Jan 8, 2021
We would like to keep our clients, partners and followers informed about the progress block42 makes. Therefore, we regularly publish a company update summarizing the most important activities. So check out what we’ve achieved in the last quarter of 2020.
Contributions to our vision
There’re thousands of companies out there who state fancy-sounding vision statements. But many of them are failing in actually acting according to it and “be the change they seek”. At block42 we’re on a mission to the moon. But in our case, our moon is not a celestial body humans try to inhabit, but a specific state we want to see our world in:
We envision a world of shared prosperity.
What we see are two major roadblocks to achieve this state:
- We face extraordinary inefficient, unreliable and unnecessary services and processes.
- On the other hand, power and influence are accumulated by very few.
In both areas, we see distributed ledger technology as a game-changer. It’s not only about being far more transparent and decentralized. Billions of dollars can be saved by breaking up data silos, connecting data via distributed ledgers and removing unnecessary intermediaries in processes. Furthermore, DLT and blockchain technology amplifies the equality of opportunities. Have a look for example at DeFI protocols. In a matter of seconds, people are granted access to a flourishing open financial ecosystem. Someone can trade its assets without any intermediaries at insignificantly low costs. No centralized authority can grant (or restrict) this access.
So the question is “How do we, at block42, contribute to the vision of a world of shared prosperity?”
Essentially, we push towards our mission in four major categories: Co-Building the Blockchain Infrastructure, Providing Liquidity, Raising Awareness, Securing Networks.
Co-Building the Blockchain Infrastructure
Blockchain won’t be able to release its full potential and bring the aforementioned advantages to our world, without a solid infrastructure. It’s the same as with the Internet 20+ years ago. Without TCP/IP, Webservers, the WWW, etc. no Google, Facebook or Amazon would exist today. At block42 we’re pioneers in the field of blockchain technology. With our Labs team, we heavily contribute to building up this infrastructure by developing Smart Contracts, tools and applications which strengthen the entire ecosystem.
Providing Liquidity
Our business unit Ventures is responsible for moving liquidity into the digital asset market. We supported dozens of teams with early-stage investments, which let them make progress on their projects. At the same time, we’re acting like an anchor to the “old economy” by bringing traditional investors closer to this new asset class, which will, eventually, attract even more liquidity to the digital asset space.
Raising Awareness
So many times I get asked what my job is:
Me: “I’m working in the blockchain space…”
Random guy: “Block-WHAT??”
30 minutes full of bullshit-bingo later, I still look into quite confused faces, but most of the time my opponent seems to grasp the idea behind this technology. So every time I or one of block42’s team members advocate for this wonderful new technology we contribute a little bit for reaching its mass adoption. But we do that not only in one-to-one talks, but we also hold lectures, presentations and do training about blockchain technology and its use cases. Furthermore, we build tangible, easy-to-understand applications, which demonstrate the technology’s potential. For instance, we did this together with the Gin producer STIN, where we secured 999 bottles of limited STIN via a blockchain, which generated buzz not only in the crypto world but also in traditional sectors.
Securing Networks
Last but not least, we secure the infrastructure of several networks by running nodes on our own. Only if sufficient nodes are up and running a network can be fully decentralized, which is kind of the essence of every public blockchain. Some of the nodes we’re providing can be seen in this list.
So let me answer the question if we contribute to our vision, with a clear “yes we do!”
Project Overview
In the last months, we were able to finish some projects as well as start several promising new activities. One of them is a R&D project funded by Austrian research agency FFG. The overall goal is to develop a Blockchain-as-a-service platform consisting of several tools to reduce the complexity of getting up to speed with various blockchain networks and applications. One group we target are operators of blockchain nodes. With a dashboard and a notification service the set up as well as maintenance of nodes should be simplified by a lot. The second customer group we target are blockchain applications developers and operators. Again, the goal is here to remove the hurdles for utilizing blockchain technology.
In cooperation with Graz Unisversity of Technology, Institute of Production Engineering, we developed an application for tracking battery cells on blockchain within an assembly line. Several stakeholders throughout the battery cell’s lifecycle can identify the object via a data matrix code and retrieve as well as add data on the ledger. A comprehensive set of data for the entire supply chain can be built on that. For the blockchain (DLT) implementation the IOTA tangle was used.
As already mentioned above, we secured 999 bottles of GIN via ICON’s blockchain network. For the hardware integration, we relied on the expertise of Infineon, as of one of the world’s leading semi-conductor manufacturers. Their SECORA Blockchain NFC-solution provided us the secure anchor in the physical world.
A major security aspect of each Proof-of-Stake (PoS) network is to stake/lock tokens. The only issue with that: tokens which are locked can’t be moved around and therefore not used in the ecosystem. We tackled this issue with our project LICX (liquid ICX) on the ICON blockchain. Users benefit from both, securing the network by staking their ICX tokens and therefore getting rewards. On the other hand they can freely move their “liquidized” token around and use it as usual. We managed it to bring the first version of LICX live this quarter.
“Connecting blockchain-based applications to the masses” is the claim for ICON Bridge, which we built in cooperation with ICX Station and Parrot9. We were able to finish our part of the development with the end of November and are now excited for seeing this amazing product coming to life.
Furthermore, we’re cooperating with several open, decentralized networks to accelerate their growth. Among these networks there are Fantom, Terra, Thorchain and many more.
Welcome, David!
Being a developer on his own for several years brought him deep knowledge about software development and architecture. He then used this experience to coordinate large software projects in the aviation industry, before he decided to join block42 as a project manager. We’re delighted to have you on board, David!
We plan to keep on recruiting new members. So stay update to date on our open job positions!
