Research suggests that while the U.K. may be behind the U.S. with the number of blockchain startups, it leads the way in diversity compared to any other country.

The world’s first blockchain startup tracker was introduced by Outlier Ventures in May of this year. Its aim was to provide a comprehensive overview of the various projects and information regarding the nearly 1,000 blockchain startups across the globe.

Interestingly, while many may think that the U.K. has the highest number of blockchain startups, it is, in fact the U.S.

According to Outlier Ventures blockchain tracker, it found that after listing the country and region of all the blockchain startups, the U.S. came in with just under 40% while the U.K. only recorded 16.7%, which was significantly better than Canada’s third place with 3.3% and China’s fourth place with 3.2%.

However, despite the fact that the U.S. may be ahead when it comes to the percentage of blockchain startups, Outlier Ventures state that London is the blockchain FinTech centre for a number of reasons.

Namely, that the city offers the perfect regulatory environment for blockchain startups to flourish. To further reinstate this fact, back in February, the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said that they don’t plan on regulating the blockchain industry, thus allowing blockchain startups the ideal place to grow.

The research team explained by saying that the U.K. is keen on encouraging the use of blockchain in FinTech.

With 115 companies that we know of there is a lot of diversity, but we do see a lot of companies building products around settlement and clearing, insurance, and financial trading.

U.S. Leading the Way in Bitcoin

Of course, it can’t be ignored that the U.S. currently leads the way when it comes to the percentage of blockchain startups in a country. How long this will last is yet to be seen, but with cities such as London offering startups, what many may consider, better regulatory environments, the U.K. could potentially take the top spot in the future.

While the U.K. may be considered the centre of the blockchain FinTech scene, the U.S. has a heavy Bitcoin bias. According to Outlier Ventures, when Bitcoin first entered the scene many entrepreneurs took the leap into Bitcoin before anything else had been developed. As a result, companies have built themselves around the Bitcoin blockchain making it harder for them to branch out into different areas.

Outlier Ventures confirms this by saying :

This explains why some of the most interesting Ethereum-based startups have based themselves in Europe, specifically the U.K. and Germany.

What should be noted, though, is that regardless of what country a blockchain startup develops in they are embarking on a new area that will ultimately boost their country helping it to become a blockchain FinTech centre.

source : CCN

#News #Bitcoin-Technology #Blockchain-News #FinTech-News #Steemit #Steem