The leading bitcoin wallet provider has entered the list of the 30 most important innovative projects picked up by the Forum in 2016. Blockchain plans using the chance to reach out to a greater audience.
The Luxembourg-based company provides a secure and convenient way to store and move digital value, reads a statement on the Forum’s website. Apart from the popular bitcoin wallet, the firm offers developers tools and up-to-date information regarding the state of bitcoin market. Transforming the quickly growing fintech industry (which is now worth about $13 bln), Blockchain helps to shape the Fourth Industrial Revolution, declares the press release.
Now, being among the chosen innovators, the company will be able to scale and share its services with a greater audience, claims Fulvia Montresor, Head of Technology Pioneers at the WEF.
“We are honored to join past recipients like Google and Airbnb as well as this year’s impressive list of World Economic Forum Technology Pioneers,” said Peter Smith, Blockchain’s Chief Executive Officer and co-founder. “It is a confirmation of our technology's potential to transform the business and global communities, at large. We hope to leverage the opportunities afforded by this award to bring a better economic future to billions across the world.”
Smith takes part in the Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin, People’s Republic of China. Some of the awardees will also attend the main event of the Forum in Davos in January 2017, but it has not been announced whether representatives of Blockchain will be among them.
From the year of 2000, a special WEF selection committee recommends about 30 companies every year to receive the Technology pioneer status. To be nominated for the award, an organisation should be innovative, possess a potential of considerable and prolonged impact on the economy and society, have a working prototype of its technology and be formally independent from other enterprises. Besides, the Forum only accepts companies with revenues below $100 mln.
“The World Economic Forum serves its mission by engaging not only the leaders of today, but also the leaders of tomorrow,” says David Aikman, Chief Representative Officer and Managing Director at WEF China Office.
The list of companies selected in the past includes Airbnb, Bluebird Bio, Bloom Energy, Cyberdyne, Editas, Foundation Medicine, Google, Kaggle, Kickstarter, Mozilla, Palantir Technologies, Proteus Digital Health, Rethink Robotics, Scribd, Solazyme, Spotify, Twitter and Wikimedia.
Andrew Levich
