Technologies (UK) presented a generic tool for financial institutions to derive value and insights from data, interestingly describing indirect exposures and a hidden transmission mechanism.

Stephen Dubois showed  what Xignite (US) has to offer to financial institutions and other FinTech startups in the area of real-time and historical data that is stored in the cloud and accessible by proprietary API.

 Qumram, in an energetic presentation delivered by Mathias Wegmueller, described technology for recording online sessions on web, mobile and social channels, allowing for the analysis of user behaviour and strengthening internal security policy.

 

Conclusion

London is the place to be for FinTech startups. No city in Europe gives such possibilities. Tax deductions for investors. Direct help from the UK regulator FCA. Great choice of incubators and bootcamps for startups. No place gives such a kick. Maybe Silicon Valley is the best place for finding investor for a startup, maybe the Wall Street is the centre of the financial world, but London is the place that combines both the tech and the finance. It has a real chance of becoming the FinTech capital of the world.

 

About organizators

The people responsible for creating both a great and professional atmosphere at the event were Samarth Shekhar and Michael Mellinghoff. Michael was a great mentor of mine who transformed my pitch from a long and quite boring list of functionalities of our product to something that was bearable for the audience. Michael let me thank you once more for the time and energy you have devoted to Empirica’s pitch!

 

And because the FinTech scene in our region is not well organized yet, I sincerely advise all FinTech startups from Central and Eastern Europe to attend cyclic events of FinTech Forum in Frankfurt organized by Techfluence professionals!

 
Read about our Lessons learned from FinTech software projects.

 

 

FinTech Companies

 

 

 

Ethereum Becoming the New Platform for Startups

Why is Ethereum bringing so many new startup businesses? Is Ethereum Becoming the New Platform for Startups?
The recent rise in value of Ethereum has flipped it to more than a billion dollar capitalization and next just to Bitcoin. Its worth is more than four occasions the worth of the third place crypto-currency, XRP. .

Ethereum was produced by Vitalik Buterin, a college dropout who although enthusiased from the potential for Bitcoin, felt that there may be a much better stage. Buterin, that has been compared to Steve Jobs, feels that his invention gives a strong platform for others to develop on and produce strong applications.

Buterin recently released his first production-ready version of Ethereum but even before this release, there had been a rush of startups to utilize the open platform and create blockchain based companies for new services and products, or to encouraging their existing companies.

“We’ve seen Microsoft and IBM doing projects on Ethereum. There’s a lot of coders. It’s fascinating to see something you were in on in the early phases growing and bearing fruit,” Anthony Di Iorio, one of Ethereum’s founders and a Chief Digital Officer at the Toronto Stock Exchange, said in an interview.

In 2015, there was a rush of venture capital into Bitcoin and Blockchain companies. This season, the potential and impact for Ethereum is seeing venture cash coming in especially targeted to Ethereum based startups.

Two leading venture capital companies, Boost VC, along with Blockchain Capital, are both taking a closer look at Ethereum companies.

Boost VC is obviously signaling their interest in Ethereum companies by stressing the cohesiveness of the developers and the powerful leadership exhibited by Buterin. Brock Pierce, founder of Blockchain Capital indicates that his firm is currently looking past Bitcoin for startups this year, stating, “you are likely to see that the usage of different blockchains beyond Bitcoin, such as these permissioned ledgers that a whole lot of financial institutions are interested in, but also even other people blockchains like Ethereum.”

One startup that has many people excited is Augur, that is constructing a prediction modeling system that is made on Ethereum.

Venture money is also moving towards Ethereum mining pools such as BTCS. Charles Allen, CEO of bitcoin mining outfit BTCS, noted that his firm recently constructed custom Ethereum mining rigs as part of a pilot program due to the escalating cost of ether.

Among the top crowdfunding sites for Blockchain related ventures is BnktotheFuture, which has helped to fund companies such as Factom and Bitpay, recently raised money for an Ether mining finance.

The billion dollar capitalization of Ethereum has clearly increased its profile and possibility of its currency, Ether as a powerful form of currency and investment.

We are guaranteed to see different startups and companies that will recognize this fact and provide investing abilities to exploit the possibility of Ether as a currency.

The growth and interest in Ethereum is making it clear that the conversation about cryptocurrencies can no more be limited to Bitcoin. As more startups and cash continue to chase the potential of Ethereum it is imperative that anybody following the electronic currency space needs to keep up to date to what is going on with Ethereum.

Ethereum is a open-source, public, blockchain-established distributed computing platform comprising intelligent contract (scripting) functionality. Ethereum additionally supplies a cryptocurrency token known as “ether”, which is transferred between accounts and utilized to compensate participant nodes for computations performed. “Gas”, an internal trade pricing mechanism, is utilized to mitigate spam and allocate resources on the network.