Blockonomics - Simplifying Bitcoin Transactions

Chayanika Goswami

Apr 1, 2021 — 8 min read

The way people do transactions has evolved dramatically over centuries, from a barter system to a monetary system; from plastic money to now bitcoins. Since its creation in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto, an increasing number of people now see Bitcoins as a trusted way of transaction, as now major companies like Microsoft, BMW, and Etsy are also accepting Bitcoin payments. Going by numbers, the cryptocurrency market was valued at USD 1.03 billion by 2019 and is projected to reach USD 1.40 billion in 2024, growing at a CAGR of 6.18% during the forecast period. This growing popularity of bitcoins inspired Shiva Sitamraju to start Blockonomics, a startup that unlocks the power of Bitcoin by allowing entrepreneurs and enthusiasts to manage their bitcoin payments with ease. Here is a peek into the journey and operations of this Hyderabad-based startup.

Company Highlights

Startup Name	Blockonomics
Headquarter	Hyderabad
Founder	Shiva Sitamraju
Sector	Ecommerce
Founded	2015
Website	blockonomics.co

Blockonomics—About
Blockonomics—Founder
Blockonomics—How It All Started?
Blockonomics—Work Culture
Blockonomics—Revenue Model
Blockonomics—Challenges
Blockonomics—Growth
Blockonomics—FAQ's
Blockonomics—Conclusion

Blockonomics—About

Blockonomics simplifies the process of receiving /making payments through Bitcoins and tracking Bitcoin transactions. The company has introduced a number of features for this, which includes -

Bitcoin Payment Plugins for e-commerce merchants, supporting sites like WordPress, Wix, WHMCS, and many more
Bitcoin Payment Button/URL, which allows people to set up quick and simple payment options and donations
Bitcoin Invoice, so you can pay your employees easily in Bitcoin, or charge customers if you're a freelancer.
Wallet Watcher, so you can easily keep track of all your wallets, with many sub-features such as the Export Feature allowing you to see all your transactions in a simple place.
Bitcoin Tracker, a quick way to see any transactions and wallets on the Blockchain.

"Allowing people to control their own sales and payments is an important part of Blockonomics, and is a driving force in what we do. Many e-commerce merchants have to use expensive payment solutions that go through middlemen, so it limits the control of their sales. Our products seek to ensure entrepreneurs can more directly control their cash inflow and to cut down on fees they experience. We also make the easiest to use Bitcoin payment plugin, the other options are often more complicated" says Blockonomics Shiva Sitamraju emphasizing the USPs of Blockonomics.

Blockonomic's products facilitate ease and direct control. The company's e-commerce plugins tie directly into e-commerce platforms, for easy installation and tracking. For scenarios where a plugin can’t be used, Blockonomics' in-house solutions, such as the payment button/URL and invoice function are made to be easily implemented into whatever website, email, etc might be used.

Blockonomics—Founder

Shiv Sitamraju | CEO, Blockonomics (Extreme Right)

Shiva Sitamraju is the CEO of Blockonomics. Shiva is an MTech from IIT Delhi. He has experience in scalable backend engineering and has held lead engineering roles in a number of startups before. Blockonomics currently has a team of 7 people spread throughout 4 continents. There are 3 members of the marketing team, and 3 on the software development and design.

Blockonomics—How It All Started?

Blockonomics started as a Wallet Watcher to track a large number of bitcoin addresses. Sitamraju himself is a bitcoin enthusiast, and was facing problems with monitoring and tracking multiple bitcoin addresses, which made him create 'Wallet Watcher' as a tool to help himself out. In December 2014, Sitamaraju launched Blockonomics Wallet Watcher on the bitcointalk forum. The initial response of the bitcoin community on Blockonomics' Wallet Watcher was very good and it was very heartening for the Blockonomics team to constantly receive feedback on features to add to the product.

"We used community forums like bitcoin talk, StackExchange, and Reddit. These channels are most important to build your MVP into an actual startup. Even though the growth of user metrics may be slow using these channels, they are valuable to build user trust and help to steer you in the correct direction. In 2015, Blockonomics' thread became hugely popular on Reddit bitcoin. Even though we had very few users and zero revenue, constant feedback from customers and a sense that this product is getting used kept us going" says Shiva Sitamraju.

