Venture capital firms (VC) are like venture capital (VC) startups. Thousands of new startup companies ask VCs for help to develop their ideas. In this article, we reveal the most trusted VC investors who pour money into startups in the US, Europe/UK, and Canada. 

But before we name the most trusted Venture Capital FinTech investors in these regions, let’s make sure you know what it's like working with a startup company first.

Venture capitalists are similar to real estate agents who help you rent or sell a property. They are asset funders, which means they provide cash to start-ups with growth potential in exchange for equity in the company. 

Additionally, venture capitalists help companies by providing useful advice, connecting them with influential people in the industry, and helping them establish internal processes that will improve their chances of long-term success. As an entrepreneur in your business venture, you have pros and cons when dealing with VC funders too.

 Venture capital funding gives startups not only financial support but also essential help in the form of supervision and consultative services. 

If a startup fails, its founders don’t have to repay venture capitalists who invested in it for this reason; however, VCs expect to be repaid if the startup uses any equity to get bank financing. 

VC funders help startups at all fundraising rounds and are happy to invest large sums into ideas which they believe in thoroughly - when you find your business angel, be sure to work with them until you've realized all possible potential!

A little possibility of getting financing: 

Startups apply to venture capitalists every day, and the competition can be rough. Venture capitalists fund only outstanding ideas and startups that will be profitable and grow rapidly. 

A startup has to give up a stake if it wants to get venture capital funding. Venture capitalists also invest in companies because they want a say in what happens to the business as well as its direction.

VC investors all have their stipulations when it comes to working with an aspiring entrepreneur or startup in order for them to be eligible for a potentially life-changing investment in their company.

The FinTech Collective was launched in 2012 by Gareth Jones. Since then, the firm has been funding 30+ different startups. FinTech Collective works with startup companies from all over the world at different stages of fundraising. Its goal is to raise awareness for technological advancement within the monetary sector and bring clarity into advanced trading methods.

FinTech Collective encourages interested entrepreneurs to apply for our innovation competitions. 

FinTech Collective is on the lookout for companies that focus on any of the following traits: 

The FinTech Collective has helped platform MoneyLion focus on capital trading and online lending while Nuts was selected for an incubating program that would enable the team to see their innovative idea become reality.

Babak Poushanchi and Bobby Yazdani founded Cota Capital in 2014. They deal with startups at all financing stages, from seed to C round. After launching Cota Capital in 2014, they quickly became prominent leaders in the Silicon Valley tech scene. Their unique approach to funding projects demonstrates their creative vision for the future of the VC world.

Cota Capital funds are on the lookout for companies that focus on any of the following traits: 

Blockchain Capital is a venture capital firm that supports startups in the blockchain sphere. Blockchain Capital was founded by Bart Stephens and Bradford Stephens in 2013 and its headquarters are located in San Francisco, California. The company’s office is currently located on Market Street and it also has an office in Berlin, Germany. Within three years of their founding date, they had raised $7 million for startup projects and currently, work with over 80 of them.

Blockchain Capital only works with companies that are heavily focused on blockchain technology (BT), risk management (RM), cyber security (CS), business, corporate banking, and payments processing. Blockchain Capital has helped to fund Bison Trails, TRM Labs, Securitize, OpenSea.

Harlan Milkove, a young and energetic businessman, established Foundation Capital in 2016. It has thus far helped more than 50 startups in the financial sector. Its primary focus is on long-term prospects. The organization’s approach is to assist ambitious, start-up companies that are looking for their capital at the early stages of their development.

Foundation Capital invests in startups that focus on the following areas: alternative lending, payments, and fraud prevention. Foundation Capital was an early investor in companies like Nextview, Camber Creek, Lerer Hippeau.

Speedinvest is an Austrian VC firm established in 2011. Speedinvest works with first-time technical startups at the early fundraising stages. The firm supports projects connected with the finance and technology spaces as well as all the amazing ways their branches can be applied to real world settings!

Speedinvest has a particular emphasis on startups that focus on: 

When Speedinvest considers how much money they are going to invest in a startup, they look at several factors including the size of the market for the company's product, what type of value it will bring to its customers, and what other resources are available. Speedinvest has funded startups including Actiondesk, Aircloak, and Cashpresso.

