Blockchain trends in 2020 — Picking the brains of the industry brightest minds — Part 2
In Part 1 of Blockchain Trends in 2020 Jamie of Outlier Ventures, Brian and Marta of Hyperledger, and Evangelos of Ocyan shared their thought on what happened in 2019 and what they think will mark the Blockchain space in 2020.
In part 2 more Blockchain leaders talk about the trends they envision and what this year brought them.
Enjoy!
If you can describe the Blockchain & DLT space in 2019 in one word what would it be and why?
2019 has been a year of building and maintenance. We saw a lot of movements in the market, that produced positive and negative results. Some projects were not able to withstand the fluctuations and due to poor money management, they had to shut down. Other projects endured 2019 and focused on reaching their goals, which is admirable and I wish each and everyone the best of success in 2020! On a positive note, we witnessed, how countries like Germany and France moved into a more inclusive space, concerning blockchain and crypto and news like the legal framework in Franc end the Stuttgart Stock Exchange planning to allow crypto trading, show clearly that governments show increased interest in the possibilities and technology of DLT. Liechtenstein passed the Blockchain Act, which was an important milestone reached, in the overall strive towards adoption. China announced that it will focus on supporting and driving blockchain technology forward, which has shown a positive incentive around the world. On the product side, it is safe to say that infrastructures realised the immense need for products that are using their technology, hence rise of investments and accelerators in the. space, with Aeternity Starfleet leading the way towards a well-rounded curriculum for blockchain projects.
Nikola Stojanow, CEO of Aeternity Ventures
Transition. As a whole, in 2019 the ecosystem appeared to embrace the transition from ’new kid on the block’ to ‘we have real work to do in solving real world problems’. The ecosystem is focusing more on real applications, business models, and scaling. It’s an exciting time to be building.
Matt Cutler, Founder & CEO of Blocknative
Experimentation! 2019 has continued the trend of enterprises experimenting. The finger-dipping exercises of the last year have encouraged further experimentation this year while dragging along new experimenters.
The bad news is that few of the POCs have made it to production. Looking beyond the surface level, the situation is not that bleak, though. In previous years, POCs were failing due to lack of “product-market-fit”, this year struggles with adoption, are due to, much more fixable reasons — technological immaturity.
George Spasov, Founder & Cheif Blockchain Architect at LimeChain
Launch.
Gustav Arentoft, Business Development at MakerDAO
What dynamics do you expect to see in the Blockchain & DLT space in 2020?
There are multiple things which I expect to happen in 2020. One of the biggest events will be the halving of BTC mining difficulty, which could either create a new upwards trend, like we have seen in 2017, or a downward trend, as we have been experiencing, since 2018. We expect that more countries follow China’s example in terms of focusing on blockchain technology. During the 2018–2019 period, we witnessed a product-focussed approach, which is why I am expecting to see more and more products reaching market ready status and deploying in 2020.
Nikola Stojanow, CEO of Aeternity Ventures
A focus on building real products that solve real problems for real people in the real world. At scale.
Matt Cutler, Founder & CEO of Blocknative
The internal improvements made by the major DLT technology groups have increased the potential to address real-world issues significantly. It is a matter of time that the experimenters start utilising the new advancements and finally hop the hurdle between POC and MVP. It is quite likely that this will happen in 2020. The current hot topic is the interoperability between different DLT technologies. Evident by the EEA and Hyperledger cross-joining their organisations in some form and the integrations with public blockchains already started, this trend is only going to continue gaining speed and power. You can fully expect to have major breakthroughs in terms of chain interoperability to be made in 2020.
George Spasov, Founder & Cheif Blockchain Architect at LimeChain
Real-world collateral in DeFi will be the most interesting thing coming in 2020. Libra/China issued stablecoin as number 2.
