The concept of blockchain is a fairly recent trend, with only 0.5% of the world’s population utilizing the technology as of 2017. For those of you who may not know how to define blockchain technology, it is known as a digital ledger stored in a distributed network recording anything from financial transactions to physical assets and works as a base for digital currency, like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Despite having a small universal following, the global blockchain technology market has been growing significantly, in 2017 it was predicted at 339.5 million US dollars and by 2021 it is expected to reach $2.3 billion.
Recently, Canada has been making waves in the blockchain technology market by providing trusted transaction methods. We thought it would be important to highlight the country’s most lucrative blockchain startups which offer platforms for buying, converting, sending and receiving cryptocurrency, providing secure global transactions, blockchain investments, digital asset management and an educational blockchain tutorial platform.
1. CryptoKitties: A Blockchain Game
According to the team: “Fun and entertainment drive mainstream adoption of every new platform. CryptoKitties will bring the first billion users into the decentralized web via gaming, collectables, and trustful commerce. We will bridge the promise of blockchain technology and philosophy from early adopters to the mainstream. In its first two weeks, CryptoKitties became the most-used application on the Ethereum blockchain, processing tens of millions of dollars in Kitty transactions. CryptoKitties was created by Axiom Zen, the authors of ERC-721, the standard for non-fungible tokens on the blockchain.”
Location: Vancouver
Employees: 11 – 50
Website
Angel List Profile
2. Bitbuy: Buy, Send and Receive Cryptocurrency
According to the team: “As Bitcoin and Digital Currency continue to expand into businesses as disruptive alternative payment methods across the globe, Bitbuy.ca is going to be a leader in providing and making Bitcoin and Ethereum more accessible to new and existing users. Bitbuy.ca allows customers to buy, send and receive Bitcoins and Cryptocurrency. Canadians need a trustworthy platform that offers a variety of digital currencies, security, convenient funding options, and unmatched customer service. In all these areas, Bitbuy.ca delivers.”
Location: Toronto
Employees: 11 – 50
Website
Angel List Profile
3. Balance: Converting Money Into Digital Currencies
According to the team: “Balance is the safest way to buy a mix of digital currencies. For a one time fixed setup fee, we’ll convert your money into any mix of our carefully curated set of digital currencies in any proportions you’d like. You don’t have to worry about creating digital wallets and working with unverified exchanges. Our proprietary platform manages all of that for you through what we call a Digital Assets Cache™. Don’t want to have anything to do with the tedious technical process? For a small monthly fee, we’ll take care of everything for you. We’ll keep digital assets safe and away from hackers in our deep cold storage which features military-grade security. We can also redeem it for you and wire you the money if you decide you’re too old to be part of the digital currency revolution.”
Location: Toronto
Employees: 1 – 10
Website
Angel List Profile
4. Bidali: Secure Transactions on a Global Scale
According to the team: “We’re creating the tools to power a safer, more inclusive global financial system. At Bidali we’re re-imagining commerce. Using Blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies we’re empowering people to transact on a global scale in more open, secure, and efficient way. The blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies lower the cost to transact and streamline the payment process by providing a secure, globally agreed upon settlement layer. We believe it’s this technology that is going to ensure banking and commerce becomes a human right and gives you more control over your own finances. We’re building the products that allow people to leverage this technology.”
Location: Calgary
Employees: 1 – 10
Website
Angel List Profile
5. ShakePay: Making it Easy to Buy Bitcoin
According to the team: “Shakepay is making it super easy for Canadians to buy bitcoin and send/request monies from their friends. We’re a tight-knit team of fierce warriors taking on the old, decaying banking infrastructure head-on, growing 60% month-over-month. Shakepay is licensed as a Money Service Business by FINTRAC and the AMF to operate in all Canadian provinces and territories. The majority of all digital assets on Shakepay are stored securely offline. Send out your bitcoin to a wallet in your control. Send out your Canadian Dollars to your bank. In seconds.”
Location: Montreal
Employees: 1 – 10
Website
6. Finhaven: Blockchain Investment Banking Platform
According to the team: “Finhaven is a blockchain-powered issuance platform for programmable equity and debt securities. The platform makes it easier, less costly, and more secure to raise capital and issue programmable securities. Finhaven combines proprietary coding with smart contract execution to facilitate the issuance and trade of programmable securities in compliance with applicable securities laws. Finhaven was founded in Vancouver, Canada in 2017.”
Location: Vancouver
Employees: 11 – 50
Website
7. BlockGeeks: Blockchain Learning Platform
According to the team: “Blockgeeks is a leading online learning platform that helps anyone learn Blockchain. From our launch in Sep 2016, we have already scaled to over a million monthly visitors and have over 100,000 members daily. We are located in the heart of Toronto in a beautiful 6 thousand SQ foot headquarter and have one the best teams in the industry. Blockgeeks brings affordable technology education to people everywhere in order to help them achieve their dreams and change the world. Blockgeeks is more than just an edu-tech startup, we are a family a family that believes in a brighter future. A future where Blockchain technology helps the world. We’re changing the way the world learns, and we want you to be a part of it. Our mission at Blockgeeks is to teach over 10,000 developers a year in blockchain to accelerate the ecosystem.”
Location: Toronto
Employees: 1 – 10
Website
8. Timechain: Digital Asset Management
According to the team: “Timechain allows users to keep their cryptocurrencies in a secure cold wallet, while still being able to easily swap cryptocurrencies on the Timechain decentralized exchange with the push of a button. Timechain is a US/CAN compliant Wallet+Exchange, with a proprietary coin used to transact on the Timechain network at a much lower fee. We’ve surrounded ourselves with high profile advisors, like Charles Cao, CEO of Nebula AI who raised $10M USD in their ICO in March 2018. We’ve identified a clear legal path to do a compliant ICO in Canada, and part of it is to be a public company. One of our advisors has more than 16 years of experience running a Canadian exchange. He will be helping us to navigate this process. We’re also working on partnerships with financial institutions in the US that will allow us to get an MSB license to convert fiat to cryptocurrencies, and cryptocurrencies back to fiat.”
Location: Montreal
Employees: 1 – 10
Website
It is clear that with these innovative and original blockchain startup ideas, this market will continue to grow in popularity, becoming a more common method of executing transactions. Because we are an app development agency, we are always excited to hear about creative and inventive startups and share them with all of you! For other amazing Canadian startups in the food, education and healthcare markets please visit our blog page to read up on these ingenious ideas.