In 2014, Johan Lundberg established NFT Ventures with a focus on the FinTech industry. Based in Stockholm, Sweden and has already funded more than 46 startups in the Nordic region and the UK. It supports startups at the seed stage of development so they can really grow their ideas into something special! \

Some of NFT Ventures' well known investments include Betalo, Toborrow, Mondido Payments & Nowo.

NFT Ventures funds startups who's focus is on:

The Anthemis Group was founded in 2010 by Sean Park and it has become one of the most popular VC investment companies in Europe today. 

The company specializes in direct and secondary direct fundings in startups intended towards the financial sphere. They pour money into both early-stage and late-stage ventures.

Anthemis Group funds startups that concentrate on:

Anthemis Group invests in startups, including those in the US, Britain, and Europe. Fidor Bank, Happy Money, ABAKA , and PayPerks are among the group’s most prominent advisors.

Location: London, England Balderton Capital was founded in 2000 by Bernard Liautaud and Suranga Chandratillake. They now employ about 100 people who work as venture capitalists and they're based in Canary Wharf. 

Their goal is to find startups with the ability to unsettle large industries and they intend on scaling globally. 

Since 2000 they've invested in early-stage and late-stage ventures like:

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA)

Which Are the Best VC Firms for FinTech Startups?

Software testing is a process by which we search for software product bugs and improve overall application performance. 

We test to detect negative issues that may affect the experience of using the application and we can tell apart between automated and manual testing. 

In one of our previous articles, we talked about why automated testing makes sense for your startup development. 

We now want to discuss the advantages of these tools as compared to less advanced ones such as manual tools.

Manually testing is done by hand. Quality Assurance specialists ensure that applications work properly by following conditions written in test cases. Manual testing is still crucial, as certain functionality simply cannot be tested automatically. For example, wearables are mobile devices that can require field testing in a physical environment. Mobile applications often undergo ‘monkey tests’ where bottlenecks are detected under stressful conditions only able to happen in the real world. For instance, what if an automated device were to be left in someone's pocket and they accidentally pressed the screen? What would happen - they might just press the button again.

Automated testing is the practice of executing tests through a system instead of manually. Automated tools can execute repetitive tasks and regression tests to check if an application performs correctly after newly implemented changes. 

Here, we are going to discuss automated versus manual testing in detail.

Automated testing is an important part of Test-Driven Development (TDD), which is characterized by the writing of test cases for each unit (unit tests) before the actual code is written. After these unit tests are written, they can be run to see if there are any errors or flaws with them, and then if there aren't any issues, these products will then be debugged for errors or certain improvements that may be needed. Our company heavily utilizes this approach at Distinct Cloud to build numerous products throughout the industry using many different programming languages.

As a rule, our QA team checks if the following types of testing have been performed: 

Unit Testing - Testing of discrete parts (units) of a software product. 

Functional Testing - Software QA testing is performed to detect the actual performance of an application’s functional requirements. Functional testing usually considers accuracy, interoperability, compliance, security, compatibility and suitability. 

Regression testing (a type of functional testing) - Checks if an application performs correctly after being modified or integrated with other software.

Automated GUI testing – Testing the look and feel attributes to see if the app meets whatever standards we need. 

These are just some of the test types we automate to save time and money and to eliminate human error when it comes to code reliability. Now let's see what sorts of problems we can solve when we take advantage of automated testing!

To mitigate time-consuming tasks. After changes and modifications are made to an application, you need to check if it functions properly. By executing automated tests after functional modifications, you can ensure that all aspects of your program’s functionality are up to par. 

To repeatedly execute the same set of tasks. If you're constantly adding the same features or carrying out the same operations in a project, then the handy nature of automated tests makes them great for recurring processes.

-To eliminate human error. Automated tests are powered by tools and scripts, so the chance of missing a bug or a defect decreases. This makes for testing process more reliable and time-efficient. 

For advanced GUI testing." Automated GUI tests detect and record differences in behaviour between platforms—for example, across different web browsers or operating systems. Also, automated GUI testing effectively finds regression errors." 

To test load and performance. There’s essentially no manual alternative for testing load and performance. Automated tests simulate thousands of simultaneous users.