Gustav Arentoft, Business Development at MakerDAO
Who do you expect to be the ones that will dominate the Blockchain space and push it forward in 2020? Why? (e.g. the big tech companies, enterprise sector, startups or even governments)
This is an interesting question. Clearly I am interested to see the technology being used on a global scale, improving the current situation of focus sectors like financial transactions, digital identities, security, etc. I believe that Bitcoin will maintain its status as store of value. Looking at the current space, it will be incredibly interesting to see infrastructures join forces, in order to achieve more adoption. Otherwise, we are looking at seeing adoption there, where one simply can find the largest number of already accumulated users.
Nikola Stojanow, CEO of Aeternity Ventures
I expect the major movers to include (but by no means be limited to):
- Maker + Compound + Synthetix = the backbone of DeFi = the breakout use case of 2019.
- DeFi Pulse: the way everyone will keep score in DeFi. Side note: interesting to compare DeFi in general and DeFi Pulse specifically in 2019 to the notion of Dapps in general and destinations like State of the Dapps in 2018.
- The Ethereum Foundation and the transition to Ethereum 2.0: So much is riding on the successful transition to ETH 2.0 — and the EF’s ability to steward that process effectively for all of their various stakeholders. Make no mistake: this is and will continue to be a high wire act.
- Libra: The elephant in the room. Will they continue to push forward? Or will regulatory entanglement bog them down? And will the other major tech companies continue to watch from the sidelines or will they jump in with their own alternatives. Easy to imagine a world where the Apple ecosystem is powered by AppleChain while the Android/Google ecosystem is powered by GoogleChain…
- China: Recent moves by the Chinese government and their outsized impact on the pricing of crypto assets (BTC specifically of course) serve to demonstrate 1) just how early we are in the development of the ecosystem 2) just how intertwined it remains with the working of traditional finance and regulations 3) may embolden China (and other jurisdictions) to become more explicit/intentional/aggressive in moving into the blockchain space.
- The United States: The US has unmatched software and design expertise that has so far remained on the sidelines of the blockchain revolution due to regulatory uncertainty. Will the US finally provide some clarity so that the US-based talent pool can engage in blockchain? Or will the larger distractions dominating US political discourse make substantive progress unlikely?
- DAO’s: a genuinely new and seemingly highly effective way to coordinate collaboration across a large and diverse collection of projects. DAO’s had a bigger impact in 2019 than many expected and will continue to move the needle in 2020.
Matt Cutler, Founder & CEO of Blocknative
I do not think a single player will dominate in 2020. The trend of DeFi in public blockchains will continue, while the enterprise sector will continue their silent problem solving and transitioning to real world pilots.
George Spasov, Founder & Cheif Blockchain Architect at LimeChain
I believe that we will see more institutions going into the space, and especially China going in and taking a dominant position in regards to crypto. China has been gearing up to participate with full force. I believe we will see this play out in 2020.
Gustav Arentoft, Business Development at MakerDAO
What’s your one prediction for 2020?
I predict that we will see a more structured and positive movement in the space. We will be looking at adoption, as major corporations are already working with blockchain technologies, so this will bring more focus on the space. As soon as the technology reaches a level, allowing people to use it in their everyday life, without having to understand the deeper technological mechanisms, we will be seeing dapp utilisation all around the world.
Nikola Stojanow, CEO of Aeternity Ventures
Ecosystem clarity that the next revolution will be driven by viable business models that scale demand. Either the current ecosystems will evolve to support them — or new ecosystems that do so will emerge and become dominant.
Matt Cutler, Founder & CEO of Blocknative
Enterprise POCs will move to MVPs.
George Spasov, Founder & Cheif Blockchain Architect at LimeChain
My prediction for 2020 is that we will see 500m issued Dai. This is both a prediction and hope. It would bring an unprecedented amount of liquidity to the applications using Dai and help us achieve our goal of serving as many people as possible.
Gustav Arentoft, Business Development at MakerDAO
Hope you have enjoyed part 2 of the Blockchain Trends in 2020.
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