Bitcoin Triggers Buzz, Controversy … and Now, Startups

By Sven Grundberg, blogs.wsj.com

Bitcoin has triggered a wave of warnings from central bankers since the online currency started gaining, well, currency late last year. Now, it’s also behind a wave of tech startups aimed at building up a bitcoin infrastructure.

Some 320 startups are now involved somehow in maintaining or tracking the bitcoin eco-system, according to a database maintained by Creandum AB, a Swedish venture capital firm.

The firm says it’s done most of the work compiling the list, but it also has invited outsiders to contribute, and is still a work in progress.

Still, it’s a helpful tool in figuring out just what bitcoin can buy these days and what tools are out there to help understand how–or whether–to use the currency. There are exchange services, like Bitstamp, an exchange based in Slovenia, where users can trade dollars for bitcoin and vice versa. And of course, there are several payment-processing providers, as well as companies offering digital wallets and banking services for bitcoin users.