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THE MONTH IN NUMBERS
The month in numbers…
$290 MILLION…VC firms backed blockchain tech and Bitcoin companies to the tune of $290 million in
the first six months of the year, with over 30 startups receiving funding. According to Juniper Research, more than a third of the cash went to three companies: Circle – a social payment provider; Blockstream – a sidechain developer; Digital Asset Holdings – the distributed ledger solutions provider fronted by former JP Morgan Chase executive Blythe Masters.
$72 MILLION…The majority of major banks are still concerned about distributed ledger technology security,
according to a new Greenwich Associates report. The theft of some $72 million in Bitcoins by hackers from Hong Kong-based exchange Bitfinex and other recent high profile blockchain breaches illustrate the serious questions facing the many companies working to bring blockchain technology to capital markets, it argues.
The report involves 134 market participants working on blockchain technology globally. While transaction confidentiality tops the list of concerns, the security of private keys is also seen as a major issue by a majority of respondents. “Private keys can be thought of as secret codes or passwords that prove ownership of digital assets. The recent hacking of the Bitfinex exchange has been attributed to lax security of these private keys,” says Richard Johnson, Vice President of Market Structure and Technology at Greenwich Associates and author of the report. “Proof-of-work consensus, as used in the Bitcoin blockchain, is generally viewed as inappropriate for financial services because of its high energy use, low throughput and slow verification times. Although there remains uncertainty regarding the most appropriate consensus algorithm, our research concluded that the industry is currently leaning toward a method known as Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT).”
£5.5 BILLION…Misys is plotting what would be the biggest London stock market float this year. The
banking software giant, which is owned by Vista Equity Partners, is planning a £5.5 billion initial public offering (IPO) and has appointed investment adviser Moelis to handle the float.
$9.62 BILLION… Investments in Asia-Pacific FinTechs reached $9.62 billion as of 31st July, compared to $4.26 billion for the whole of 2015, according to Accenture analysis of CB Insights data. Asia-Pacific has eclipsed North America, which as of 31st July garnered $4.58 billion in FinTech investments; it also tops Europe, which attracted $1.85 billion in the
www.ibsintelligence.com © IBS Intelligence 2016
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