Chapter 2: Blockchain.com
Blockchain.com, formerly known as Blockchain.info, is a corporation that provides financial services related to cryptocurrencies. The business was initially established in 2011 as the first Bitcoin blockchain explorer. Subsequently, it developed a cryptocurrency wallet that was responsible for 28 percent of all bitcoin transactions that took place between the years 2012 and 2020. Additionally, it handles the operation of a cryptocurrency exchange and offers a loan company to institutional markets in addition to data, charts, and analytics.
The corporation known as Blockchain.com is non-public. Peter Smith, one of the company's three founders, continues to serve as the company's CEO. Smith, Nicolas Cary, Antony Jenkins, Jim Messina, a former deputy chief of staff for Barack Obama, and Jeremy Liew, a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners are some of the individuals who serve on the board of directors of the company.
The amount of venture capital money that the company was able to secure was a total of $190 million between the years 2012 and February 2021. In March of 2021, it was successful in acquiring an additional investment of $300 million. There are a number of investors in the company, including partners from DST Global, Lightspeed Venture Partners, VY Capital, GV, Baillie Gifford, Lakestar, Eldridge, Kyle Bass, Access Industries, Moore Strategic Ventures, and Rovida Advisors.
Ben Reeves took the initiative to launch Blockchain.info in the year 2011. He introduced a website that might be utilized for the purpose of monitoring bitcoin transactions. The website was a block explorer, which means that it enabled users of bitcoin to view the specifics of public cryptocurrency transactions provided that they possessed the hash code that was used to identify the transaction.
The application for the summer class at Y Combinator was submitted by Reeves and Brian Armstrong, who was the co-founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, at the beginning of 2012. A payment platform for bitcoin was proposed by them. This platform would allow users to store a digital wallet, exchange other currencies for bitcoins for a percentage fee, and make payments using bitcoin. Before attending Y Combinator, they decided to go their separate ways since they held opposing viewpoints. While Armstrong was of the opinion that the platform should maintain custody of the users' wallets, Reeves had the inclination to develop a platform that would allow consumers to exercise control over who might access their bitcoin information. Reeves continued to work on Blockchain.info after he had parted ways with Armstrong to pursue other opportunities.
Between the years 2013 and 2014, the number of people using Blockchain increased from 100,000 wallet users at the beginning of 2013 to 1.5 million in April of 2014. By 2014, Blockchain.com had become the most widely used bitcoin wallet, and Nicolas Cary served as the company's chief executive officer. The company had acquired two companies, ZeroBlock in 2013 and RTBTC in early 2014, through which it added data analytics capabilities and brought these services together under one banner. Both of these acquisitions took place in 2013. A mobile application for determining the price of bitcoin was purchased by Blockchain.com in December of 2013. The year after that, it made the acquisition of the data analytics platform known as RTBTC. The technology of RTBTC was merged with the company's existing services, resulting in the establishment of a single platform that provides cryptocurrency wallets, pricing and analytics, as well as the cryptocurrency explorer.
The Blockchain.com app was pulled from the iOS App Store by Apple Inc. in February of 2014. This action sparked a public outrage among the bitcoin community, particularly within the Reddit community within the cryptocurrency industry. As a result of Apple's decision to remove or deny access to other applications, it was the only bitcoin wallet app that was accessible to Apple users at the time. A reintroduction of the Blockchain.com app by Apple occurred in July of 2014.
In 2014, Peter Smith became a member of the founding team and assumed the role of CEO. After receiving early money from bitcoin investor Roger Ver, the three founders, Reeves, Cary, and Smith, worked from Reeves' flat in York. The company was formally created shortly after Roger Ver supplied the funding. It had 2.3 million customer wallets by October 2014, and it had raised $30.5 million in its first external financing round. Some of the investors who participated in the round included Lightspeed Venture Partners and Mosaic Ventures of the United States. At the time, this was the most significant round of financing that had ever been done in the digital currency industry. One of the "Technology Pioneers" for the year 2016, the company was recognized by the World Economic Forum. An additional round of funding was carried out by the company in the year 2017. In the month of June, it successfully raised $40 million in finance, and the company was valued at $280 million at the time.
In the year 2018, Blockchain began offering services for the cryptocurrency industry's institutional investors. The cryptocurrency exchange developed by Blockchain.com was introduced in July 2019, and the company marketed it as being faster than existing exchanges. The organization became a member of the Coalition for App Fairness in September of 2020. The coalition's primary objective is to negotiate for improved terms regarding the inclusion of applications in app stores. Over the course of the middle of 2018, the company purchased Tsukemen, a San Francisco-based startup company that specializes in app development.
There were 31 million customers of the company in the year 2020, and as of the year 2021, there were 65 million wallets on Blockchain.com. Furthermore, a Blockchain.com wallet was responsible for initiating or receiving 28 percent of all bitcoin transactions that have occurred since 2012. Moore Strategic Ventures, Kyle Bass, Access Industries, Rovida Advisors, Lightspeed Venture Partners, GV, Lakestar, and Eldridge were among the investors who contributed to Blockchain.com's investment round, which was estimated to be worth 120 million dollars and was completed in February of 2021. All things considered, the company had amassed a total of $190 million in funding, which included earlier rounds of venture capital funding. After a month had passed, the corporation made the announcement of an additional financing round of $300 million. A hundred million dollars was invested by the financial firm Baillie Gifford, which contributed one-third of the total cash that was raised. According to the results of the financing round, the company was estimated to be worth $5.2 billion.
The Chief Executive Officer of Blockchain.com addressed a letter to the company's shareholders in 2022, alerting them that the imminent insolvency of Three Arrows Capital would result in a default impact of about $270 million worth of cryptocurrency and US dollar loans to Blockchain.com for the company. On July 21, the company terminated the employment of around 150 employees, which is equivalent to 25% of its workforce.
In its capacity as a cryptocurrency startup, Blockchain.com offers a platform that enables users to store, use, and manage bitcoin assets, as well as investigate cryptocurrency transactions. In addition to this, it creates standards for financial services and infrastructure for cryptocurrency networks. Market data and analytics are provided via the platform that the organization offers. It adheres to the goals of bitcoin, which are to be decentralized and anonymous; some of its cryptocurrency goods are controlled by the end user and are not accessible by Blockchain.com itself.
Products like as its bitcoin wallet, exchange, block explorer, and service for institutional markets are the company's primary offerings.
It is possible to store cryptocurrency in a digital file that can be accessed online through the use of a hosted cryptocurrency wallet, which is a service that the company provides. Several different cryptocurrencies and stablecoins can be stored in the wallet at the same time. Transactions involving digital money can be sent and received through its wallets, and users can also trade between other cryptocurrencies using these wallets. The wallet that Blockchain.com offers is a non-custodial wallet, which means that the user possesses full control over it and the company does not have access to the information stored in the wallet. A private key, which is a recovery phrase that is only known to the user, is required for users to access their wallet.
If you want to transfer your digital assets into money or money into digital assets, a cryptocurrency exchange can help you do it easier. They function exactly like a stockbroker. The company provides its customers with the ability to purchase, sell, and trade cryptocurrencies through the use of an exchange. In addition, traders have the ability to personalize the user interface of the exchange so that it displays information that is pertinent to them based on their degree of experience.
In addition to the services it offers to people, Blockchain.com also offers financial services that are based on bitcoin to institutional investors. When it comes to cryptocurrencies, the institutional markets division of the corporation offers services such as lending, borrowing, trading, and custody of financial assets. Additionally, it engages in over-the-counter...
