Chain Ends Its Free Bitcoin API Service
Chain is shutting down its free Bitcoin API service as a part of a wider effort to become an enterprise blockchain technology solutions provider from an API service provider.
Chain, a blockchain technology startup has announced the end of its free Bitcoin API service. The San Francisco-based company secured a $30 million investment in a round of funding in September, with investors such as Visa, Nasdaq and Citi.
Initially, Chain –through the use of its API and system nodes – offered services as an API services provider to bitcoin platforms. By hitting the kill switch on its free API service, Chain is transitioning to the most sought-after endeavor in Fintech, blockchain-powered private platforms.
The seeds for the shift in focus were sown when Chain partnered with Nasdaq to usher in block chain technology to the private industry. Chain is also one of six private companies participating in Nasdaq’s blockchain-powered trading platform it helped build – Linq. The private blockchain enables private companies to transfer their shares on the platform, before they go public. Chain collaborated with Nasdaq’s in-house development team and IDEO, a global design firm to create Linq.
As reported by Finance Magnates, Chain CEO Adam Ludwin touched on the company’s decision to end its free Bitcoin API service.
As we move into 2016, we will be folding our bitcoin capabilities into this enterprise platform. We will no longer support free projects on the bitcoin network.
In a recent interview with Forbes, Ludwin was asked about Bitcoin’s future at a time when financial institutions makes up their own digital assets and currencies, such as Goldman Sachs’ recent patent application for a new cryptocurrency called SETLCoin. Ludwin said:
Bitcoin will continue to be the only asset that is truly permissionlessly generated by a network. All the other assets that everyone else is working on are assets that are issued by institutions — loyalty points, currencies, dollars. They’re all issued by someone, which means that at the end of the day, you bring that token back to that issuing entity, and you get whatever the redemption value is.
He notes that Bitcoin and digital assets created by banks and clearing houses will both play different roles, even though their benefits are similar, according to Ludwin.
Notably, Chain’s free Bitcoin API service comes to an end on December 31.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
