Expect to see more pivots of bitcoin companies in 2015 to Blockchain usecases
With the price of bitcoin continuing to crater, Silicon Valley-based crypto-mining outfit PeerNova has raised $8.6 million in funding to refocus its business on blockchain-based enterprise products. Bitcoin valuations are currently hovering dangerously near the sub-$300 mark, raising doubts about the long-term viability of the asset as an alternative currency. The heavily-hyped crypto-currency has descended from a bubble-high of $1000+ in December 2013, making it possibly the worst investment of 2014 across a range of comparable asset classes. With this in mind, bitcoin startups and VCs backing the currency are turning their attention to the distributed ledger blockchain technology underpinning bitcoin as a safer investment bet. It enables new classes of secure financial asset transfer and asset registry applications that do not need trusted third parties and intermediaries, thereby reducing transaction costs significantly.
http://www.finextra.com/news/fullstory.aspx?newsitemid=26838
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