Blockstream is a private, for profit, blockchain technology company, that has played a key role in helping to develop, and fund, many of the key features of the Bitcoin Core platform. Blockstream is focused on developing bitcoin applications and has raised significant funding from several large investment funds. The company also employs several developers that are very influential within the Bitcoin Core development project. This, as well as being of Bitcoin's largest donors, has led to some criticism about conflicts of interest.
Blockstream is developing a number of Bitcoin applications that are intended to encourage adoption and improve transaction times on the bitcoin network. Their primary focus is on Sidechains, which are are extensions to existing blockchains that improve their functionality. The company is also working closely with industry leaders to create the Bitcoin Lightning system that will support higher trading volume and faster transactions on the bitcoin network. Blockstream is also developing a data feed, satellite network, and other applications that they hope will make blockchain more accessible.

Alqo is developing an ecosystem of decentralized products and services that will be powered by the Alqo coin (XLQ). Their blockchain-based ecosystem enables instant and anonymous transactions. The XLQ coin is designed to be a multipurpose coin that will be used by all projects in the "Alqo Planetary System." Alqo is currently building Bitfineon (cryptocurrency exchange) and Payinx (payment solution for merchants). They plan on adding more projects (planets) to their ecosystem later. The Alqo network uses a modified Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism and an improved version of Zerocoin for encryption. The Alqo DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) uses a Carbon Voting system to resolve governance issues.