There was no standard infrastructure that allowed a customer to securely authorize viewing of bank account information in real-time — until the launch of Plaid, a fintech that has become the industry’s  “super-connector” by creating a secure portal and process to exchange financial information back and forth between customer, applications, and banks.

Numerous trends and technologies are intersecting now that will take payments past a future state of a cashless and paperless transactions, to a completely open, digital world marketplace.

From online banking to healthcare and social media, personal information is widely available and easily exposed more than ever before.  The trend of  smartphone applications tracking location, financial, and biometric data to make common day-to-day activities easier and convenient, has only intensified the debate on privacy.  With higher risk has come an increasing rate of privacy breaches that have prompted blockchain projects to be developed as a solution to address this issue with security and transparency.

The biggest catalyst for the birth of today’s cryptocurrencies came from a 9-page white paper published by Satoshi Nakamoto, a pseudonym name for an anonymous person or group, in October 2008.

As an emerging technology seeking mainstream acceptance, blockchain continues to build applications and use cases towards solutions that can have an immediate impact on industries in need of innovation, efficiency, and/or disruption.  One industry that easily fits these criteria is insurance.

Fintech continues to evolve as customers now trust these digital-only companies more than ever, slowly migrating deposit balances and other assets away from banks and traditional institutions. If you're an individual interested in investing, working for, or building the next great fintech, here are four areas to examine closely:

Western Union and Moneygram are widely known names in the payments sector of finance. As technology rapidly disrupted financial services over the last 20 years, FinTech (financial technology) companies have emerged globally to provide a simple, low-cost alternative to well-established agencies.

There are multiple industries and fields around the world in need of changes due to outdated processes and structures.  Numerous startups have taken on this need for last few years, especially in the area of logistics and supply chain, showing some traction in implementing efficient blockchain solutions across the industry.

Despite the increasing levels of awareness with this new technology, industry insiders still have difficulty explaining to the general public what blockchain is and what potential it has, making it difficult to build belief for the masses.

Large financial institutions are full of legacy systems and mounds of regulatory risk, making it difficult to implement blockchain, an emerging technology with multiple benefits capable of enhancing industries and companies that heavily rely on transactions and record keeping.

Enthusiasts behind bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies firmly believe that today's fiat currency will become a thing of the past.  The principal elements behind the utility of traditional fiat money are somewhat comparable to crypto with even more added benefits that go beyond cash....

With all the hype around cryptocurrency these last 6 months, industry enthusiasts are looking to help educate the general public on what truly is considered crypto and what isn’t.