Montréal is a great place to start a crypto startup, as the city has a vibrant tech community, a strong talent pool, and supportive government initiatives.

First, Montreal has a thriving tech ecosystem, with a large number of startups and established tech companies based in the city. This means that there are many resources and networking opportunities available for crypto entrepreneurs. Additionally, Montréal has a strong talent pool, with many universities and colleges offering computer science and engineering programs, as well as specialized programs in blockchain and cryptocurrency.

The government of Quebec has also been supportive of the crypto and blockchain industry, with initiatives such as Investisement Québec’s Fintechs in Québec. This hub aims to attract international talent and investment to the region and provide resources for companies in the fintech and AI sectors.

Regulatory Environment

When starting a crypto startup, it’s important to consider the legal and regulatory environment as well. In Canada, the regulatory framework for crypto and blockchain is still evolving, with different provinces having their own approach to the industry. However, Montréal is considered as a place where the regulatory environment is relatively favorable for crypto and blockchain companies, due to the Quebec government’s support for the industry.

Overall, Montreal offers a conducive environment for crypto startups to grow and thrive, with a thriving tech ecosystem, a strong talent pool, and supportive government initiatives. With the right team, idea, and execution, a crypto startup in Montreal can certainly succeed.

Vezgo, our Crypto Startup

We started Vezgo, our Crypto Data API startup from Montreal. Hopefully, you do the same and join our vibrant community of Crypto developers building the future of Web3 from Montréal!

Montréal & Crypto Startups was originally published in Neo Finance Watch on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Maybe this time, it’s the decentralized wallets’ time to shine.

Did you know one of the most popular crypto portfolio tracker (Zapper) was from Montreal? What about this technical data and crypto safety score provider(DeFi Safety)? Let’s start our new finance Top 7 list idea with a crypto-related top 7.

Zapper

Zapper is your DeFi dashboard. With lots of focus on NFTs lately, Zapper allows you to track your wallest and discover NFTs and more.

Vezgo

Vezgo is a developer’s dream come true when it comes to aggregating users’ web3 data. It allows fintech developers to quickly connect with a user’s crypto assets, whether it’s at centralized exchanges, in decentralized wallets or on the blockchain.

Figment

Figment works with institiutional clients to provide them with the tools they need to stake and build on Web3.

DeFi Safety

DeFi safety score reports are publicly available and a must for any crypto investor. Unfortunately, they don’t rank exchanges reputation and their proof of reserves! Maybe it’s something we should do.

Bitfarms

Bitfarms mines Bitcoins. They started in Montreal and now operates datacenters in 4 countries. They are not a startup anymore, but we listed them here since they are an important crypto player from Montréal.

Ludex

Ludex allows game developers to easily implement smart contracts into games with no blockchain knowledge required. They bring your games on chain with an innovative and intuitive set of tools.

Streaming Fast

Multi — -chain specialist Streaming Fast works closely with The Graph to index blockchain protocols. It focuses on building scalable muilt — chain infrastructure for Web3 builders.

Top 7 Crypto Startups from Montréal was originally published in Neo Finance Watch on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

As blockchain technology is evolving fast, there are important challenges when it comes to working with or analyzing blockchain data and culling relevant information from it.

This is where blockchain data APIs come in; they let users communicate with client networks and get data from various nodes in a blockchain ecosystem without having to run the node (and spend lots of money on infrastructure) using third-party solutions.

In this article, we’ll examine 7 of the best blockchain data APIs and blockchain data aggregators in the market.

🏆 Top 7 Blockchain Data APIs

1. Moralis
2. Zapper
3. Vezgo
4. Bitquery
5. Nomics
6. Infura
7. Coinbase Cloud

Moralis

Moralis is one of the biggest names in the blockchain data aggregator industry, with its feature-rich interface making it a favoured choice among developers. Let us check out some of its notable features:

• Blockchain Integrations

What is a blockchain data API without multiple integrations?

The more integrations a blockchain data aggregator has, the more vast its database is, and the more important it will be for developers and other users.

Moralis has integrations with the EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine), giving users access to fetch transaction and token data from EVM chains like Polygon, Cardano, and Avalanche.

With this blockchain data API, you can also fetch user data from Solana’s blockchain and retrieve NFT transactions, prices, and meta-data- all in real-time.

• Wallet integrations

In addition to culling data from the blockchains, Moralis excels at authenticating EVM and Solana wallets. Users can also integrate live prices and ownership token data.

• User experience

Perhaps Moralis’ most notable feature is its easy-to-use interface, making it an excellent choice for developers looking to use its data aggregator properties to build dApps.

