Technology

Fintech startup Robinhood is expanding its cryptocurrency trading product with two new token listings. Users in selected states can now trade Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash from the app.

Robinhood is currently providing one of the easiest ways to get started with cryptocurrencies. You can download the app, upload some money and buy tokens in just a few minutes.

But there are a few caveats. First, Robinhood is only available in the U.S. if you want to trade stocks, ETFs and options. And if you&re interesting Robinhood Crypto more specifically, it is only available in 17 states.

Robinhood also claims that thereno fee on cryptocurrency trading. Given the liquidity of cryptocurrency exchanges, therealways some spread. It means that if you buy one bitcoin and if you sell one bitcoin, there will be a tiny gap between those two prices because of the tiny order book. Saying that thereno fee is misleading.

The startup doesn&t operate an exchange itself. It acts as a broker with other exchanges. Thatwhy it doesn&t make sense to say that Robinhood is going to kill Coinbase. Robinhood is most likely partnering with Coinbase behind the scene as one of its exchanges for instance. On a user experience level, Robinhood Crypto competes with Coinbasemain product and Circle Invest.

The company has created a second company that doesn&t comply with the same regulatory framework because itnot a broker dealer. You can currently trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash.

Unfortunately, Robinhood doesn&t let you manage your wallet addresses. It means that you can&t send or receive tokens from another wallet. You have to convert to fiat currency first. But itstill a dead simple way to get started on this market.

Does Brexit mean blockchain The UK government has published awhitepaper — some two years in the baking — where it sets out its fuzzy thinking in an attempt to move beyond two years of Brexit fudge by squashing its warring factions behind a compromise customs arrangement to try to live up to its promise of a &future relationship with the European Union&, i.e. without lashings of fudge.

Unfortunately though, for citizen sanity, business reality, and, well, anyone not happy gambling everything on fantastically functional systems that don&t exist yet, itstill leaning heavily on undefined technological solutions to try to make its alternative customs arrangement fly. (Or, more realistically, limp towards another accusation ofmagical thinkingby the EU.)

Instead of the current Customs Union, which the UK is part of as a member of the EU, the government is proposing entering into what it calls a &facilitated customs arrangement& (FCA) with the EU — which it wants to cover goods (services would not be included in this arrangement).

It fondly imagines this FCA would&remove the need for customs checks and controls between the UK and the EU as if in a combined customs territory, while enabling the UK to control tariffs for its own trade with the rest of the world and ensure businesses pay the right tariff&.

So, in other words, this is the desperately sought for ‘frictionless& Brexit border outside the Custom Unions — in order that the UK can go around the world trying to strike its own trade deals (which it cannot do if it stays inside the EUCustoms Union).

The UK plan to circle this square is for it to apply tariffs on all imported goods at the border, rather than EU tariffs — but then track the goods and, if they subsequently get sent to the EU, apply the EU tariff — and send the money where itthen due (i.e. to the EU). Honest!

Which raises the obvious question of how goods will be effectively tracked in order for tariffs to be correctly calculated and/or remitted.

The risk of customs fraud draining EU (and/or indeed UK) coffers via a badly implemented version of this arrangement, or probably just by this arrangement, is clear.

&The UK recognises that the rules and processes governing eligibility for repayment, including risk profiling and effectively targeted audit and assurance activity, must be sufficiently robust to ensure the mechanism cannot be used to improperly evade EU or UK tariffs and duties, through methods such as re-exporting of goods from the UK to the EU, or vice versa,& the government itself admits in the whitepaper.

Meanwhile, thereno suggestion that EU negotiators have any intention of accepting its proposal. Even though it took the UK two years to come up with. But here we all still are. (Well, minus a few cabinet ministers.)

The UKgreat white hope is that cutting-edge technologies will save the day. Along with it agreeing to abide by a &common rule book& and the Union Customs Code.

But of course just saying you have a rulebook and not checking and enforcing those rules isn&t any good at all, as Facebook has been finding out lately.

And so technology.

The whitepaper specifically mentions the possibility of &exploring how machine learning and artificial intelligence could allow traders to automate the collection and submission of data required for customs declarations& — i.e. to try to streamline the repayment mechanism that this FCA idea demands.

But the whitepapersuggestive techno-solutioneering goes further — describing something that sounds suspiciously like a blockchain.

Or, actually,lots and lots and lots of blockchains. Implying that, at the very margins of ministerial thought processes, someone, somewhere in Whitehall is dreaming that Brexit means blockchain, all the way down.

The buzzword is not explicitly mentioned in the governmentwhitepaper. But what else could a secure, shareable &chain of transactions& be referring to…

It writes:

This could also include exploring how allowing data sharing across borders, including potentially the storing of the entire chain of transactions for each goods consignment, while enabling that data to be shared securely between traders and across relevant government departments, could reduce the need for repeated input of the same data, and help to combat import and export fraud.

So there you have it. Brexit could mean blockchains at the border, immutably ledgering every little thing that passes into and out of the UK, forever and ever, until crypto amen.

Assuming, that is, the govermentFCA idea doesn&t get slung back towards the English Channel stat by an immutable EU.

But as we wait for probable rejection of the latest Brexit hash, are there any crypto startups out there who reckon they have what it takes to put Brexit on the blockchain

We&re all ears. Ideas in the comments pls. We&ll fwd anything that sounds even a satoshi baked straight to DExEU— because they&re clearly in need of every little bit and byte of help they can get to try and make something — anything, please! — stick.

Alternatively, perhaps this is a job for Elon Musk We hear hegood at making stuff that can pass through incredibly bounded and contorted spaces. And Brexit most definitely means that.

