Juniper Research: Bitcoin and blockchain industry investment reached $290 million in the first half of 2016

According to a survey by Juniper Research, venture capital in the blockchain and Bitcoin industry reached $290 million in the first half of 2016.

In the first half of 2016, more than 30 startups received investment, of which one-third of the funds went mainly to three companies: blockchain payment company Circle raised $60 million; sidechain development company Blockstream received $55 million in investment; and distributed ledger solution provider Digital Asset Holdings successfully received $52 million.

Banking sector embraces blockchain

Juniper Research said that the application scope of blockchain is becoming wider and wider, ranging from identity authentication to asset management, and its popularity is also increasing.

The banking industry has begun to accept blockchain technology, which is quite forward-looking for them. Six banking institutions, including Santander, UBS, CIBC, UniCredit, ATB Financial and ReiseBank, have joined Ripple's blockchain network. Currently, Ripple's blockchain network has successfully attracted 12 of the top 50 banks in the world.

The advantage of the blockchain system is that it reduces errors. It can save time for some error-checking processes (such as transaction settlement). In addition, in the field of cross-border remittances, blockchain technology can also provide low-cost services.

Challenges of Smart Contracts

In addition to some positive news, Juniper Research also issued a warning in the survey, reminding people to be careful when using smart contracts on blockchain platforms, because the vulnerabilities and errors in smart contracts are visible to everyone on all blockchains.

The DAO is a good example of this, where a smart contract vulnerability was exploited by a third party, and the community ultimately witnessed the attacker embezzling $80 million worth of digital currency.

Dr Windsor Holden, author of the report, said:

Blockchain technology has the potential to improve the speed, transparency, and security of operations in all industries, so we must rigorously test each specific use case before officially releasing it.