At the North American Bitcoin Conference, a conversation swirled around Chicago as a potential hub for the digital currency industry. With its proximity to Fortune 500 companies, its thriving digital ecosystem, and its legacy in finance and trading, the Windy City has all of the ingredients necessary to emerge as a center for bitcoin innovation.
But the city's missing that first big win.
Enter Glidera, a Chicago-based startup looking to take on one of the space's early success stories - Coinbase.
"We see that there's an opportunity for Glidera to take the lead in Chicago and help drive growth in this arena here," said CEO and Co-Founder David Ripley.
Gildera, like Coinbase, offers users a fast, secure, and easy online wallet to save, buy, and use bitcoins. But unlike its competitor, Glidera doesn't actually hold onto the currency. Leveraging multi-signature architecture, Glidera is focused primarily on user control and transparency. The company has created a platform that requires three keys in order to access your bitcoins; the user has one key, Glidera has the second, and the third is offline. This way, the user still has control over his or her bitcoins while enjoying the security provided by a third party. If Glidera is hacked, like what happened to Mt. Gox or Flex Coin, only one key is stolen and the user's bitcoins are still safe.
"When your bitcoins are 100% in a wallet, there's no proof that there's value behind what you've put in there. With Glidera, there's true transparency. You know exactly what you have."
In a couple months, Glidera will roll out its first product, the B2C wallet. Following that will be a B2B service that will offer bitcoin payment processing for companies with zero fraud risk, low costs, and seamless deployment. Basically, Glidera will be rolling out several products that are all defined by its innovative three key system.
Ripley is excited to be operating within this space because it reminds him of the early days of the internet where the open architecture led to an explosion of innovation. Though this newfound transparency disrupted a number of industries, finance remained largely unaffected.
"You have 50+ years of pent up frustration in this sector. With digital currency, the potential to innovate is tremendous," said Ripley.
Ripley, who previously served as a Principal at The Boston Consulting Group, co-founded Glidera with Michael Xakellis, the CEO of Elmhurst-based Common Goal Systems, a leader in educational software solutions for K-12. After their first product launch, the two are excited about growing their team in Chicago.
"When I've attended bitcoin conferences in the past, I'm usually in the minority as a midwesterner. It was exciting to see a ton of local attendees at the NABC. As interest grows here, so too will opportunity."
If Glidera can emerge as Chicago's first bitcoin success story, they'll have helped contribute to both.