It’s important to remember though that automated testing isn’t always the solution to evaluating a piece of software. For example, it’s not very likely you can automate certain types of manual tests as they require a high level of skill and expertise as well as experience to carry them out correctly. Now, let’s take a look at some (but not all) of the scenarios which might benefit from having both automated and manual testing in your development methodology:

Ad hoc testing – Testing which is executed without preparation and written test cases. During ad hoc testing, a QA specialist randomly tests the functionality of the system; his main aim is to be creative and “break” the system to discover flaws.

Exploratory Testing - this testing technique is sometimes confused with Ad Hoc Testing but they are different; in Exploratory Testing, a QA specialist designs test cases based on his personal experience whilst looking for non-regressions in the previous version of the product. By creating automated tests beforehand he can make sure the process is streamlined and that all aspects of the application are tested equally. This will allow him to maintain focus on what issues need to be addressed in quick succession.

User interface testing – a QA specialist examines interface elements to ensure that the properties and states of these elements are what they should be. Also, a QA team ensures that design elements in their interfaces match up with elements in the final layout.

Although it's assumed that the majority of tests will be automated, manual testing provides just as much value. It can provide an effective quality check of any bugs or improper functions. The trick with manual tests is not to trust the results too blindly without ever double-checking them by seeing if they proved true or not.


UI Acceptance – Visual-based testing is key when it comes to UI acceptance. Manual tests are ideal for this because computers can't detect colours, links, size of signatures, gestures, and highlighting the same way humans can. This means that if you've got a bug in your application that makes a certain link or button so tiny that no person will ever be able to locate it with their eyesight; manual testers will immediately be caught this flaw but machines won't.

Initial development stage — Manual testing helps testers to detect bottlenecks during the initial development stage which results in less time and resources being spent on fixing bugs. In some approaches to software development, automated testing is a part of the process at any stage, but in others, it's not recommended to invest money and human resources in automated testing during an unstable phase of a product's development. However, for the most part, test automation is a highly useful tool that increases productivity within a project.

Short-term projects - While tests are designed to help save time and resources, it takes time and resources to design our automated tests. It's sometimes wise to rely on manual testing for projects that are small or have an extremely tight deadline. Let's talk about some other examples!

Non-automatable cases – Some tests cannot be automated; this especially concerns hardware-related tests. Writing scripts for automated checks of sensors, touchpads, and screens is almost impossible and rarely viable. Also, some data can be tested only manually. For example, you can test if a printer prints, but it’s best to check the quality and content of printed images by hand.

There’s no silver bullet when it comes to testing during the development process. While you can use automated and manual testing methods, sometimes our automated tests aren’t able to cover certain things. When this happens, you need to rely on your manual tests to fill in for any gaps that may exist or if you don’t have the tools necessary. There are also times where you need to combine different kinds of tests - like both automatically programmed and manually programmed – which means there is no single approach for doing these things. But one thing we can all agree on is that no matter how great automated tests are, they cannot fully replace a product manager's intuition about a customer experience.

At Distinct Cloud, we apply automatic testing as part of our Agile development approach. This empowers us to release higher quality software, save time and costs for recruiting and training new developers, and reduce waste by reducing time spent on maintenance provided that tests are maintained alongside the associated codebase. If you'd like to know more about how we use automated testing, microservices, continuous testing or just want advice on how to improve your own team's process then feel free to contact us.

Pros and Cons of Automated and Manual Testing

If you're an entrepreneur and want to avoid the fate of 90% of startups that fail in the first year after launching, an MVP is a key way to do so. When starting with an MVP, entrepreneurs can receive feedback fast and efficiently, before launching a fully fleshed product or service. This approach allows entrepreneurs to accurately determine their target audience and save significant money. But how can you test your business idea with a minimally viable product? 

After studying the materials below, you'll know exactly how to do this!

Reasons to start your product with an MVP

An MVP is an early version of your software house. It's the foundation on which you assemble your product. Starting with an MVP can be helpful in both the case of first-time startups that want to test out their business idea quickly or when it comes to mature companies who are looking for ways to launch new products to validate their business ideas fast.

Netflix is a great example of how an MVP helps validate a business idea. The company started as a DVD rental website that was designed to validate two hypotheses: 

People do not like late fees for video rentals and 

People will love selecting films to watch through a website while sitting at home and then getting the film(s) delivered by mail. 

