Malaysian Blockchain Companies To Watch In 2018 (Part 1)
Behind the scenes, Malaysian blockchain companies have been popping up across the nation, each with their own vision for a more decentralised future economy. With blockchain’s limitless scope to disrupt technology from all angles, the number of legitimate use cases for distributed ledger technology steadily rises, and more and more Malaysian technology companies are getting on board.
With Blocfest just 3 months away, we wanted to take the opportunity to introduce you to a myriad of homegrown, Malaysian blockchain companies that are currently spearheading the industry. Here are 6 to start you off with.
XENCHAIN
In a nutshell…
Xenchain are working hard to tackle the problems inherent within the identity verification sector. They attempt to solve the painstakingly slow process of manual document authentication by combining e-KYC and facial recognition technology. The overarching vision however is to build a platform where personal data and asset identification data can be accessed, managed and stored in a secured, immutable and irrefutable distributed blockchain.
Blockchain technology grants them the ability to enhance personal data security by decentralising the location of the data — i.e. storing it on a public ledger which keeps data safe from breaches. Data is validated by other users on the network to ensure its credibility, before it makes its way onto the Xenchain network.
What to look out for?
Xenchain are currently in their Pre-ICO phase. By August 2018, they aim to have a beta version of the Xenchain platform, which will include blockchain storage capabilities.
EPC BLOCKCHAIN / BLOCKCHAIN ENERGY SAVINGS CONSORTIUM (BESC)
In a nutshell…
Also known by the name EPC Blockchain, BESC’s mission statement sets out to tackle a bold and serious problem: climate change. By incentivising the general public to invest into energy efficient and renewable energy products, they hope to mitigate the destructive effects of climate change.
Distributed ledger technology allow them to safely and accurately track every facility’s energy generation and their savings. Projects can be crowdfunded through their revolutionary crowdfunding model, and they are also looking into building a credible CO2 token monetisation and trading platform.
What to look out for?
EPC Blockchain will be showcasing their product at Grill or Chill. where they are dedicating June’s theme to ‘CleanEnergy’.
NEM
In a nutshell…
NEM has established themselves as a household name for many in the blockchain industry, and there’s little surprise why. They have built an incredibly successful enterprise-grade protocol to power the blockchain economy, and at the time of writing, sits comfortably in the top 20 blockchain projects by market cap.
Originally intended to be a fork of NXT, the community instead voted for an entirely new codebase to be built from the ground-up. The alpha version of the protocol was released in June 2014.
NEM prides itself over scale and speed, delivering industry-leading transaction rates for internal ledgers. Its revolutionary consensus mechanism, in combination with the Supernode program, ensures the open-source blockchain can flourish without ever compromising throughput or stability.
A handful of notable projects built on the NEM ecosystem include:
- Bankera
- COMSA
- PundiX
- WeChat Payment App — NEM WeChat Wallet
What to look out for?
NEM recently opened the first blockchain center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Serving as an incubator, accelerator and co-working space, the KL Blockchain Center is an impressive space and puts Malaysia on the map as an integral hub for blockchain development in Southeast Asia. The KL Blockchain Center will play host to a variety of KL Blockchain Week events this September. Click here for more info.
COINGECKO
In a nutshell…
Coingecko pride themselves as the industry’s “360 degree overview of cryptocurrencies”.
They are a ranking and evaluation site that breaks cryptocurrencies down into easily digestible quantitative and qualitative data. They cover a number of different metrics: the basics such as price and volume, but their unique value lies in their metrics for developer, community, and public interest scores for each coin/token. From these metrics, one can gather an impression of how valuable one coin is compared to others.
They have gained support from the Malaysian government agency, MaGIC, and have spoken at conferences worldwide.
What to look out for?
Coingecko is still in its beta stages and looks to continuously add more coins to their selection.
LUXTAG
In a nutshell…
Luxtag have created a decentralised app to combat counterfeit and intellectual property theft, securing your valuable assets via the power of blockchain. They are pioneers of digitised certificates of authenticity, which can be used to protect all types of products from machines, to vehicles and more.
Users have agency over the supply chain process, and customers can take advantage of the business intelligence features available to them. As a result, LuxTag propels the tried and tested ‘proof-of-existence’ model to the next level.
What to look out for
Malaysian artist Poesy Liang and Luxtag recently teamed up to implement a blockchain solution that authenticates and records provenance of Liang’s artwork. Check out the full story here. A real Malaysian blockchain use-case!
ETHERSCAN
In a nutshell…
Etherscan is the dominant BlockExplorer for the Ethereum blockchain. For those unsure what a BlockExplorer is, it is essentially a search engine that gives anyone the ability to lookup, confirm and validate transactions that have happened on the Ethereum blockchain.
Etherscan was founded by Malaysian national, Matthew Tan, who has amassed over 15 years in the IT industry, with experience in managing, operating and developing technical solutions for clients across a variety of industries.
Matthew is also the creator of: Blockchain 2.0 Explorer, API & Analytics Platforms Etherscan.io (Ethereum Smart Contracts Platform), Blockscan.com (Counterparty Tech) and is also a Co-Founder of a 20 person internet and web software related services development company.
What to look out for…
Check out their resources page for a handy, sectioned out ‘bible’ of all things Ethereum-related.
With a raft of respected blockchain thought-leaders from Malaysia and around the world set to feature, Blocfest’s focus will be on blockchain’s immense potential in the Southeast Asian region, where the technology has already made great headway.
Blocfest is set to launch 26–27 September, and guests are invited to also join us for KL Blockchain Week.
Find out more about our speakers by clicking here.
