Finance 3.0: First we have to know about Finance 3.0 which is also called open Finance. It is a new ecosystem in which new and innovative financial products and services are built using blockchain technology and ensures smooth transactions, payments and global trade. Its goal is to create a borderless and frictionless economy and few examples of applications which have this implementation are listed below:

• Digital securities
• Electronic payments
• Programmable payments with digital currencies or stablecoins
• Instant swaps of digital assets
• Trusted collateralized digital loans.

ABOUT ALGORAND: 

Algorand is the first pure proof-of-stake, permissionless, and scalable blockchain that provides solutions to all the problems related to existing blockchain. Because of the decentralized nature of Algorand blockchain, it is open to everyone. Any user can make transactions and can read the whole history of their transactions without any problem. Algorand blockchain platform provides fast speed for the transaction, be it from country to another country, or transactions within the same country. Transactions can be made efficiently and speedily across the globe. It allows more than 1000 transactions per second in less than 5 seconds which is perfect for a blockchain platform.

Algorand Blockchain protocol proved its efficiency and is still proving its blockchain technology and is a new innovation towards a permissionless and borderless economy. It is safe and secure which is now trusted by millions of users and their number is increasing day by day.

A Program known as ‘’Algorand asia accelerator’’ started by Algorand foundation, launched on 19 october, 2020 with an introductory debut of 10 startups. It is powered by LongHash Ventures who are a global blockchain accelerator and investor in early-stage blockchain-startups. This year’s cohort has been selected for innovation within Finance 3.0. This is done in order to build a more open, permissionless and stronger financial ecosystem designed on Blockchain. 

Algorand is perfect for the start-ups to fulfill the promise of Finance 3.0 and strengthen the community and network. It’s a 12 week accelerator program which started on 19 october 2020 and will run until January 2021. The ten start-ups are listed below:

• STAKERDAO: Staker Dao is a financial platform which governs financial assets in a decentralized, secure and efficient manner. Their community is responsible for building and managing products for on-chain governance, cross-chain synthetics and tokenized real-world assets. All this is done in a very compliant manner. They will bring innovation through their products using Algorand Blockchain platform.

• MUGGLEPAY: Mugglepay is a startup that works primary on payment solutions that allows merchants to accept crypto payments globally and that too within 10 minutes which is fast. All this is done with low cost, average cost of cross-border payment being 7% and mugglepay makes it 1% which is perfect for users. It makes very secure peer-to-peer payments and they plan to innovate under Finance 3.0. 

• DEXTF: DEXTF decentralized traded funds is an on-chain blockchain protocol which connects peer to peer investors and portfolio managers. It manages digital-native funds between two parties which are mutually distrusting and can cryptographically verify about the status of funds and enforce their rights through digital wallets. Through Algorand platform it is able to make innovation and is able to aggregate and protect users digital assets and is an asset management protocol. 

• NEUTRON FINANCE: It is a one-stop portal with full management of DeFi products and services and that includes a non-custodial protocol with a decentralized exchange. It is selected as a startup to work on its decentralized exchange with no central authority involved. Algorand serves a perfect platform for these startups to prove their abilities and enhance their work in blockchain. 

• XBULLION: xBullion as a blockchain startup aims for creating access to largest physical marketplaces for the users and works a global, trusted settlement for physical gold. Participants have no pay no additional custody fees. All the gold is secured and insured and direct ownership is instantly transferable. They ensure world class gold storage solutions through a safe blockchain platform and Algorand works best for them.

• LAWCOIN: Lawcoin also chosen as blockchain startup and is first blockchain platform for tokenized investment in litigation and legal claims. Basically it is a litigation finance and digital assets company and like all other startups they also aim to innovate under Finance 3.0.

•  OBSIDIAN LABS:  It is a global blockchain technology company that focuses on developer tools and enterprise solutions. They launched a multi-chain wallet and EOS dapp store and many graphic IDE’S which support many front leading blockchains. They excel in providing best developer services for many blockchains.

• EASTERN BLU MUSIC ECOSYSTEM: It is a blockchain platform that transforms the music entertainment industry into a radically transparent ecosystem. It is a trusted public system for registration, licensing and distribution of royalties for all players in the music industry. Also, uses Algorand platform for innovation.

• VERITX: It is a blockchain powered Aerospace marketplace and a trusted digital commerce marketplace for industry 4.0 for buying and selling of digital and physical assets. VeriTX and Algorand collaborated so that the aerospace marketplace can be transparent with blockchain powered additive manufacturing. VeriTX company aims to create a digital supply chain for aircraft parts and that is the reason they are using Algorand Blockchain technology. 

•  YIELDY FINANCE: It is a decentralized platform that allows for instant payment of goods and services for retail shopping on a buy now but pay later model. 

Each startup selected has a great potential for making innovation under finance 3.0 and Algorand Asia accelerator along with seed funding also provides end-to-end support port across the spectrum of strategy formulation, go-to-market execution, and subject matter guidance across technological mentorship, token economics, marketing, and fundraising.