Netflix started as an MVP in 1997, operating only in a few blocks. The MVP was successful and the business expanded to deliver films to almost 300,000 customers by 2000. 

Here are more ways that an MVP can help you optimize your startup:

It might take a lot of time and money to develop a product with all the features you want. It’s not always the best idea to have every desired feature in your product from day one because if it doesn’t perform well, there would be no users. A Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a huge asset when planning out the initial release of your product that allows for fewer resources needed at the onset including both time and money. Some other ways an MVP can reduce costs are:

Fewer Bugs. The smaller you make your MVP, the less chance there is for things to go wrong. This becomes very helpful when launching a product because if something does happen consumers will be willing to overlook it or tell you about bugs in hopes that it will be corrected by the time they reformulate their thoughts on your solution (aka product). 

Fast Customer Feedback. When starting up your business idea with an MVP, you can put out real scenarios and test which ideas interest potential customers most and why that is or isn't what people want to see added into the product before the official launch occurs.

Reduced expenditures. Early feedback allows you to quickly understand which features are in or out for your MVP to save money on the cost of unnecessary functionality that does not add value. 

Re-purposed expenses. Because an MVP is cheaper to produce than a fully functional product, much of the development expenses are not needed upfront but are instead divided throughout the deployment period - oftentimes replacing money received early on when funding was still low.

A recent report by CB Insights concludes that 42% of startup ventures fail because there is no market need, and some even go as far as saying as many as 90% of startups fail. An MVP (minimum viable product) can be a great way to test your business idea on the marketplace and find out what people want most. This approach allows you to: 

define your target audience and its problems more distinctly and come up with a superior solution 

work through different challenges along the way and think about how your marketing campaign will resonate with prospective clients. 

run a marketing campaign that’s catered to customer needs.

Looking for an ideal niche market can be increasingly important at earlier stages in your business life cycle.

After identifying your target audience and market niche for a product, it’s much easier to determine what features should be included in the final version of the product. By developing a minimum viable product, or MVP, one learns whether an idea has potential value for end-users. Such a tool helps you to find out if a problem exists and if your solution is something that would make a difference to them. It also allows you to get immediate feedback from your early users so that you can see which changes or additions need to be made before launching the final version of the product into the market. As such, you can identify which functionality is necessary and eliminate unnecessary features from being included in the final version of the product.

Many startups began their journey as a service or an idea that they intend to turn into a full-fledged business. Consider Instagram for instance. 

Instagram, the most recent social media sensation which was acquired by Mark Zuckerburg’s Facebook online empire for $1 Billion, is known to have been created with just one feature in mind: allowing its users to upload square-shaped photos with filters on them to colour correct and add a dramatic texture! The problem many startups face is how to build user adoption and keep this going. The best way oftentimes is through offering a “minimum viable product” - something anyone visiting the website could test out and get an idea if it works or not. This can be done by offering this software for free on sites such as Product Hunt (the recently launched new forum) or ProductHunt (the site dedicated solely to finding great products).

As technology developed and smartphones got bigger, Instagram adapted and changed the size of its app. In 2012 it was originally available only for the iPad, but in 2013 Android users could get it too. Later it went through a few more changes: videos of up to 15 seconds were added; private messages were possible, and the ability to take photos in vertical format (in their original quality) was introduced.

Engage investors in further development 

Investors are cautious when it comes to investing their funds in new startups. If they are persuaded, investors are usually ready to write a check only after the investor gets full assurance that the startup is viable. 

An MVP with constantly increasing traction looks convincing and can persuade people to cut a check. Using your MVP you get the first feedback and pique the interest of potential customers who will then tell you if they would buy your product or not. 

You have already learned about the importance of MVP, so let's take a better look into that right now by taking a look at some useful ideas for testing the viability of an idea for an MVP.

Below, we list several beneficial ways to test your MVP so that you can be sure there is indeed demand for your product idea.

Crowdfunding can be a great way to not only get an idea to take flight but it can be a very insightful way for you as an entrepreneur to check your business concept’s appeal. When using a fundraising platform like Kickstarter, Indiegogo, or Patreon there are a few steps one(you) could go about to not only get yourself the needed funds but also to ensure that your idea is interesting and unique enough to help it attract backers interested in helping you get the word out and take your brand/branding up off the ground!

