Regardless of its massive potential in the region, bitcoin awareness in India is still somewhat low. Zebpay, a bitcoin wallet and exchange aims to change this. In fact, recent reports indicate that the company has managed to raise $1 million private investors, which will be used to support the digital currency in the region.

According to the company, the chief managing director of Claris Life Sciences has offered Rs 3 crore, the managing director of Jindal Worldwide has invested Rs 1 crore, whereas the chairman of Triangle Engineering has invested Rs 1 crore.

Zebpay will use a significant part of the currency to develop the blockchain system in the region. This will be achieved by setting up a dedicated blockchain laboratory, which will allow the company to use the technology’s power to come up with innovative authentication and authorization measures. According to the company, another part of the investment will be used to promote bitcoin, while also enlisting e-vouchers on their mobile platforms, to expand their user base from 25,000 to 100k within one year.

While the legal status of Bitcoin in India is still uncertain, it’s worth pointing out that while the Reserve Bank of India considers that Bitcoin poses risks, they agree with the blockchain, and believe that it can greatly improve the current state of the world’s financial system, by lowering t. Based on this, will Zebpay manage to properly raise awareness on Bitcoin in India?

Gem, a blockchain API solutions provider based in California, starts the new year with a $7.1 million Series A funding round. The company previously raised $3.3 million from various investors in the past two years, but this funding round is the biggest one yet. This round featured some of the biggest names in the blockchain space such as Silbert’s Digital Currency Group, Pelion Venture Partners and First Round Capital.

    “We are proud to introduce Pelion to the Gem family as well as KEC Ventures, Blockchain Capital, Digital Currency Group, Birchmere Labs, RRE Ventures, Tamarisk Global, Drummond Road Capital, Tekton Ventures, Amplify.LA, Danmar Capital and angel investor James Joaquin.”

Bend Dahl, partner at Pelion Ventures Partners, will take a seat on Gem’s Board of Directors. CEO at Bitium, Scott Kriz, was also named as one of the new appointees to the board. Gem saw great success with their multi-sig bitcoin developer API, but this funding round will allow the company to leverage its blockchain expertise across a variety of industries.

    “we are expanding our API to develop a modular platform for blockchain applications that can be applied to a variety of use cases across multiple industries.”

Howard Morgan, co-founder of First Round Capital and Jeff Parkinson, partner at KEC Ventures, will also take a seat on Gem’s Board of Observers.

Altcoins have been a bit of a plague in the digital currency industry throughout the years, as various developers feel the need to do their own thing when Bitcoin doesn’t offer a specific feature. As a result of that approach, there are a few thousand different forms of digital currency in existence, and most of those are no longer maintained or developed. Wouldn’t it be better if all of these currencies could talk to one another without the need to create even more digital currencies?

The Interledger Protocol Opens Up Interesting Opportunities
Let’s assume for a moment that every blockchain of every digital currency in existence could communicate with one another. While we have that picture in mind, add the prospect of sending funds to other currencies without any hassle. Sounds good in theory, right? It might become a reality in the near future.

If the interledger protocol came to fruition, one global network for all digital currencies in existence would be created. Also, this project would create a direct connection between all companies and individuals using any type of service based on any blockchain. Some people would refer to this idea as creating global standards for payments. The topic of private blockchains has been kicked around in the Bitcoin community quite a few times. Even though financial institutions show a keen interest in blockchain technology, community members are worried they will create a private version of the public ledger, which would defeat the entire purpose of this technology.

As one would come to expect from such a concept, there will be a third-party involved in the process. Connecting two different ledgers to each other is not all that difficult, but when it comes to exchanging value, someone or something will have to validate the transactions. However, the individual ledgers don’t need to trust the third-party validator per se. This type of operation can be completed by using cryptographic algorithms, allowing for the creation of an escrow service to hold the funds. No details would be observed by the third party directly, allowing the interledger protocol to work between any ledger system in existence today, and in the future.

Who Will Adopt This Technology?
One of the major concerns regarding the interledger protocol comes in the form of who will adopt the technology. While there are clear advantages to having every different ledger talk to a different one, banks may still favor the option of creating their private blockchain in the long run.

However, the interledger protocol is gaining a lot of interest from major parties, such as Microsoft and even the World Wide Web Consortium.But at the same time, the entire interledger protocol seems to be aimed at disruption the financial sector, and established players in that industry are less likely to embrace this solution.