500 Startups Welcomes Five Bitcoin Firms

Early stage startup accelerator and investor, 500 Startups, has announced its latest batch of firms accepted to its program. Among the 29 firms, five bitcoin related companies have made the list of startups heading out to Mountain View for the accelerator. The five firms are Coinalytics, GogoCoin, Neuroware, Monetsu, and Bonafide. The accepted firms will be eligible to receive up to $250,000 in funding, while receiving mentorship and guidance from industry professionals to assist in product creation, business strategy, and raising brand awareness.

Founded by former PayPal executive Dave McLure, as its name goes, 500 Startups has invested in hundreds startups. Among interesting, but less mentioned features of 500 Startups has been the diversity of its investments. Rather than focusing on a few areas of expertise, they have cast their net across many industries including, 3D printing, hardware, enterprise, marketing, mobile games, finance, telecom, and much more.

A closer look at the current five bitcoin firms:

Coinalytics – Working on bitcoin Analytics Analytics Analytics may be defined as the detection, analysis, and relay of consequential patterns in data. Analytics also seeks to explain or accurately reflect the relationship between data and effective decision making. In the trading space, analytics are applied in a predictive manner in an attempt to more accurately forecast the price. This predictive model of analytics generally involves the analysis of historical price patterns that are used in an attempt to determine certain price outcomes. Analyt Analytics may be defined as the detection, analysis, and relay of consequential patterns in data. Analytics also seeks to explain or accurately reflect the relationship between data and effective decision making. In the trading space, analytics are applied in a predictive manner in an attempt to more accurately forecast the price. This predictive model of analytics generally involves the analysis of historical price patterns that are used in an attempt to determine certain price outcomes. Analyt Read this Term, Coinalytics is aiming to produce ‘big data’ research driven reports about the bitcoin industry to help firms in the space. On their blog, Coinanalytics announced that as part of being accepted to 500 startups they had received $100,000 in funding and are planning for an August live release of the product.

Bonafide – Bonafide is working on community based fraud prevention tools for bitcoins and other Cryptocurrencies Cryptocurrencies By using cryptography, virtual currencies, known as cryptocurrencies, are nearly counterfeit-proof digital currencies that are built on blockchain technology. Comprised of decentralized networks, blockchain technology is not overseen by a central authority.Therefore, cryptocurrencies function in a decentralized nature which theoretically makes them immune to government interference. The term, cryptocurrency derives from the origin of the encryption techniques that are employed to secure the netw By using cryptography, virtual currencies, known as cryptocurrencies, are nearly counterfeit-proof digital currencies that are built on blockchain technology. Comprised of decentralized networks, blockchain technology is not overseen by a central authority.Therefore, cryptocurrencies function in a decentralized nature which theoretically makes them immune to government interference. The term, cryptocurrency derives from the origin of the encryption techniques that are employed to secure the netw Read this Term. The product will allow recievers of bitcoins such non-profits accepting donations and service providers to be rated whether they are real.

GogoCoin - GogoCoin is a provider of prepaid bitcoin cards to simplify the buying process of bitcoins. The firm’s founder, Tom Longson, participated in a panel about bitcoins on This Week in Startups in December, speaking a bit about his product and their partnership with Coinbase.

Monetsu – Monetsu is working on secure payment bitcoin solutions. Users sign in with Monetsu and connect securely with other networks without providing password information.

Neuroware – Calling themselves the “WordPress of Bitcoin”, Nueroware is developing an open source solution for digital currencies, to create community based projects “to explore digital currencies together”.