For example, the startup Petcube, founded in 2012, set out to create an entertainment box and mobile app to allow pet owners to keep an eye on their pets while they’re out. This pet-related idea received such a good response from the crowdfunding community that it raised $500,000 via two Kickstarter campaigns – two times more than anticipated! 

However, a crowdfunding campaign isn’t always a success. If you see weak activity and don't get at least a slight investment then it may be worth revising your idea to keep going. Not all first-time founders have enough experience to make crowdfunding work for them.

If you choose this method to test the viability of your MVP, then you must track how active your backers are and what they say about your product. With promotional platforms like crowdfunding, you can also get valuable suggestions for improvements on your product by showing potential new markets that you hadn’t considered.

Although reaching out directly to customers would be ideal, there is still some level of anonymity between you and them when using crowdfunding platforms.

When it comes to MVP promotion, a blog is an effective option. To take advantage of blogging, choose a platform where you’ll share posts about your MVP with the world. There are several options. The first is to create a blog from scratch using tools like WordPress or Ghost. This method is convenient because you can create a simple blog without any technical background.

The second option is to publish information about your MVP on public websites like Medium. When you choose this option, you don’t need to build a blog; you can just share stories using a personal account.

A blog can be a powerful tool for businesses today. It enables companies to stay closer to their customers and potential clients through the use of more informal yet detailed content about recent developments in the company, but also on individual members of staff, behind-the-scenes stories on the creation of your product or service, details about what went into making your Minimum Viable Product, hiring new staff or any other aspect that might be newsworthy.

To conduct MVP tests, ask readers to subscribe to your newsletter via email. This will make it easier for you to understand how many people are interested in your product. Analyzes the data found in subscription lists and conclude who might want to move ahead with your product and want it so badly that they would not mind signing up for anything.

Landing pages are one-page sites that provide detailed information about a product and include various calls to action (CTAs) - buttons that nudge visitors to take the desired action. They're great tools for attracting organic traffic to your MVP, but only if the landing page contains useful and high-quality content on all of its pages.

When creating a landing page for your MVP, include a short description of what your product is and what it does as well as the benefits it can give to your users. To test your MVP idea, provide your software product in return for users’ emails. This will provide you with emails of your potential customers and a communication channel through which you can directly provide product information. -

A successful landing page example that shows how to use this method to validate an idea is Buffer's campaign. Joel Gascoigne, the founder of this start-up, decided to see if people wanted to have access to scheduling tweets earlier on in their process.

Joel has posted a message on Hacker News describing the idea behind Buffer. He’s got 20 visits to his landing page after 3 days. He’ll keep developing the landing page until he gets 100 visitors or until 4 weeks have passed.

A landing page may be one of the quickest, least expensive ways to get an understanding of idea validation. There are many platforms you can look into while creating your landing page. It's important to remember that getting people to signup for your newsletter or simply an email address is essentially validation in itself.

Choosing a platform for creating a landing page for your startup can be quite challenging. If there are financial limitations, you can start with Wix free version. However, to get access to more templates and tools, one would need to opt for paid subscription plans to save on costs. Another option is LaunchRock, which offers the upgraded premium package at $5 per month while the free version has all the features necessary to create your initial landing pages MVP.

Since social networks are a popular avenue for communication, they can be a useful tool in your MVP test-flight. Choose the platform that best suits your target customer base and promote your product or service there in a way that makes it easy to access. Evaluate the response to ensure the message about your product is coming across the way you want to present it. 

Demonstrate your MVP on social networks and include links for users to try it out. Post photos of your MVP. Explain its features and tell what kind of benefits users can expect when using this software solution. Thanks to the tools built into social networks, you can:

Analyze the number of likes, shares, likes, downloads, mentions, subscriptions etc., to find out if your target users are interested in your product. 

Communicate with your potential audience using comments or private messages to discover what features they want to add or what problems they encounter when using your MVP. 

Start focusing on your target audience by analyzing the whole picture of the audience based on collected data. 

Users are typically more active on social networks compared to blogs and landing pages. By promoting your MVP on social networks it will be easier for you to reach your potential audience and analyse their reaction to MPV.

