A look at Blockstream, the Bitcoin technology company

Founded in 2014, Blockstream is one of the most prominent companies in the Bitcoin and blockchain technology industry. The firm was created to extend the capabilities of the Bitcoin blockchain while maintaining its network effects. According to one of its earliest blog posts, the founding behind Blockstream believes that creating altcoins introduces fragmentation to the market and network effect of the cryptocurrency industry.

To prevent this fragmentation while still enabling developers to innovate on Bitcoin, in 2014, Blockstream introduced the concept of sidechains, a method of pegging an asset to a base asset to offer additional functionalities, which has become an integral part of its business model and strategy.