Five New Cryptocurrency Startups You Should Know for 2018
By: Luke Roth
Tags: Ethereum, Investing, Sentiment, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency

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There’s no denying that in the world of cryptocurrency, there are four main coins people think of: Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum and Litecoin. These are the most visible coins, they are worth the most, and they are the most easily accessible via Coinbase, the most widely used exchange. While these coins are all successful in their respective ways, it is not the coins themselves, but the way these coins can be used that makes them truly successful. Now that there are several established coins, the market is blooming with new startups looking to utilize those coins, as well as the blockchain technology behind them.

In the coming year, we will begin to witness a societal shift towards cryptocurrency, especially with online payments. Right now, many developers realize the great potential for cryptocurrency to help their ideas grow, and want to incorporate cryptocurrency into their startups. As we journey further into the age of information, it seems our new technology is advancing much quicker than our governments can regulate it, and cryptocurrency will widen the gap between technology and regulation even wider. From its ability to provide users with a bank in their pocket, to providing an avenue for those who have lost faith in the federal financial systems, cryptocurrency has many reasons why coins are the next gold rush, and there are several promising startups helping make that a reality.

Here are five knew startups you need to know about for 2018:

Cypherium

Cypherium is a cryptocurrency-based startup run by a team of developers with histories at Amazon, Google and Microsoft. This startup sees many flaws in the current blockchain, and wants to address it, not through patching up the current blockchain, but by creating their own superior version in the hopes that it will be widely adopted. Advised by cryptocurrency industry leaders Emin Gun Sirer and Jeremy Gardner, this project seems to be headed in the right direction. Their new blockchain will be widely scalable and permissionless for users.

Cypherium will become the only blockchain designer to implement a multi-level governance design aims to make this blockchain more secure than any other. They will be separating governance both at the protocol and applications layers. Cypherium shows real promise to compete in the blockchain market, especially as it actively seeks regulation so it can be most easily adopted for mass use, and is certainly a startup to keep an eye on for the coming year.

Rentberry

This decentralized, long-term rental platform has been disrupting the rental industry since 2015, and seems poised to take off in the next year. Rentberry uses the blockchain to automate steps in the renting process, from finalizing contracts to paying monthly rent, saving both the landlord and the tenants time and money, while expediting legal agreements between both parties. Most importantly, Rentberry’s blockchain and enhanced contracts technology allows tenants to save thousands of dollars in security deposits.

Rentberry began with $4 million in investments from 11 international investors, and has since gained another $3 million in crowdfunding. Their initial coin offering is currently live, and they are hoping to raise an additional $10 million during their sale. The platform has over 120 thousand users and growing. As the market for rental properties continues to grow, Rentberry provides a trustworthy solution to potential renters and landlords alike, wishing to make the rental process as seamless as possible. With interest from the likes of Forbes, NBC, Wall Street Journal and almost every major cryptocurrency news source, I see this platform exploding over the next several years.

Loci

Loci is a venture-backed technology startup best known for their patent research tool, InnVenn, is finishing a platform expansion which will allow it to include the ability to buy and sell intellectual property. Users do this via Loci’s native coins, called LOCIcoin. Loci aims to improve and update the patent process by posting creation and disclosure of new claims for IP onto the Ethereum blockchain.

Loci understands that patenting ideas and creations can be a very confusing and expensive roadblock to creating, especially for individual inventors as opposed to large corporations equipped with teams of lawyers. They see blockchain technology as the answer, since it can provide a much quicker, safer and more cost-effective way of procuring a patent. Overall, this could encourage more growth and competition on the global market, which is always healthy, and should be a great startup to watch grow over the next year.

Coinlancer

Coinlancer sees a problem within the existing online freelancing markets, and wants to address the problem through the integration of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. Built on the Ethereum platform, Coinlancer addresses the problems currently faced by many online freelancers, such as unexplained account suspension, unaddressed and prolonged disputes, and failure to make payment, with the implementation of a safe, secure and transparent blockchain. Coinlancer will act as the host for job postings and freelancer accounts, as well as a wallet for transactions. For a project to begin, Coinlancer will need the agreed upon payments in escrow with them, offering security to both the client and the freelancer. These projects are paid out in Coinlancer tokens, of which the initial sale is happening now, which can be easily converted to or from over twenty different cryptocurrencies.

Among the technologies used by the Coinlancer platform are distributed ledgers, an open application programming interface, smart contracts, the blockchain and digital signatures. Each of these innovative technologies allow for further growth and optimization of the Coinlancer platform. If you are a freelancer, or in need of a freelancer, this is the platform you should be using, although you’ll have to wait, as full development is expected to finish in October of 2018.

Trippki

Trippki, created in September of 2017, sees a disconnect between hotels and the people that stay in them. They want to bridge that divide in terms of rewards. The Trippki platform is essentially a travel-rewards program that allows hotels to reward guests for staying with them. The platform is decentralized, and offers increased flexibility to hotels when compared with the already offered rewards programs, thanks to its masterful integration of the blockchain. Hotel-stayers can use their earned rewards tokens, called Trip tokens, to pay for hotel stays in the future.

This platform understands that travelers are constantly bombarded with offers for rewards based on their travel, but often these rewards come at a price. With Trippki, travelers will be rewarded for their stay, rather than rewarded because they chose from a list of preferred hotels with deals offered by their travel agent. The Trippki presale is open now, but the technology will not be complete until 2018. When it is ready to be used, I predict it will become a major player in the travel industry.

Are there any other startups you think I need to know about? Let me know in the comments below!