In the last couple of days, a bitcoin news item revealed that the blockchain-based Blockstream brought in $55 million (Series A funding) in its funding run. This amount has raised the total capital to as much as $76 million and it is reported that the infusion of funds will aid the development of the company’s sidechain technology. The bitcoin news release also corroborated the fact that the seed funding round of the company raised $21 million.
Some of the companies that led the second round of funding were AXA Strategic Ventures which is the venture capital division of Europe based AXA Group, Horizons Ventures (Hong Kong), and Digital Garage (Japan). Other companies in the fray include existing investors such as Khosla Ventures, Mosaic Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures, etc. Horizons Ventures will also be given a seat in the San-Francisco based company as part of the deal. The new funds are also going to be used for global expansion and support to partners in the industry, according to reports.
Bitcoin News – Blockstream Liquid Sidechain
According to the bitcoin news report, the funds will used as an investment to bring in the next-generation blockchain technology to the existing market. Blockstream was founded by Austin Hill and deals mainly with distributed systems, cryptography and game theory. The company’s technology innovations center on sidechains or ledgers are still connected to the bitcoin. The sidechain technology provides users with the facility to create independent platforms that have access to the bitcoin blockchain.
The Blockstream sidechains are being viewed as a key link that will improve the cross-functionality between private and public blockchains and the bitcoin blockchains, the bitcoin news report noted. The first bitcoin sidechain (created by Blockstream) to be announced was Liquid. This product is being developed to bring safe, secure and instantaneous transactions to participating brokerages and other payment processors. Blockstream builds the Liquid sidechain for subscribers. They are charged a fee for usage of the sidechain.
Exchanges have been known to experience difficulties to transfer funds quickly and securely. These have tended to reduce the capital efficiency and market liquidity on many occasions. It is also likely to be used by licensed exchanges and major traders across the world. Primarily, Liquid is designed as an interoperable and interchange settlement service for exchanges and brokerages that use bitcoins.
Liquid is also expected to increase transaction speeds for traders and exchanges. The Liquid sidechain helps to extend the bitcoin blockchain in addition to providing a cryptographically strong privacy component that work well for commercial transactions. It is likely to be released later in this year according to bitcoin news reports.
In this connection, the bitcoin news report also pointed to the fact that Blockstream has announced yet another strategic partnership with PwC (a services firm) that would help to set up and deploy blockchain and sidechain technology services to companies spanning the globe. Liquid is seen as the forerunner for the design of other sidechains that would be used in other sectors of the economy.
In the recent times, bitcoin news reports have appeared regarding endorsements and investments that have been offered for private distributed sidechains which have emerged as spinoffs from blockchains. Institutions including governments, financial firms, stock exchanges, and banks have invested in interoperable blockchains and sidechains that improve the stability, security, liquidity, functionality and speed of bitcoin transactions.
Blockstream looks forward to moving the blockchain technology to the next level by earmarking funds that have been collected now. Other technological developments that would help to strengthen the bitcoin currency are under consideration, according to bitcoin news reports. Better protocol performance is being keenly researched into, company sources added.
Bitcoin News – What Are Blockchains
The blockchain is a defined as a public ledger that contains all the transactions that have ever been carried out using bitcoins. This public ledger keeps growing in size with the addition of new blocks in a chronological manner. Any computer that is a member of the bitcoin network receives a downloaded copy of the blockchain as soon as it becomes a member of the network. The blockchain usually has complete information as regards the individual addresses as well as the current bitcoin balances up to the most recently completed block starting from the genesis block.
A recent bit of interesting bitcoin news also noted that the NASDAQ Stock Exchange had used the blockchain technology to issue securities to a private investor. The decentralized ledger that was used removed the need for a clearing house to effect the transaction.
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