• Moralis Streams API

Moralis Streams API is the latest feature in its blockchain data API solution. It uses webhooks to retrieve real-time on-chain data and stream it directly to your backend.

Thanks to this feature, users can view relevant data, such as when certain blockchain wallet address trade, burn, or stake assets. In addition, it streams Metaverse gaming and event data and can monitor new addresses joining your token sale.

Zapper

Zapper touts itself as the “home to Web3.”

Such a bold claim might elicit skepticism from neutrals. However, a close examination of its features is enough to draw some impressed nods. We’ll see this in the subsections below:

• DeFi Integrations

Zapper’s API is mostly geared towards integrations with DeFi solutions. It supports several dApps under the EVM umbrella, including Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Gnosis Chain, Harmony One, Moonriver, Optimism, Avalanche, Polygon, and much more.

With it, users can retrieve DeFi blockchain data regarding lending, yield, liquidity pools, and various services unique to dApps

• NFT Integration

Like many other blockchain data aggregators, Zapper’s API allows developers to access NFT valuations, including relevant data such as market cap, supply, trading volume, and floor prices of NFT collections.

• Wallet Integrations

Popular wallet services like MetaMask, Trezor, and WalletConnect are all present on Zapper’s API, with their respective wallet integrations enabling users to query wallet balances and access relevant financial data anytime.

Vezgo Crypto Data API

Vezgo is an all-in-one solution for crypto exchange and blockchain data. It culls scraps of information from virtually every section of various blockchains and delivers the data in an intuitive, easy-to-use interface for developers to use as they please.

Vezgo touts itself as the Plaid of Crypto, which is a very high reputation to live up to because of what Plaid has been able to achieve. However, Vezgo carries the weight of that name with a swagger.

It’s got several exciting features too:

• Crypto Exchange API integrations

You needn’t stress yourself worrying about managing your Web 3.0 portfolio, as Vezgo’s blockchain data API has got you covered from different angles.

Different angles, really. There are no considerable gaps in comprehension.

You can access daily balances, transaction storage, and relevant data on your tokens and assets- the ones on various exchange platforms.

The big names aren’t excluded from the list, as Vezgo has integrations with Binance API, Coinbase, and the other big guns. However, not everyone trades on these platforms, popular as they are. Plus, people often trade across various exchanges. As a developer, you want to ensure that your app caters to as many exchanges as possible. Vezgo excels here with integrations with Bitvavo, Bitfinex, Huobi, OKX, and many others.

It’s really quite impressive. But that’s not all…

• Decentralized wallets and NFT assets

Vezgo boasts blockchain integrations for decentralized wallets and NFT assets. New platforms are added monthly, and all the big names are already in the mix. This includes, but is far from limited to, platforms like:

• Avalanche
• BSC
• Dash
• Ethereum
• MetaMask
• Algorand
• Trust Wallet

Bitquery

Bitquery makes it possible for developers to integrate any one of a wide range of DeFi platforms into their disruptive projects. Having begun as an analytics explorer, the software has since innovated its own unique DEX blockchain data API called the GraphQL API. Let’s take a closer look at it:

• Decentralized Exchange Integrations

The Bitquery DEX GraphQL API provides live data from several decentralized exchange protocols across various blockchains. With it, users can access trading data on Uniswap, 0x, PancakeSwap, and more.

Such data is relevant in analyzing DEX markets, locating arbitrage opportunities, and for analytics.

The Bitquery blockchain data API also goes one further by providing users with OHLC (open-high-low-close) charts to serve as data indicators.

If you’re looking for a blockchain data API to provide you with access to top trading pairs from various exchange platforms, Bitquery can get the job done.

• dApp Integrations

The Ethereum Virtual Machine is to blockchain decentralization what pregnant women are to babies still in the womb.

Bitquery’s support for dApps is facilitated by its Binance Smart Chain integration. The GraphQL API is capable of delivering an easy-to-use interface to help query BSC data in real-time. Data queries can be related to tokens, dApps, smart contracts, and other digital assets.

• Trading data

The Bitquery blockchain data API can help developers looking to build trading apps. Asides from its integrations with decentralized exchanges, it can aggregate trade-specific information like money flow, market analytics, DeFi data, and DEX trades.

• Ease of use

The Bitquery blockchain data aggregator helps developers cull relevant transaction, wallet, and exchange data from over 30 different blockchains. But that’s not all.

Its GraphQL interface facilitates easy sharing of data queries. Additionally, the GraphQL schema can be used in place of REST APIs for documentation.

