The cryptocurrency
markets may continue to fluctuate, but the startup scene for those exploring
and integrating blockchain technologies continues to thrive. Cambridge
Blockchain, Lucid Sight, Harmony and Liquid.com are four such companies who in
the past week alone have secured vital VC funding.
Massachusetts-based digital identity enterprise software provider Cambridge Blockchain has been joined by PayPal in its series A funding round. As part of this investment, both companies will explore potential collaborations to utilise blockchain technology. Blockchain-based solutions developed by the company are capable of delivering strong digital identities at a greater scale, along with meeting stricter data privacy obligations internationally.
Cambridge Blockchain
has expertise in designing software systems to share identity data across
European financial institutions.
California-based games
developer Lucid Sight is expanding its blockchain-based MLB Champions and
Crypto Space Commander games to traditional gaming platforms. The main idea
behind this shift is to bring the blockchain games to mobile, PC and console
platforms. For this expansion, the company will use $6m it raised from a
funding round. It has accumulated $11m in funding.
Lucid Sight will also
introduce its new software developer tool, called Scarcity Engine, which will
help connect blockchain technology and traditional gaming platforms. The
current MLB Champions and CSC games are powered by Security Engine.
Randy Saaf, CEO of
Lucid Sight, said: “This capital will allow us to bring games such as MLB
Champions and CSC to the masses while maintaining the benefits of digital
scarcity provided by blockchain technology. We have found that game players
enjoy digital ownership in our games, but users want to be able to game where
they traditionally game: mobile, PC, and console.”
Another Californian blockchain startup, named Harmony, has raised $18m in its token pre-sale. Lemniscap VC, BCA Fund, UniValues Associates, and Consensus Capital, were the investors that helped raise funds for Harmony.
The sale was the only way to get the funding compliant to Harmony’s “long-term vision…to create a decentralised protocol”, said a company co-founder. Reports suggest that the company is planning to launch with a pre-mine of 12.6 billion tokens. Over 2.8 billion tokens have been bought by the investors as of now. The remaining tokens could be used as incentives to early adopters of the Harmony blockchain, which has been built to support decentralised apps built for Ethereum.
The Harmony blockchain uses deep sharding and promises a better experience to Ethereum, the company claimed.
Japan’s Liquid.com is another cryptocurrency platform that has closed an ongoing series C funding round where it raised over $1bn. This valuation enables Liquid.com to be one of the only two tech unicorns in the Japanese startup ecosystem.
Interested in hearing more about subjects like this? Find out more at the Blockchain Expo World Series , Global, Europe and North America
The post Why the blockchain funding scene remains ripe: Cambridge Blockchain, Lucid Sight, Harmony and more appeared first on The Block .
