Asia Forging the Path with Blockchain — And why you should be paying attention.

Crypto Suss
Sep 8, 2018 · 5 min read

To those who observe trends in emerging technology, it is becoming ever clearer that Blockchain is a revolution growing exponentially year on year. While many of us in the west, especially in the USA, are often caught up in headlines, regulatory debacles and decisions from government and financial institutions, countries in Asia are ploughing ahead and forging a path for Blockchain.

Early Adopters

There are so many exciting crypto and blockchain projects coming out of Asia at the moment. With such a large potential customer base, many projects are vying to establish themselves and gain a slice of the market. With a population of 4.4 Billion people, Asia boasts more people than every other continent on earth combined.

When we break this down even further, 32.5% of this 4.4 Billion population is between the ages of 15–34 years old. It is worth noting that this demographic are particularly tech friendly, having grown up in a world with the internet. Many of whom would consider themselves digitally native.

The possibilities to leverage this amount of people, and all the data they are already producing are almost endless.

So how do they differ from the west?

With a rapidly growing populations, many countries in Asia skipped right over the adoption of debit and credit cards. They went straight to native mobile and digital payments instead. Smartphone applications such as WeChat and AliPay have allowed the Asian population to incorporate digital wallets into their everyday lives. They are able to pay bills, transfer money to friends and pay for products and services with their smartphone.

While we have already began to adopt similar tech in the west with the likes of Venmo, Apple Pay and GPay, people in Asia have been doing this for much longer. Every business, small retail store and street broker have unique QR codes that they use to accept payment for everything.

Due to digital payments being so ingrained in the Asian culture, blockchain and crypto payments are a natural evolution. A large, young tech savvy population are primed for this new wave of technology and various projects are moving to make this happen.

South Korea

South Korea is leading the charge to position themselves as a blockchain industry pioneer. They are one of the most well adopted countries to cryptocurrency. One out of every three South Koreans either owns cryptocurrency or gets paid in it. The South Korean minister of finance has even stated that cryptocurrencies pose a legitimate threat to the traditional fiat system and that central banks should consider the adoption of these emerging technologies.

South Korea are doing everything in their power to catalyse adoption. The South Korean government recently announced that they will double their Blockchain trials in Blockchain in 2019.

China

There is somewhat of a misconception around the attitude of China towards Blockchain and cryptocurrencies. While there have been certain restrictions and regulations on digital assets in China, its government and large corporations continue to inject time and resources into this emerging tech. Giant Chinese organisations such as Alibaba and JD are already investing huge sums of money into Blockchain research.

These mixed signals can be interpreted in many ways. The entire nature of Bitcoin and many cryptocurrencies is decentralisation, which, after all, is the antithesis of a centralised one party government that is currently at the helm in China. It appears that China is more concerned with clamping down on actual cryptocurrencies that pose a threat to the existing financial system. They seem happier to bolster the underlying tech of Blockchain to further develop and expand the economy.

India

The staggering growing population in India are another group of digital natives ready to adopt a decentralised future. Crypto adoption is on the rise in India. This is especially the case since government attempts to demonetise their currency and go digital last year. Attempts to go towards a cashless society last year saw the Indian government declare that certain bank notes would become obsolete. In an attempt to take back control of their own financial situation many Indian people turned to cryptocurrency at a time when the market was booming. No doubt that further attempts at demonetisation from government will see Indians flock to crypto in higher numbers.

Asian Projects

There are so many great Asian projects taking the lead in the crypto space. We recently wrote about Vechain and how they are positioning themselves as an open enterprise public blockchain platform. Below are some of the top Blockchain and crypto projects in Asia that are worth checking out:

  • NEO — Dubbed the Chinese version of Ethereum, NEO is a blockchain protocol for the creation of smart contracts, digital assets and digital identity.
  • VechainVechain is a global enterprise level public blockchain platform.
  • Icon — Icon is a South Korean project that is a decentralised network that allows independent blockchains with different governances to transact with one another without intermediaries.
  • Matrix AI Network — As we previously wrote about, Matrix AI Network is an open source public intelligent Blockchain platform. They are leveraging Artificial Intelligence to enhance and improve smart contracts and blockchain transactions.
  • Binance — Binance has become the largest exchange in the world in the space of just over one year in operation. Their native token BNB has been one of the best performing altcoins in the recent bear market. Binance are also building out a decentralised exchange for the future decentralised economy.
  • Wanchain — Wanchain is a very ambitious project and is the world’s first interoperable blockchain with secure multi party computing. They are building out a platform to allow other blockchains to interact with one another.
  • Waltonchain — Waltonchain is creating a business blockchain ecosystem integraiting with Internet of Things (IOT) technology.

There are so many great projects based in Asia worth checking out. These are just a few of our favourite making moves in the crypto space right now.

Originally published at cryptosuss.com on September 8, 2018.

Cryptosuss

Helping the earth to understand the decentralised economy. News, reviews and tutorials for everyone to get started in crypto.

Crypto Suss

Written by

Cryptosuss

Helping the earth to understand the decentralised economy. News, reviews and tutorials for everyone to get started in crypto.

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