Nomics

Nomics’ blockchain data API provides developers with several valuable endpoints that provide access to blockchain-related data.

Developers looking to build crypto trading apps will find its API handy, as it converts and aggregates market data in bulk and efficiently. Let’s check out some of its primary features:

• Crypto market data

As a blockchain data aggregator, Nomics focuses on the crypto niche, serving as a means for developers to retrieve unerring data on crypto assets, trading pairs, and historical prices.

There’s support for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and a host of other cryptocurrencies, with prices, market cap, and other relevant data all available. The platform also offers OHLC/Candle data for exchanges and cryptocurrencies.

• Exchange Integrations

The Nomics blockchain data API also supports exchange platforms in addition to several trading pairs. Users can easily access technical data from platforms like Kraken, Gemini, Coinbase Pro, Bittrex, Binance, and other major exchanges.

• Ease of use

The platform’s dashboard is one of the most intuitive you’ll find in the industry, with clearly defined sections for cryptos, blockchains, and exchanges.

However, as far as blockchain data aggregators are concerned, developers will find that the Nomics API is strictly limited to crypto live indexes and offers none of the wallet or NFT integrations its competitors have.

Nevertheless, if you’re looking for a simple, easy-to-use crypto data aggregator, Nomics gets the job done efficiently.

Infura

Unlike other blockchain data aggregators, Infura API has just one primary integration that facilitates data retrieval from the source platform to third-party services.

Here is its key feature:

• Ethereum Integration

Infura API boasts comprehensive integrations with Infura. There are no throttling limits, and developers can retrieve relevant blockchain data without worrying about failed queries. As a result, it’s easy to make various API calls to retrieve relevant data on wallet balances, gas prices, and other relevant blockchain information.

Coinbase Cloud

The Coinbase Cloud API isunique because it offers a comprehensive Web 3.0 platform for developers to build on. With its unique market reports, financial institutions have been drawn to its API solution as they look to scale in the field of blockchain data aggregation.

Some of its exciting features include:

• Blockchain integrations

The Coinbase Cloud API eliminates the difficulties associated with building on the blockchain with highly filtered and aggregated data that developers can efficiently query.

With it, it’s easy to access smart contract events, wallet balances and transactions.

• NFT API

Coinbase Cloud’s dedicated NFT API gives developers access to data regarding NFT collections, and transactions from across various platforms.

These blockchain data APIs are excellent, providing a wide range of tools to help developers retrieve various kinds of blockchain-related data. However, only some of them offer a truly rounded solution, as they often need one key feature or the other.

Choosing the Right Blockchain Data API

Are you a developer looking for a great blockchain data API to optimize your disruptive project?

You simply can’t go for any API solution out there, as there are some crucial factors to be considered:

1. Number of integrations

Does the blockchain data API have multiple integrations?

Essentially, a blockchain data aggregator must have integrations with four primary sectors of the blockchain:

• Exchanges
• Cryptocurrencies/DeFi platforms
• NFTs
• Wallets

2. Rate limit

With a blockchain data API, you want speed as much as you do efficiency. There’s no point in using an API service that throttles user connection when certain limits are reached.

3. Documentation

REST API documentations are the industry standard. However, it helps if the documentation supports multiple programming languages to facilitate easy installation.

4. Ethereum Support

Although Bitcoin is the most popular blockchain, Ethereum’s innovative technology (decentralized finance) makes it far more programmable than the former. Many platforms are built on Ethereum’s blockchain, and many more rely on compatibility with the EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine). If there’s any consideration in choosing blockchain data APIs, this is the big one!

5. Regular updates

Like any other field in technology, blockchain data APIs require regular updates that reflect new features in wallets, exchanges, NFT collections, and DeFi solutions. Without updates, the data aggregated becomes redundant, out-of-date, and buggy.

Choose The All-In-One Blockchain Data API-Vezgo!

Vezgo’s Crypto Exchange and Blockchain data API is a developer’s drea come true. It’s packed with many features, upgrades, and integrations to make your project a great one for your intended audience. Despite its impressive array of features, its developers aren’t resting on their laurels- they’re hard at work adding more innovative blockchain integrations to improve the product.

What are you waiting for?

Get your Vezgo Crypto API keys today!

Disclaimer — Even though we are part of the team at Vezgo and we might receive referral fees from companies mentioned on this website, we try to make our reviews unbiased and backed by our own experience and social proof. Your support helps and we genuinely appreciate it.

