The Future of the Blockchain Industry — Trends and Conclusions from Blockchain Summits
Last month, our team flew to Asia to attend several blockchain events. Our goal was to catch up with the industry news and make some new connections. Even for the fast-moving measures of the crypto space, some notable changes were highlighted at the events.
Blockchain and investor conference? Nah, more like web summits and expos.
For those who got used to the “old times” Consensus, well … the vibe was fairly different this year. First of all, it was not exclusively a Blockchain event, but a joint conference with AI/IoT/MVNO and Blockchain. In a CoinDesk-powered event. Times are changing indeed.
Other notable difference was that among the presented companies we see fewer and fewer pitches but tons of advisory firms and service providers. Moreover, almost all the projects we saw were infrastructural initiatives.
On the other hand, it was interesting to see that enterprises and major investment firms that had been avoiding Blockchain in the previous years were now jumping in the crypto space with both feet.
Blockchain has achieved industry status, but it is still a young one full of questions and possibilities.
Based on the conversations I had, this is how I would summarize the current state of the market: consumer money has left the industry, security tokens are the next big thing, enterprises are biting, hope is in the air, and the future is open-sourced and tokenized.
In other words: business as usual in the crypto market.
It has been a fun ride for a lot of ICOs, but the dust is starting to settle.
I first entered the crypto space in 2015, so I have seen the industry go through numerous changes. It is hard to argue that the ICO market space is losing momentum and is transforming into more complicated legal and financial structures. There is a clear sign that the market is getting more demanding of utility tokens, while the Blockchain community is getting more and more excited about security token offerings.
Plus, the regulators are getting the message: the Swiss Exchange is ready to tokenize traditional securities while the CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange) is about to do the same with commodities. They can not avoid much longer to offer a framework for security offerings.
Paying Youtube influencers and advisers to promote a project does not cut it anymore. Due diligence of crypto investors nowadays is almost as thorough as that of traditional VCs. Don’t get me wrong; there is still a high demand for infrastructure projects and utility tokens, believers in Blockchain and cryptocurrencies are not discouraged by the fraudulent activity that has tainted cryptos and ICOs. BUT offers that have poor utility value, don’t solve real problems and lack the real usage of tokens will die along the way.
Even now, numerous pre-ICO projects are issuing utility tokens only because of one thing: they need the money right away. Strong, well-funded projects are either waiting or creating a double model in which they can issue utility tokens and security tokens at the same time.
The boom of security tokens has not started yet, but I believe that it is destined to happen in the near future. Enterprises, key market players along with more sophisticated investors are standing on the sideline, they are gathering information and are waiting for the right moment to jump in. However, many challenges persist when it comes to broad adoption: one of the biggest is that few exchanges are available for security tokens but this may change as early as next month — or so we heard.
That is the space where CentrumCoin wants to be.
Conclusion
The industry is clearly maturing, expectations are higher than ever, and those who aren’t adapting will be left behind. Probably the most significant change what we can see now is that the interest from established, known enterprises towards the crypto space is on the rise.
Security token offerings are emerging from the ashes of many dead ICOs.
Among many, the advantages of tokenization include transparency, global applicability, increased liquidity, fractionalization of larger assets, lower issuance fees. There is no doubt that tokenization will disrupt how capital is raised.
So if you have assets or your company wants to raise debt for a new project that is cashflow backed, it is a time for you to enter the token space!