However, after 2 years, when Blockonomics monetized its Wallet Watcher, the team soon realized that the revenue stream for the product was very less. So the company started diversifying its offerings.

"Though some people were willing to pay for the Wallet Watcher, the amount was very less and creating pressure on our margins. After looking at some other services that were selling e-commerce payment plugins, we realized that this market was a good fit for our product which already had backend ability to serve blockchain queries" says Shiva about the initial challenges of the startup.

Blockonomics—Work Culture

Blockonomics' work culture has always been completely remote (even before covid).

When Shiva started to recruit remote work, he had two simple rules:

Hire from anywhere in the world
Don't look at resumes

The company never had an office and the team has never been restricted to geographical boundaries. Also, the team avoids holding unnecessary meetings and has only one meeting per week. All work is done asynchronously using tools like Slack, Trello, Github. This gives employees more flexibility and there is no assigned office time (you don’t need to be online 9-5). This also means all team members are independent / self-driven and there is a trust that no one needs monitoring/ management.

Blockonomics Team at Prague Wordpress Conference 2018

Blockonomics—Revenue Model

For the Address Watcher Users, Blockonomics charges a flat subscription fee. The subscription fee ranges from 0- 20 USD per month based on address limits and API features. While, for merchants, the company offers the first 10 payments free and thereafter charges a 1% fee on payments.

Blockonomics—Challenges

Building a viable business has been the major challenge for the Blockonomics team. Shiva was from a tech background and he did not have any entrepreneurial experience. It took him quite some time to become able to handle a business. Initially, Blockonomics had very few users and earned almost zero revenue. The team had to dig through business knowledge from podcasts/books and learn on the road.

Blockonomics—Growth

Despite all the struggle, Blockonomics has today established itself as a sustainable and profitable company that is making a difference. Some major growth parameter achieved by Blockonomics are-

Active WordPress installs - 3000+
Total merchant store installs - 10,000+
Blockonomics is monitoring 300,000+ addresses
140,000 payments have been processed through Blockonomics payment plugin/payment button/URL
6,500 P2P invoices have been created through the platform.

While there are many who are still confused and unsure about Bitcoins, startups like Blockonomics are doing a good job in making more and more people confident about using Bitcoins by making Bitcoin transactions easy.

Blockonomics—FAQ's

What is Blockonomics?

Blockonomics is a decentralized Bitcoin payment solution that provides you with specialized transactional tools to enhance your BTC use. A bitcoin payment gateway that is decentralized and permission-less.

Is Blockonomics safe?

Blockonomics is built on a P2P connection, making it safe and secure as it does not save your private keys. Users also prefer Blockonomics to other payment processing platforms due to its permission-less, peer-to-peer structure.

How do I pay my bitcoin wallet?

If an online merchant has the option of Bitcoin payments, you just need to copy their Bitcoin address and paste it into a designated field on your wallet. Type in the right amount of bitcoins into the payment box and click 'send'.

How can I check my Bitcoin balance?

You can use Blockchain.info. Just paste the address you want to check into the Search input box and the website will show you all the transactions where that address was involved, as well as the balance.

Who gets the money when you buy Bitcoin?

A buyer and seller agree on a price and a trade is executed over an exchange. So our $50k investor buys that amount of bitcoins and the seller receives the $50k in the form of a cash deposit. That seller may now keep it in the bank, buy other cryptos or withdraw it and spend it in any way they choose.

Can Bitcoin be converted to cash?

There are several ways to convert bitcoin to cash and ultimately move it to a bank account: Sell bitcoin on a cryptocurrency exchange, such as Coinbase or Kraken. This is the easiest method if you want to sell bitcoin and withdraw the resulting cash directly to a bank account.

Blockonomics—Conclusion

Blockonomics is a platform that is a decentralized Bitcoin payment solution. Blockonomics provides you with specialized transactional tools to enhance your BTC use. It is a decentralized and permission-less bitcoin payment solution. Its services enhance the wallets you already own. Their aim is to accept bitcoin directly without any mediator and present an invoice anonymously. They are huge fans of decentralization and cryptography.

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