To check how accessible your MVP is, you can use a technique called hallway testing. The main premise of this method is that you have a few friends stop random people who are passing by in the hallway and ask them to test the usability and intuitiveness of your product for the first time without prior notice. You should ask these people to complete several tasks to see how they cope with certain features or UI elements. If they have difficulties getting past a screen or step, it’s worth considering changing some features or UI elements of your MVP as a way to make it more accessible.

Hallway testing, otherwise known as "whiteboarding", allows us to determine whether the designs made by our app development company live up to your expectations and make sense to users.

One of the most effective ways to discover if your MVP is dealing with users’ pain points with high accuracy is to ask the right people. 

As an option, you can demonstrate your MVP at conferences and gather people's opinions about it in person. However, this approach is time-consuming and less informative. Here are several ways to collect comprehensive data at minimal cost:

You can start by compiling a list of potential users on social networks and you can offer them the chance to use your MVP. After you do, you can ask them several questions concerning your product and analyze their answers. 

 You additionally could employ built-in pop-up banners or notifications in your mobile or web MVP to ask users if they like your product. To conduct such a survey in a fast and non-intrusive way, make use of a star rating system or thumb ups and thumbs down symbols.

If your MVP is a mobile application released on the App Store or Play Store, try analyzing the number of downloads, your app ratings, and comments. This method allows you to find out if your audience likes your application, what features they don’t like, what features are lacking but expected, and what features are worth changing.

The main goal of this testing method is to collect a lot of data from real users. The more information you collect, the more chances you’ll have to find your niche and decide whether there is enough market demand for your product and avoid additional expenses.

MVP stands for a minimum viable product. These are the first steps you take that help you lead toward your creations' completion. You can't always predict how things will turn out, but only by investing time and effort into testing can you eventually discover whether there are still changes to be made. We've included valuable MVP test examples in this article so you can compare potential statistics of your website or a new app or create valuable sources for reference materials.

How to Test Your MVP without Significant Investments

Since 1994, with the arrival of Amazon and eBay, the way people buy and sell has changed. 

Early marketplaces had limitations, however, they opened up new opportunities for producers, sellers, and consumers. Online marketplaces changed brick-and-mortar stores, which urged every store owner to either completely shift online or at least have a presence there.

Today, we’re able to see a new cycle of marketplace development because of the emergence of blockchain technology. Disrupting nearly every industry, this new technology provides great opportunities for marketplaces to operate differently and provide consumers with more efficient ways to buy and sell products and services. 

If your business offers a marketplace that changes its inventory daily then we recommend considering how this new type of technology will impact the way your business operates and how it will affect transactions. Our first question:

The blockchain is a technology that works by creating decentralized ledgers to track cryptocurrency transactions, contracts between parties, and other forms of transaction. 

A decentralized marketplace enables buyers and sellers to connect directly without any intermediaries. Consumers, Producers, and other vendors are all part of the network.

Just like with traditional marketplaces, blockchain-based marketplaces have producers who provide information about their goods. Sellers also offer raw materials and consumers purchase them. 

There's nothing revolutionary there. However, the blockchain has a few key differences that distinguish it from other technology-powered marketplaces.

What are the qualitative differences between blockchain-based and traditional marketplaces?

By using cryptography, blockchain technology makes Internet-powered transactions safer and more secure by giving each buyer a unique personal code that verifies their identity on the internet. In a marketplace backed by a blockchain solution, smart contracts can be made that would involve automatic transaction settlements, thus making all purchases and sales truly safe from fraud.

The world of retail has changed drastically thanks to the shift toward online shopping. Blockchain technology has taken eCommerce to the next level by providing an even more secure solution for consumers, suppliers, and retailers that makes it easier than ever before to buy or sell just about anything!

How does the blockchain model help resolve disputes?

There are no middle people on a blockchain marketplace. So how do sellers and consumers know they can trust each other? 

Just as with traditional e-commerce, clients and vendors have to agree on certain terms before the point of sale. This is why smart contracts play such an important role in the new decentralized economy as they allow merchants and customers to clearly outline what both parties will receive at the time of purchase. 

There are several ways for digital smart contracts to ensure consumer protection: 

-With escrow services which hold funds during transactions 

-Or via trusted third parties, like the customer’s bank, who verify one or more aspects of a transaction (e.g., because their reputation is on the line)

Once the terms have been agreed upon, the cost of the product is paid for by the consumer. 

