Unicorns and Investors Target Blockchain

Rage Comment : Apparently, the acquisition of ChangeTip by Airbnb, a travel accommodation service platform, surprised the Bitcoin community, because these unicorn companies have always been very cautious about blockchain technology. However, it can be seen from this that instead of using existing blockchain applications, many companies choose to develop related applications on their own; therefore, we can clearly see that exploration activities have begun to shift from Bitcoin to blockchain.

Translation: Annie_Xu

Although blockchain technology can improve the quality of products and services, it has some limitations; therefore, unicorn startups such as Airbnb are cautious in applying technology (companies with a valuation of more than US$1 billion and a relatively short founding time are called unicorns.

It is still difficult to predict the reasons for the growing interest of "unicorn" startups in blockchain.

Because of the potential of blockchain technology, companies and startups have spontaneously set up blockchain research and development teams; using smart contracts to build their own decentralized peer-to-peer currencies, or using the blockchain network's immutable data and information.

Airbnb and ChangeTip

The multi-billion dollar accommodation platform startup Airbnb recently acquired a talent pool from ChangeTip, a bitcoin-based micropayments service provider.

The talent acquisition came as a surprise to Bitcoin enthusiasts, with the Airbnb team stressing that it only hired all of ChangeTip’s employees except for the Bitcoin developers.

Previously, more and more Bitcoin enthusiasts questioned the possibility of Airbnb providing users with Bitcoin payment methods.

However, the Bitcoin community’s speculation was quickly overturned by the Airbnb team.

Network operation support

Airbnb’s acquisition of ChangeTip’s talent clearly shows that corporate exploration is shifting from Bitcoin to blockchain technology.

More and more enterprises, companies and investors are ambitiously building their own permissioned blockchain networks in order to provide services and products more efficiently; or develop unique altcoins to support network operations.

What began as an experimental project at a Wall Street bank has gradually become a worldwide phenomenon, with large startups and corporations around the world joining the technological exploration movement.