Fintech Open Talent competition held by the Spanish bank BBVA had ten bitcoin and blockchain start-ups among the finalists this year. Everledger won the European final while BitNexo took the prize in the Latin American sector.

BBVA Open Talent competition is organised yearly by the Spanish banking giant BBVA to select the most innovative fintech projects for future collaboration and support. To be eligible, a start-up must be founded after 2011 and be in possession of less than €15,000,000 of funding.  

The competition is divided into three regional finals, with 15-17 finalists in each of them. Only two winners are selected per region. Each winner receives €30,000 to develop their project in collaboration with BBVA.

This year, two bitcoin and blockchain-based start-ups, BitNexo and Everledger, won prizes in their regional competitions. In total, 10 blockchain and bitcoin products were included into the list of finalist. These were BitNexo, Bitso, and Volabit in Latin America; Everledger, Safello, and Vaultoro in Europe; and Bitwage, Coinalytics, SnapCard, and Voatz in the U.S. and the rest of the world.

Everledger is a UK-based start-up that registers diamonds on the blockchain in order to prevent diamond theft and fraud. It offers verification of diamond certification and transaction history for insurance companies, owners, and law enforcement. BitNexo is a new Chilean service that uses bitcoin ledger to transfer funds between China and Chile. 

BBVA takes part in a blockchain research project R3 together with 8 other world's largest banks aiming to develop industry standards and protocols for using the blockchain in banking. 

Recently, the Central Bank of Russia announced the creation of a special working group to research the blockchain technology.

Aliona Chapel