Crypto start-ups link in to consumer needs

The US is full of thriving start-ups. According to LinkedIn, some of the most dominant seem to be crypto companies.

LinkedIn’s top 50 start-up list was spread over two parts in September. Eligibility for the list included a current lifespan of no more than seven years and an employee base of 50 or more.

Uber rival Lyft was named top start-up followed by low fat ice cream company Halo Top Creamery, a company that bills itself as having created: a dessert you can feel good about eating.

Coming in at number three was the first of the crypto companies: Coinbase. This six-year-old cryptocurrency wallet and vendor, holds over 20 million accounts, has 500 employees and is looking to double its manpower by the new year.

At number six is stock trading service Robinhood, which offers crypto trading, followed by Ripple, a blockchain-based banking platform that boasts Santander, RBC and American Express as clients.

Reports such as this: Ripple On The Rise: Cred Raises $50 Million to Lend Against XRP and this XRP (XRP) Adoption Is On the Rise, As Ripple Dominates Banking and Financial Industry would have you believe that Ripple is only getting stronger.

Other companies on the list include the Facebook scorned Winklevoss twins’ Gemini start-up, ethereum incubator Consensys and fintech firm, Axoni.

One Australian company that you won’t find on the list is IOT Group which has developed a web-based platform to provide customers with a means to mine crypto-currencies. The company today released the BETA version which you can find at www.cryptofreeway.com.

The platform is designed to provide customers with access to a global network of crypto-currency mining providers it has curated.

IOT’s web-based platform provides customers with access to these networks, through its simple to use web service. The networks own mining computers, known as rigs. These rigs perform the complex crypto mining operations on behalf of the customer, depositing coins mined into the customers’ digital wallets.

The BETA version of the web-based service offers eight packages available to customers.

“IOT’s Crypto Mining website service will generate great interest for customers that wish to be involved in the Blockchain and Crypto evolution,” said IOT founder Sean Neylon.

IOT intends to build on this service over the coming months by offering new Crypto Currencies to mine and to create a central hub of news and information for the Crypto-mining customer.

Essentially it is taking a customer-centric focus, which Tom Uhlhorn, founder of Melbourne based customer experience consultancy Tiny CX says is crucial for the survival of blockchain and crypto services.

Ulhorn says, “Purchasing and trading cryptocurrency can be a painful exercise and implementing Blockchain solutions to commercial problems boggles most minds. But if tokens and Blockchain brands don’t start to shift their short-term mindset, the technology is at risk of being placed into niche obscurity.

“The future of the Blockchain and cryptocurrency is uncertain, to say the least. If history is anything to go by, we may see an eventual collapse in the utility of the technology as we know it if it is unable to offer adequate value to the market.”

Ulhorn says that companies working in the blockchain and crypto space need to change their mindset.

“The Blockchain community doesn’t attract enough diversity in either background or talent and, as such, can be very limited in what uses it is applied to. This has led to many Blockchain brands doing the same thing in terms of branding, user experience, and USPs, putting the industry at risk of commoditisation before it’s even had the chance to mature.

A large reason for this is that brands are too focused on the technology and how they can monetise it quickly, as opposed to looking at how the technology can create a truly unique and valuable customer experience.

“We need to focus on the impact we can make to people's lives using Blockchain, and not just what the features of the technology are.”

Those start-ups, and even more established companies, looking to move into blockchain would do well to heed Ulhorn’s words, as IOT seem to have done.