The money is held in escrow until they receive their product. 

Once they have received the transaction, they confirm whether or not everything was up to standard and if it was then the money held in escrow is paid to the seller. 

If there are any problems whatsoever, then the funds will be promptly refunded back to them.

However, our second party in this search for a refund is the seller who might feel it's unfair to have provided one. If so, they may take advantage of the blockchain marketplace's smart contract terms to dispute such claims and request their refund (unless such instances are specifically denied by such agreements). But fortunately, most blockchain marketplaces like ours accommodate such instances by implementing more particular solutions:

Resolving disputes with trusted third parties looks like this: 

When discussing terms of purchase, the consumer and seller agree on a mediator who may get involved if a dispute arises. Marketplace owners or any individual in their network can act as a mediator. 

After the smart contract is agreed upon and signed, the mediator receives keys to decrypt messages between the consumer and the seller. 

If a dispute arises, these trusted third party decrypts the contract and works with both parties to resolve the situation.

Blockchain technology continues to advance and several markets have started taking the initiative to use it in their business. 

However, what does this mean for their industry? Let’s look at some innovative blockchain marketplaces that are finding success by utilizing the blockchain, but understand that there is much more to come with these new advancements.

A blockchain-based marketplace is hosted by its users and supported by their computing power. The computers of the users are making space for the marketplace which means that it is always available. 

Besides, removing centralized hosting can lead to more security, privacy, and transparency. There would be no hosting costs for producers, sellers or consumers because there's no need for it anymore.

One great example of decentralized hosting is Sia, which allows users to create marketplaces for storage on decentralized cloud technology. The technology that Sia uses ensures constant availability and the cost is at least 10 times less expensive than other cloud storage providers on the market today.

Removing intermediaries living between you and your business partners means that you needn’t accept third-party terms and conditions. 

Decentralized marketplaces allow each seller to specify their terms and offer more opportunities for consumers to shop around for the best deal. 

Since they are unpoliced, producers and sellers can distribute their product details, prices, and all other content in the way that best suits their needs.

OpenBazaar is a peer-to-peer e-commerce platform that combines the best practices of traditional marketplaces, such as product search and letting brands and sellers set their conditions. This notion helps maintain a balance between redundancy, retrieval speed, and cost for producers and sellers while encouraging healthy competition between them to provide consumers with the best prices and customer experience.

Selling products with the blockchain model costs a lot less than selling on a major traditional marketplace. Since blockchain marketplaces offer lower fees to producers and sellers, that means lower prices for consumers. 

One benefit of using digital currency is that you don't have to trust anybody taking payments on your behalf since payments are transacted directly between the consumer and producer or seller. 

BitBay offers Bitcoin payment method integration, low fees, and low prices for consumers.

Drop-Shipping through a decentralized platform gives producers a toolset to drive their sales, gives sellers a mechanism to earn more, and gives customers access to a broad choice of products from around the world. 

When producers don’t want to present their brands directly, promoting products through sellers is a good idea. Amazon and eBay remain the most popular sellers using the traditional marketplace model. However, blockchain technology provides new ways for sellers and consumers to interact.

First, Products are free to post on the marketplace. Producers only pay when their products are sold. Sellers can set up any kind of shop they like or advertise their products any way that they want to, getting a commission with every sale. Finally, Customers looking for a deal can find one at a price that's most attractive to them.

The Harvest network is a very useful tool for brands and consumers alike. A blockchain-based marketplace platform, it features a reward system where fans can earn up to 60% back on every purchase, sellers can monetize their audience and producers can increase their sales through the former. It seems everyone wins here!

Blockchain marketplaces offer an immutable and time-stamped verification of every single transaction ever made. This approach makes transactions easily traceable and also prevents double charges, fraud, abuse, and any other type of manipulation. 

Syscoin offers a marketplace solution focused on security for consumers. Marketplaces based on Syscoin ensure security through arbitrated escrow services and digital certificates for storing and transferring documents.

Feed transparency is fundamental to the blockchain's DNA. Supply chain marketplaces, therefore, aim to increase trust. 

Blockchain supply chains tend to inspire producers and sellers of products and services to verify their businesses and prove the quality of their merchandise and brands to increase credibility. 

