Blockchain industry is maturing — The evidences

During the past years, we have often heard about the need for blockchain industry to become legitimate with political recognition, favorable regulation, or major IT companies support. For this new asset class to honor its promises, it requires traditional economic world engagement.

But even though crypto-assets have been suffering an heavy bear market last year, the blockchain industry maturing process has made significant progress in the last months. The evidences are here, and the big picture is progressively being drawn: Blockchain industry is maturing.

As political recognition appears from IMF [1] to G20 [2], blockchain industry remains sometimes sticked to its original promise to fight against the centralization of political power and wealth distribution [3, 4]. In a few cases, blockchain technologies can help citizens to emancipate from an economic recession [5, 6]. But in other cases, crypto-assets become a tool for authoritarian regime to keep their economy under control [7, 8, 9]. At the end, blockchain industry shows the biggest potential for adoption in South America [10, 11] or in Africa [12], where the local economy remains somehow unstable.

From the regulation part, the horizon is getting clearer from day to day: major achievements are progressively setting up from EU [13, 14] to USA [15, 16], including Asia [17, 18]. This goes hand in hand with major IT companies support. Google [19], Facebook [20, 21], Telegram [22], Baidu [23] or Alibaba [24] made recent headlines about their own strategy within this industry. And every single big tech company is getting onboard, including Amazon [25], Apple [26], Samsung [27], GMO [28], Kakao [29], Rakuten [30], and Telefónica [31].

Obviously, major investment companies are also joining the party, as highlighted by the announces made by BlackRock [32] and Fidelity Investments [33]. The New-York Stock Exchange is launching its own digital asset platform [34], as well as those of Germany [35] and Switzerland [36]. Within the banking sector, JPMorgan — a major US bank, reclaims its share of the pie with the launch of a US bank-backed crypto-currency [37]. Institutional investors are progressively getting involved in this new asset class [38, 39, 40]. And naturally, major international universities are now supporting this disruptive and promising economic area [41], from the MIT [42] to Harvard [43], including Berkeley [44] and other international schools [45, 46].

There is no more doubt: blockchain industry is maturing at a rapid pace. Even Elon Musk has recently recognized that digital currencies are “a far better way to transfer value” than current tools [47].

Published by Nyctale — business-oriented monitoring tools for blockchain industry

Contact at blaise@nyctale.io

References:

Political recognition:

• IMF says governments could set up their own cryptocurrencies [Link 1]
• This Year’s G20 Put an Emphasis on Cryptocurrency Regulation [Link 2]
• Overstock Founder: Blockchain Can Make Government ‘Incapable of Being Bribed’ [Link 3]
• Overstock’s Founder Focuses on Creating a Government-as-a-service Based on Blockchain [Link 4]
• Early adopters show blockchain’s big potential for Latin America [Link 5]
• Ongoing Economic Crises in Venezuela and Beyond Show That the Idea of Bitcoin as a Store of Value Is Increasingly Catching On [Link 6]
• Iran Prepares to Launch Gold-Backed National Cryptocurrency PayMon [Link 7]
• United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia Collaborate on New Cryptocurrency [Link 8]
• Moscow Gov’t to Launch Blockchain-Enabled IT Innovation Cluster by Summer 2019 [Link 9]
• Argentina Settles Export Deal With Paraguay Using Bitcoin [Link 10]
• Argentina’s State Public Transport Card SUBE Accepts Bitcoin [Link 11]
• Nigerian Blockchain Experts Believe Crypto Can Boost African Economy [Link 12]

Favorable regulation:

• EU Watchdog Advises Wider Regulation Despite ‘Risk of Legitimizing Crypto-Assets’ [Link 13]
• FCA takes first steps towards crypto regulation [Link 14]
• Crypto Assets to Be Regulated Differently in the US, Potential Impact on Industry [Link 15]
• Wyoming Passes New Friendly Regulations for Crypto Assets [Link 16]
• Indonesia Passes Rules for Trading of Cryptocurrency Futures [Link 17]
• Bank of China Joins New Blockchain Platform for Property Buyers [Link 18]

Major IT companies’ support:

• Google Enters Crypto and Blockchain Search Business With New Tools [Link 19]
• Facebook is Developing a Cryptocurrency for Transfers in WhatsApp [Link 20]
• Mark Zuckerberg Considers Blockchain Authorization of Data in Recent Interview [Link 21]
• Telegram’s $1.7 Billion Cryptocurrency is 70% Complete [Link 22]
• Chinese Tech Giant Baidu Launches Blockchain OS to Support DApp Development [Link 23]
• Alibaba Has Filed for over 10% of the World’s Blockchain Patents: Research [Link 24]
• Amazon Gets Deeper into Blockchain, What Does it Mean For Crypto? [Link 25]
• Apple Hints at Behind-the-Scenes Blockchain Work in New SEC Filing [Link 26]
• New Samsung Galaxy S10 Includes Cryptocurrency Key Storage [Link 27]
• Japanese IT Giant GMO Confirms Launch of Yen-Backed Stablecoin GYEN in 2019 [Link 28]
• Messenger Giant Kakao Spent $57 Mln on New Tech, Including Blockchain, in Q4 2018 [Link 29]
• Japan: E-Commerce Giant Rakuten’s New Payment App Appears to Support Crypto [Link 30]
• Spain’s Largest Telecom Company Seeks Entrepreneurs in Blockchain, AI [Link 31]

Traditional finance investment:

• BlackRock CEO: Crypto ETF Will Come When Industry Is ‘Legitimate’ [Link 32]
• Fidelity Digital Assets Could Launch With The Top 7 Cryptocurrencies [Link 33]
• Bakkt: What Should We Expect From an Exchange Tailor-Made for Wall Street Investors? [Link 34]
• Major German Stock Exchange to Launch Crypto Trading Platform [Link 35]
• Major Swiss Stock Exchange SIX Lists World’s First Multi-Crypto ETP Amidst Market Collapse [Link 36]
• JP Morgan creates first US bank-backed crypto-currency [Link 37]
• First U.S. Pension Funds Take the Plunge on Crypto Investing [Link 38]
• Survey: 41% of Institutional Investors to Invest in ICOs Within Five Years [Link 39]
• SEC Commissioner Jackson Thinks Regulator Will Approve BTC ETF, Leaked Interview Shows [Link 40]

International universities involvement:

• The Global Universities Embracing Cryptocurrency [Link 41]
• MIT, Stanford Academics Design Cryptocurrency to Better Bitcoin [Link 42]
• Harvard and Levi Strauss Collaborate to Develop Blockchain-Based Factory Safety System [Link 43]
• UC Berkeley Launches Accelerator for Early Stage Blockchain Startups [Link 44]
• South Korean Business School Launches Crypto MBA Program [Link 45]
• Vienna Creates New Crypto Reward Tokens for Citizens with University of Economics and Business Partnership [Link 46]