A new blockchain platform is vowing to take on established crowdfunding sites — and argues that their lack of accountability means greater numbers of projects fail to deliver what they promised. Pledgecamp says its approach involves offering transparency through the form of smart contracts — and ensuring that entrepreneurs and the platform they host their projects on are equally invested in a campaign’s success. One of the startup’s features is known as Backer Insurance. Instead of funds being released in full as soon as a target is met, project creators must propose “clear development milestones” before contributions are made. An …

Ripple’s fundraising arm Xpring has invested in XRPL Labs — a startup that develops applications for the XRP ledger, the company announced in a blog post on Feb. 13. Xpring’s director Vanessa Pestritto has announced that Wietse Wind — a long-time XRP community developer and one of the three XRPL Labs co-founders — is a “proven entrepreneur” who “has successfully grown his companies organically.” According to Pestritto, the company’s decision to invest in the startup was motivated by Wind’s creative approach and ability to engage developers. Pestritto believes that the funding will help Wietse and his partners dedicate more time …

Smart contracts auditing firm Hosho has laid off 80 percent of its staff, citing an increased amount of automated tooling, the firm’s co-founder and president Hartej Sawhney told Cointelegraph on Feb. 1. Sawhney noted that while Hosho has laid of a significant portion of its team, it continues to be one of the leading firms in the industry of smart contract auditing and security, specifically in penetration testing. The Hosho president explained that the staff reduction was caused by a complex set of circumstances, including the downturn in the amount of initial coin offerings (ICO), which is in part due …

United States-based investment firm Blockchain Capital has led a seed funding round for blockchain compliance startup TRM, a press release from the firm reveals Jan. 31. TRM announced today that it had a closed a funding round totalling $1.7 million. Tapas Capital, Green D Ventures, The MBA Fund, and “strategic angel investors” also participated in the round. According to TRM, the company is going to spend the funds on scaling its engineering talent and expanding the capabilities of its platform. Based in San Francisco, the firm has developed a so-called token relationship management platform to help crypto businesses streamline their …

The number of blockchain-related firms in Switzerland and Liechtenstein has continued to rise according to a survey conducted by Switzerland-based crypto investment firm CV VC, Cointelegraph auf Deutsch reports on Jan. 24. Per the report, crypto- and blockchain-related firms continue to crop up in the region despite the current bear market, which some have dubbed the “crypto winter.” CV VC states that at the end of December 2018, 750 companies using distributed ledger technology were located in Switzerland and Lichtenstein. This reportedly represents a 20 percent increase over the past year consisting of 121 new companies entering the space. Among …

Disclaimer: This article previously stated that the layoffs at ConsenSys mainly affected support staff. The company later informed Cointelegraph that technical staff were also affected. Recent layoffs at blockchain software technology company ConsenSys did not exceed 13 percent of staff. The company’s Executive Director of Enterprise and Social Impact Vanessa Grellet spoke to Cointelegraph about the recent developments at the Crypto Finance Conference in Switzerland on Jan. 18. Grellet said that the staff cuts were a “natural movement” and mainly affected support staff. A company spokesperson later told Cointelegraph that all teams were reevaluated including technical and non-technical staff. Grellet …

United States-based blockchain startup Spring Labs announced sixteen fintech companies had joined its partner program prior to the release of its Spring Protocol in a press release Jan. 17. Spring Labs, which last year raised $15 million in funding, aims to release anti-fraud technology in the form of private P2P data sharing technology, powered by blockchain. At the same time, it has convened the Spring Founding Industry Partners (SFIP) Program, a research effort comprised of partners aiming to further reduce data fraud and boost security prior to the Protocol’s public release. Now, a further sixteen small businesses and consumer fintech …

Update: On Jan. 18, Google confirmed to Decenter that “Ethereum” has been blacklisted as a keyword “regardless of the nature of the service that is being promoted,” as the startup’s CEO Andrej Cvoro told Cointelegraph over email. On Jan. 10, Serbia-based smart contract auditing startup Decenter reported that Google has blacklisted keywords mentioning Ethereum (ETH) on its advertising platform, Google Ads. Google Ads: We can’t confirm that Ethereum is eligible to trigger ads, see our policy Specifically, the startup tweeted that they saw “a hard stop” on Google Ads containing the keyword “Ethereum” starting from Jan. 9. Decenter also tagged …

Blockchain software technology company ConsenSys may reportedly be making significant cuts to its staff, technology news outlet the Verge reported Dec. 20. Citing a source familiar with the matter, the Verge reports that ConsenSys is spinning out startups it previously backed, some of them without financial support. This will reportedly impact the ConsenSys’ workforce, especially its internal incubator Consensys Labs. The source said that the number of employees to be laid off could be anywhere between 50 and 60 percent of ConsenSys’ 1,200 person workforce. According to the source, ConsenSys Labs is also being reorganized and will subsequently cease to …

Ethereum (ETH)-based chat platform Status is laying off 25 percent of its staff due to the recent cryptocurrency market decline, according to a post published Dec. 11. Founded in 2017 in Switzerland, Status is an open source Ethereum-based mobile app that enables its users to chat, transact, and access decentralized applications (DApps). In the announcement, the startup's co-founder Jarrad Hope said that Status is “much larger than we can sustain” in the environment of the declining market, wherein the company was not prepared for scenarios of ETH dropping over 80 percent since August. “This was compounded by not having solid …

Cryptocurrency data and research company Messari is launching a disclosures registry for basic cryptoasset information, according to a press release published Nov. 27. Messari is a New York-based startup, which provides insights, markets data, and research tools in the crypto industry for investors, regulators, and the general public. In March, Messari secured between $1–$5 million in early-stage funding to launch its disclosure database, according to Forbes. Per the recent Messari announcement, the company has launched the open-source disclosures registry, that aims to become “a single source” for basic cryptoasset information. Twelve initial partners have also joined the project, including such …

Does your mopping robot or your food processor have names? Do you ascribe a character to them? Unless you’re a robot yourself, you probably do. The entire history of engineering has been about making the most human-like machines possible. We humans are hardwired to process social interactions, so we subconsciously expect machines to be at least somewhat human. We can adapt to dashboards, handles and buttons, but what we really want is an obedient servant. Japanese startup Connectome have come up with the “world’s first” Virtual Human Agent (VHA) on the blockchain. Robotic incarnations Any user interface, however great, is …