Top 7 Blockchain Data API and Blockchain Data Aggregators was originally published in Neo Finance Watch on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Startups + Montréal = ❤️

There are plenty of Startup Creation Guides on the Internet but this one is focussed on creating a startup in Montréal. Why Montréal? Because we’re convinced you’ll love the city and that it’s a great place for startups!

Really! 😃

This guide was originally written in 2008 by Heri Rakotomalala who founded Montreal Tech Watch a few years ago. It’s 2019, we’re bringing it back and updating it regularly with new resources. Hopefully, it will help you launching a technology startup in Montreal!

Low cost of living in Montréal

Let’s start with one of the best reasons to have Montréal as home for your startup: low cost of living. According to Expantistan’s Cost of Living World Map, Montreal ranks among one of the cheapest city to live in North America.

It ranks 174th worldwide and 87th out of 93 cities in North America (the lower the better, as cities are ranked from most expensive to least in terms of the cost of living).

While being relatively close to New York and Toronto, Montreal offers a big city environment and proximity to even bigger cities at a lower cost of living.

If you compare Montréal with other popular North American cities such as: San Francisco #4, New York City #5. and Toronto ranks #57. While being relatively close to New York and Toronto, Montreal offers a big city environment and proximity to even bigger cities at a lower cost of living.

In term of population, Montreal’s population was 1.78 million in 2017, while Toronto’s population was 2.93 million.

Driving from Montreal to Toronto takes about 5h30m. Driving to New York is about 6h if you avoid traffic. Flying to New York or Toronto is quick and usually cheap. Flying to France directly is about 6h45m. The location is definitely interesting if you need frequent connections with the US East Cost and Europe.

Pourquoi Montréal?

As you can read on Bonjour Startup Mtl, what makes Montreal exceptional is it’s varied population from all over the world, the bilingualism and a unique entrepreneurial community with plenty of resources for startups and entrepreneurs.

Montreal is full of talented and creative people. Really.

According to a 2018 report, Montreal is home to over 90,000 IT workers and a high concentration of AI scientists. It was named best student city in the world in 2017. It also hosts StartupFest, an event you can’t miss if you are moving into the startup world.

The path to launching a tech startup

Here is the “textbook” path to launch a technology startup, the one you would want to follow if your project involves R&D, hardware, and lots of resources. This chart migh be a bit outdated when it comes to the references (in white) since it was written in 2008 but the path itself doesn’t change (in blue) and still applies in 2019.

The more resources you need to get a prototype or a beta product out, the more you will have to plan and spend time on plans. Make sure your business model works, look for investors, development & production etc.

Gather a team

If you want to build a Montreal-based team, we encourage you to join the community and show up at startup events in Montréal. There has even been specific events about How to start a startup in Montreal in the past. Have a look at the events calendar on Montreal in Technology, show up at some events and talk about your project.

Startup Drinks happens every last wednesday of the month and is always a good place to start. You might also want to have a look at Les Pitonneux that features regular Code & Coffee events.

Linkedin — It’s worth a shot to look here first to gather your team. You can target specific people you want to find using the advanced people search. Or better, join some Montreal Tech Groups (you can find some on Meetup).

There are Facebook groups such as Montreal: Tech Startup Jobs and Montréal + Startups you can join to discover the startup community. You can also post that you are looking for a team.

More resources to get started

Have a look at Built in Montreal if you’d like to focus on resources built in Montreal. You can find a bunch of tools and apps that can help you on your startup journey that are built by fellow Montreal entrepreneurs. We will list a few tools and Montreal-based businesses that can help you below.

Building a prototype working with freelancers

Before hiring your first full time employee, you might want to work with freelancers.

Building your MVP (Minimum Viable Product) or prototype with freelancers is usually a good option to start quickly. You can find many local freelancers using Upwork — A top freelancer website with a wide range of expertise or Toptal — which allows you to find developers and freelancers with experience. Working with a local freelancer might make the transition from freelancer to full time employee possible in the future.

Remember your idea is worth nothing unless executed and it’s a lot easier to build a great execution team if you are transparent and open about your project.

You might also want to browse Linkedin or Github (search for Github Montreal Profiles on Google), Angel.co Montreal Startups and Dribbble to find freelance developers and designers from Montréal. Contact them, share details about your project and get them interested. Avoid requesting to sign NDAs and complicated processes. Remember your idea is worth nothing unless executed and it’s a lot easier to build a great execution team if you are transparent and open about your project. Talk about it with as many people as you can.

If you don’t mind working with a remote team, you can find many full time employees or freelancers using remote job boards like RemoteOK, We Work Remotely, JustRemote, Remote.co or Pangian.