When we put out the call for early-stage startups to apply to be a TC Top Pick at Disrupt San Francisco 2018, which takes place September 5-7, we knew we were in for something good. But crikey! The competition was fierce, and narrowing the field to a cohort of 60 startups was no easy task. Fortunately, we love a challenge, and our work here is done. Read on to find the list of winners and what they receive.

TC Top Picks is our latest way to shine a spotlight on amazing pre-Series A startup founders. We carefully reviewed and vetted each application and chose only five startups from each of these categories: AI, AR/VR, Blockchain, Biotech/Healthtech, Fintech, Gaming, Privacy/Security, Space, Mobility, Retail or Robotics/IoT/Hardware.

These TC Top Pick founders have won a free Startup Alley Exhibitor Package, which includes a one-day exhibit space in Startup Alley, three Founder passes (good for all three days of the show), use ofCrunchMatch— our investor-to-startup matching platform — and access to the Disrupt SF 2018 press list. They also will receive a three-minute interview on the Showcase Stage with a TechCrunch editor — and we&ll promote that video across our social media platforms.

Without further ado, here are our TC Top Picks for Disrupt SF 2018.

AI

• Jack Automation Technologies: A conversational platform for automated messaging and voice experiences with tenants/residents for all property types and portfolio sizes.
• ConserWater Technologies: AI to grow more plants or crops with fewer resources.
• Rosey: A web platform that automatically grades freely written text for teachers and provides meaningful feedback to students.
• Vence: Reinventing livestock management. An invisible fence/Fitbit for livestock, which eliminates costs and increases profits for customers.
• 3DLOOK: Develops the most advanced mobile body scanning tech for apparel brands and e-commerce and retail.

AR/VR

• COZYO: An interior design technology for e-commerce optimization.
• KeepEyeOnBall: Virtual reality and virtual 360º tours software development.
• ORBI Inc.: Specializes in developing innovative 360° imaging technology that captures lifebest moments.
• Skrite Labs: A sky-based augmented reality platform.

Blockchain

• Airfox: Offers a free Android app to extend critical financial services to billions of unbanked and underbanked people in emerging markets around the globe.
• Zeehaus: Real estate marketplace with equity sharing fractional ownership.
• Omega Grid: A peer-to-peer blockchain energy platform for utilities.
• Humaniq: A London-based fintech firm that provides next-generation financial services using its blockchain-based mobile application.
• LifeBank Technology and Logistics Services: A platform that makes blood available when and where it is needed in Nigeria to save lives.

Biotech - Health

• Slighter: A smart device with cutting-edge smart technology that helps you master your smoking habit and reduce cigarette consumption.
• Listen Longer: Track personal sound exposure in your ear for safe, lifelong enjoyment of your music.
• Actijoy: A sophisticated system for monitoring doggyactivity, health, rest and water and food intake.
• Circadia Technologies: Wireless sleep sensor and personalized sleep coach to improve your sleep, mood and energy.
• Virtue: An award-winning startup that applies the research-proven benefits of virtual reality to improve mental wellness.

Fintech

• ID R-D: Developer of biometric authentication for conversational interface (voice, behavioral).
• Oxygen: Banking and lending for the massive gig economy.
• Mount Wish: Fully automated mutual insurance for FICC risks (Fixed Income, Currencies, Commodities) and digital CIB front office.
• SimbaPay: A mobile application that offers money transfer services to its users.

Gaming

• SportsMe: Turn sports fandom into a mobile video game.
• Storyball: A screenless gaming console that keeps children active, playful and engaged.
• Sonder Design: Infinite possibilities at your fingertips, with the worldfirst E Ink keyboard.

Privacy/Security

• Carbn: A developer of data and privacy management software for business customers.
• Openpath: An access control system that grants entry to locations.
• UATAG: Unique authentication tag for product originality verification and counterfeit protection.

Space

• Audacy: A space communications service provider.
• Infostellar: A satellite antenna sharing platform.

Mobility

• Cargofy: Virtual AI-assistant for owner-operators.
• Einride: A cargo and freight company that designs and builds technologies for transportation systems.
• Toposens: Builds robust, ultra-low power and low-cost 3D ultrasound and radar sensors for smart buildings and autonomous vehicles.
• Caaresys: An Israeli startup that develops a vehicle passenger monitoring system based on contactless low-emission radio frequency radar.
• Rideshare Sellers: In-vehicle headrest advertisement delivery system for rideshare.

Retail

• GreenSTOP: An ancillary cannabis technology company that utilizes hardware and software to automate the retail cannabis industry.
• Garbi: A smart trash can that can recognize anything you throw away and reorder it with the tap of a button.
• Eazyloop Express: A platform that delivers packages from the USA to Ghana.
• Resonado: Introduces patented audio hardware that enables essential solutions to the sound experience.
• SmartBins: Promotes shopper traffic to the bulk aisle boosting high-margin bulk sales.

Robotics, Hardware and IoT

• Cedar Robotics: Revolutionizing the restaurant industry with menu digitization, cloud infrastructure and robotics.
• Robotic Materials: Materials that make robots smart.
• Orby: Flying robots for your business.
• Livin: Creating products and services that improve peoplelives where they use water.
• Mitte: The worldfirst smart water system that unites water purification with enhancement.

If you missed out on applying to be a TC Top Pick and exhibiting for free, itnot too late to buy a Startup Alley Exhibitor Package and showcase your startup alongside 1,200+ companies and sponsors in Startup Alley. Exhibiting makes sense for early-stage founders, but don&t just take our word for it. Luke Heron, the CEO ofTestCard.com, had this to say following his Startup Alley experience:

If you&re a startup or an entrepreneur, exhibiting at Disrupt is a no-brainer.

Disrupt San Francisco 2018takes place September 5-7 at Moscone Center West. Come join us and discover new opportunities. We can&t wait to see you there!