In a new research report, Juniper Research has stated that in the first 6 months of this year, the total value of Venture Capital (VC) investment into blockchain technologies and bitcoin companies was $290 million, with more than 30 startups receiving funding during that period.

According to the report, The Future of Blockchain: Bitcoin, Remittance, ID Verification & Smart Contracts 2016-2021, more than a third of all investment was accounted for by three companies, namely, Circle, the social payment provider; Blockstream, the sidechain developer; and Digital Asset holdings, the distributed ledger solutions provider.

Juniper Research has highlighted the increasing diversification of nascent blockchain deployments, with applications ranging from identity to asset management. It pinpointed the banking sector as being particularly proactive, with several banks having already adopted the Ripple blockchain protocol and others piloting competing solutions.

The report further said that introduction of a blockchain-based system in areas such as transaction settlement has the potential to substantially reduce both the risk of error and the time taken for error checking. Furthermore, it argued that in cross-border remittance, the technology could allow new entrants to offer services at significantly lower costs to consumers.

Citing the example of the recent DAO hack, the report cautions that if smart contracts use blockchain technology, then their contents, including, potentially, bugs or flaws are visible to all the users of that blockchain. Recently, a flaw on the DAO (Decentralised Autonomous Organisation) network was exploited by a third party, resulting in the misappropriation of cryptocurrency worth nearly $80 million.

“While blockchain technology offers the potential for increased speed, transparency and security across an array of verticals, there has to be rigorous and robust roadtesting in each unique use case before any decision is taken”, research author Dr Windsor Holden said.