Moreover, blockchain supply chains offer suppliers digital identities with which they can track the progress of goods throughout the supply chain and keep tabs on any defects or changes which may be harmful or tend to weaken customer confidence in a particular brand or service.

Provenance is one example of a decentralized marketplace that enables companies to increase trust in their products by providing information about where they were made over time. Its approach allows producers and sellers to share the same platform, thereby helping them improve the customer experience. For instance, a producer could have vineyards and make wine at their location, then ship the wine to another seller, who eventually sells it to a consumer on the Provenance marketplace.

Smart contracts are important because they make third-party oversight obsolete. They allow parties to enter into agreements directly; the terms of the agreement are stored on the blockchain, and this is what makes it virtually impossible for anyone to go back on their word once set in stone. 

Smart contracts shine when combined with or built upon the top of functionality that has already been developed. 

For instance, Canya users can now enjoy the benefits of unbreakable smart contract-based relationships thanks to its transparent marketplace features that were developed alongside smart contract technology.

Some experts say there’s no question that the blockchain will change the game for online marketplaces. Others believe that, so far, traditional online marketplaces don't need to worry about this new technology. 

However, there’s no point in denying that blockchain technology is gradually disrupting many industries, retail among them. Early blockchain marketplaces illustrate bit by bit how this will play out and how it seems as if traditional online marketplaces should watch their backs because blockchains could pose a serious challenger to their businesses in the long run.

We’re contributing to the industry's understanding of blockchain technology. We publish information about blockchain, its potential uses in the enterprise, and insights into how it could affect various industries. Check out our blog for more info!

Why Should You Consider Implementing Blockchain Technology in Your Marketplace?

Increasingly, banking is becoming more and more technology savvy. The number of smartphone users is growing steadily, and Statista surveys say that the figure will pass about 3 billion by 2020. The trend for banking apps is also progressive. So what factors determine the need for investing in a mobile app?

Benefits of building a mobile banking app

While the benefits of mobile banking for consumers are clear (convenience, security, ease of access), mobile banking also presents some distinct advantages for the banking industry itself. Let's take a look at why your organization should invest in it.

1. Mobile banking lowers a bank’s expenses

Mobile transactions increase overall efficiency for banks by:

Helping banks go paperless by reducing the need for printed statements and login sheets; 

Saving money on printing and delivery involved with mailed statements to customers; 

Eliminating the need to expand banks with additional workers needed to physically deal with paper statement issues.

According to research from the consulting firm Deloitte, transactions done via mobile banking over the next decade will cost a tenth as much as a similar transaction carried out at a physical branch and three times less than an ATM transaction. This offers an opportunity to decrease operating costs and increase profits for banks that embrace it.

2. Significant return on investment (ROI)

According to a study by Fiserv, mobile banking can be a crucial way of keeping your customers engaged and draw new ones into your fold. By increasing the use of a mobile platform for banking services, a company that uses its service can expect to increase overall revenue and reduce customer attrition rates by up to 15%.

Engaged mobile banking customers use more services

Compared to branch-only customers, mobile banking customers are more affluent. They tend to hold multiple products from their financial institution because they are more engaged with companies and services than branch-only customers.

Mobile customers stay with financial institutions longer

Mobile banking attrition rates (chunk rate) are lower than those of traditional banking users. More and more consumers now prefer to conduct their business over their phones as opposed to with the physical banks.

Mobile customers complete transactions more frequently

Research stated in the ABA Banking Journal illustrates that enabling customers to access their financial information at the time of making a planned purchase can increase additional transactions. As said, mobile banking services improve revenue averaging $49.40 per month than non-mobile banking services which only generate $24.50 per month. Pertinent findings also show that approximately 86% of direct banks’ revenues are attributable to non-mobile users, while 70% of investments are attributable to mobile banking service users!

A positive customer experience is extremely important to any business, including a bank. Here"s why mobile banking apps contribute to improving customer experience. 

Providing your customers with 24/7 availability is so important if you want them to have a positive experience. The mobile banking app allows them to access their accounts whenever, wherever and however they prefer so they can do things like checking their balances or transfer money whenever it’s convenient for them.

Mobile banking delivers services to customers’ fingertips. Banks that use mobile apps to carry out transactions around the clock are highly appreciated by their customers because of the convenience they offer.

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