3 Colorado Companies Building the Future of Blockchain

Photocredit Creative Commons

By Ali Correll

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Bitcoin. Dogecoin. CryptoKitties. The names of these unique forms of blockchain currency may be familiar, but the ever-growing uses of blockchain in the business world may not. The popularity of blockchain and blockchain currency is currently growing in the general public. Numerous companies have sprung up in its wake, offering services to assist in investing and spending the digital currencies supported by blockchain, but also to solve distinct problems that have grown as the internet expands.
 
What is blockchain, and how can something that's started a boom of exclusively online investing and buying be used in other areas of business? Simply put, blockchain is a decentralized digital ledger that operates as a communal spreadsheet between users. Blocks of data are saved across large networks of servers or personal computers, cutting out banks and other middlemen, all while keeping an accurate and hard to change record of every block's previous transactions.

Photocredit By Shivratan Rajvi, from Wikimedia Commons

This shared record keeping system is the revolutionary idea that is opening up a brand new world of opportunities in business, and companies such as Rebel AI, Colorado Blockchain Capital, and Radar Relay in Colorado have been quick to adapt to the new idea. WOD sat down with these three Colorado blockchain companies to talk about their roles in the quickly evolving blockchain world online, their company's outlook for the future of blockchain, and how women can become involved in it.
 

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Photocredit Rebel AI

Rebel AI

What do you do?
 
As the internet continues to expand in users, fraud has grown increasingly prevalent and has become harder to manage and prevent, including domain spoofing in digital advertising. This occurs when a fake or fraudulent company sells what appears to be high-price ad space that garners high viewing on a popular and often visited website. This ad space "is actually a low-value domain created for the purpose of siphoning ad dollars. Because there has been no security applied to ad transactions, this problem has been allowed to largely go un-checked and costs the industry billions of dollars per year," shared Lindsey Galloway of Rebel AI.
 
Rebel AI has created a blockchain solution in Colorado to help avoid this. "Rebel AI's Passport product protects publishers from this kind of "identity theft" by creating a digital signature for each publisher with cryptography. Advertisers use Passport to secure their ad spend by wrapping their ad creatives within a cryptographically secured envelope that contains the corresponding publisher keys. Only authenticated domains that have the keys to unlock encrypted campaigns can display the advertisement, eliminating domain spoofing and funneling dollars back to real publishers. We write the transactions to a distributed ledger to bring more visibility and transparency to digital advertising," Galloway explained.
 
What is the future of blockchain?
 
"Just as social media has transformed our lives and businesses, blockchain will change the way we work and live," Galloway replied, "Whether or not you're in the technology field, it's important to start understanding the components of blockchain (identity, consensus, and currency) and how they might play a part in our day-to-day lives."
 
How can women become involved in the world of blockchain?
 
"Learn what practical problems blockchain can solve (and is solving) and see how they can be applied in your current industry/field. Don't be intimidated by your level of knowledge, because the technology is so new, everyone is still in the learning process!" Galloway said. "Don't be afraid to ask questions and experiment with the tools/apps out there. Even something like CrytpoKitties taught me a lot about the mechanics of wallets, smart contracts and minor transaction fees, so take advantage of applied learning opportunities whenever you can and connect with other people who are innovating in the space." 

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Photocredit Colorado Blockchain Capital

Colorado Blockchain Capital​

What do you do?
 
Colorado Blockchain Capitol, LLC (CBC) is Colorado's first digital assets hedge fund, managing the Jagger Fund, LP, a long-only investment fund that focuses on infrastructure, protocol layers and platform tokens. 
 
"While each crypto-fund has a unique approach, the CBC thesis is more of a traditional [venture capital] -style fund that invests in blockchain-core infrastructure that would help scale the industry up," CBC spokesperson Alla Rubinstein shared, "Managing Partner, Josh Finkleman, is a thought leader in the space and has been personally trading since 2013. He brings a unique perspective as a payments expert. Josh has a proven track record of building successful start-ups and leveraging distressed assets for optimum returns and has an eye for capitalizing on upcoming trends within FinTech."
 
What is the future of blockchain?
 
"We feel that blockchain technology will be leveraged as a disintermediation tool across multiple industries to the point where the technology will become as ubiquitous as the internet," CBC explained. "We are interested in providing liquidity to those early-stage projects looking to legitimize and scale this space."
 
How can women become involved in the world of blockchain?
 
"About 20% of our Limited Partners are women who come from a variety of professional backgrounds including entrepreneurs, real estate professionals, business owners and partners," replied Rubinstein when asked.  
 
"We encourage more women to learn about this new asset class and participate in investment opportunities in blockchain. We frequently speak with women’s investment groups and actively participate in women's blockchain meetups to provide great exposure and education. If anyone would like to learn more about how to start investing in the space in general, we welcome them to contact us at ir@coloradoblockchaincapital.com."

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Radar Relay
 
What do you do?
 
"Radar Relay is a peer-to-peer trading platform for Ethereum-based crypto assets built on the 0x Protocol. Radar Relay operates an order book and relays orders between peers while never holding any assets in custody," Joe Roth of Radar Relay explained. "There are no accounts, deposits, or withdrawals. Simply plug in a Ledger or MetaMask wallet and trade over 150 ERC-20 tokens directly from your wallet."

What is the future of blockchain?
 “Blockchain will continue to give people control and autonomy. Whether it’s through applications like ours that allow you to maintain custody of your tokens when trading or future applications like tokenized homes and the broader global token economy. We look forward to this shift towards user autonomy and are excited to continue our mission of onboarding the world to the token economy.”

How can women become involved in the world of blockchain?

Radar Relay urges those that are interested in the uses of blockchain to explore it and become familiar with it. “There are many women in blockchain specific events that are a fantastic place to start getting involved. The whole blockchain space is very community driven and most people are happy to help however they can. Find some knowledgeable people through meetups or other events, start asking questions, and getting involved.”