Low cost marketing for your startup

Montreal is home to some great marketing technology companies that can be of great help for your own startup. Or should I say that Québec is home to some great marketing technology companies. 😉

Leadfox, from Sherbrooke, offers a great tool to automate your marketing. Dashthis, from Québec City, offers an app that allows you to maintain and track your marketing efforts on a nice dashboard.

Incorporation, law and legal advice

From incorporation to merger and acquisitions, many Montreal-based firms can provide legal services. The most popular firms for entrepreneurs are Brouillette & Partners (lawyers specialized in technology entrepreneurship) and BCF (specialized in patents and intellectual property). BCF stands for Brouillette Charpentier Fortin and was founded by Robert Brouillette who later left BCF to found Brouillette & Partners.

Recognized law firm names in Montreal also include Borden Ladner Gervais, Gowlings, Fasken Martineau and Stikeman Elliott.

You can also find help and resources about incorporation online. Legallogik offers a startup kit, Revenu Québec has resources about starting a business in Québec and you might also want to have a look at incorporation in Delaware for Canadian startups if you are thinking about a US incorporation.

Online resources like Lean Startup Legal Checklist, Open Source Seed Documents from MARS or Founded Legal Platform can also be of great help.

Accounting

If you are generating decent revenues (>$2M), selling and/or considering raising money in the US, you should go for one of the big accounting firms. Deloite, PwC, RCGT, BDO or Richter are good names. I have always been served well by RCGT but know sometimes Deloite can be less expensive.

Office or Coworking spaces

There’s no need to think about renting an office yet.

Montreal offers a great selection of Coworking spaces. Notman House is a technology hub that offers office space, events, and supports the startup ecosystem in Montreal. It’s a great place to visit first. CoWorker will help you find coworking spaces around Montreal. There’s also WeWork (one of this year’s top tech IPOs) that offers Coworking and office rentals and Breather, a Montreal startup itself, that offers workspaces all around Montreal. You can also find office space or coworking spaces on OfficeSherpa.

Other coworking spaces in Montreal include GAB and Crew Cafe. You can discover others on Montreal Cowork.

Incubators, Accelerators and VCs

If you are into incubators and accelerators FounderFuel is a high intensity program to kickstart your startup. District3 is an innovation hub. MTLab is great for tourism and entertainment projects. Diagram is a Fintech hub and Techstars Montreal is an AI accelerator.

Once you are at a later stage and thinking about venture capital you might want to look at RealVentures, BDC, Desjardins Venture Capital or iNovia Capital.

Montreal Tech Community

There are many tech groups in Montreal. To find your preferred tech group, have a look at Meetup for Montréal. For the latest Montreal Startup news, subscribe to Montreal New Tech and Montreal in Technology. You can also find some Montreal Startup-Related news on Betakit and PlanetWeb. You can also find a list of Montreal startups on AngelList.

Agile development

It’s possible to follow another model, but Agile is trending and is the path of fast, iterative development. Here, releases are early and often, and reaction times aspire to be instantaneous. It also means investing in a great product experience, rather than heavy planning, sales and marketing.

The bet is that by having early feedback, it will be easier to adapt your product to your audience, instead of planning 6 or more months for development and discovering that you have lost focus, that it’s too late to change, and that the technological and business environment has changed since then.

Worse, the market might not be there anymore, as others have filled the need or it’s not the “right moment” anymore to launch a product in this market.

In practice, you will want to keep the overhead as low as possible. For instance, it’s quite possible not to raise any capital, you might not have to write any business plan at all, you don’t need either a large development team — although a few good great, talented developers and designers are key.

Instead, you should focus on intensity, shortened development cycles, focus on the few core features, and then get early feedback from democamps, facebook groups, blogs, and social bookmarking websites like Reddit.

If you get enough traction, it’s quite possible to raise capital and accelerate growth. At that time, hopefully, you would have a business model that works.

Conclusion

As we have outlined, Montréal is a great city that offers a unique environment for technology startups. The city is gifted with great institutions and infrastructure that fosters a dense and active community. The support available to you is abundant, and the living costs are relatively low for the size and location of the city.

There have also been many great startups that have begun in Montreal. These include the afore mentioned Breather, but also Lightspeed, Unsplash, Vezgo and Wealthica.

If you have any other resources you’d like us to add, email us at hello@stockchase.com or leave a comment!

Are there any reasons why you chose Montreal to start your technology company? Share it with us below.

Originally published at https://montrealtechwatch.com on May 7, 2019.

The Ultimate Guide to Launching a Technology Startup in Montreal was originally published in Neo Finance Watch on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.