Thailand Adding Blockchain to Electronic Visa / Tencent Rumors of Digital Currency Group / Libra Updates, 2019 Recaps, 2020 Predictions
December 24, 2019
In this week’s Christmas Eve 🎄 edition, we have 2019 recaps and 2020 industry predictions around all areas of the blockchain, DApps & DLT landscapes. Rumors are circulating that Tencent is establishing a digital currency research group, while China furthers its position on cryptocurrency trading, crypto exchanges, and crypto-related activities. Thailand is planning to apply blockchain to its Electronic Visa On Arrival with availability to five million visitors from 15+ countries. The Libra Association has published its second roadmap for Libra Core outlining its push towards a mainnet launch. It’s also that time of the year for more 2020 predictions along with the end of the year reports, which we have from DappRadar, Fidelity Digital Assets, Global Coin Research, Messari, Outlier Ventures, and more.
We even found room to cram in plenty of research (Q4 2019 Blockchain Landscape & DApps Landscape) & books (on Digital Assets & Enterprise Blockchain) along with insights on venture capital (new funds!!), infrastructure, DApps, Bitcoin, Economics, Exchanges, and Stablecoins. For MORE and to keep you up to speed, here’s a snapshot of the top stories this week around the industry.
🇨🇳 Tencent Rumored to Establish Digital Currency Research Department in Response to National Policy
Rumors of China’s Tencent setting up a digital currency research group to study how to innovate business models and test application scenarios have sprung up. Some analysts believe that since Facebook in the United States plans to launch its own cryptocurrency Libra, China also needs private companies to make corresponding deployments.…read more
📖 Microsoft Is Using Blockchain to Help Firms Trust AI
Microsoft’s Blockchain Data Manager takes on-chain data and connects it to other applications. So transaction data from nodes or inside smart contracts can be sent to other databases or data stores. These are the sort of places where AI can be deployed or in the case of supply-chain, where internet-of-things (IoT) information can be brought to bear…read more
📈 Thailand integrates blockchain into E-Visa system
Thailand is planning to apply blockchain to its Electronic Visa On Arrival (eVOA). The country’s new blockchain-powered eVOA system plans on speeding up and protecting the digital visa application process. The system will be available for five million visitors from 15+ countries…read more
📖 Beyond Storage: How Custody Is Evolving to Meet Institutional Needs
As digital assets are bearer assets, most investment activities involve handling the underlying private keys. This means custody plays a much bigger role in crypto investors’ day-to-day operations than in traditional finance. Whatever investors want to do with their assets — buy and hold, exit a major position, actively trade, participate in staking and governance — the custodian will be involved.…read more and be sure to check out more from Diogo Mónica & Anchorage
🇨🇳 China’s Tech Hub Shenzhen Kicks off Cleanup of Crypto-Related Companies
China has recently renewed its hard-line approach to cryptocurrency trading and crypto exchanges, with the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) announcing that any crypto-related activities discovered would be “disposed of immediately”. According to PBoC’s Bluebook on Blockchain, only 4,000 out of the 28,000 blockchain enterprises based in the country are engaged in pure blockchain technology, while as many as 25,000 have tried to issue their own cryptocurrency or token via illegal fundraising or financial fraud…read more
Research To Read This Week:
Late last week, DappRadar released its 2019 dapp Industry Review a detailed review of all DApps happenings throughout the year. Here are some key takeaways:
- Ethereum remains the most significant smart contract blockchain. It grew the daily user base of its dapp ecosystem 118% in 2019, with daily value up 166%.
- Ethereum is also the only blockchain to-date to successfully grow dapps across the four main categories: DeFi, Exchanges, Games, and Gambling and High-Risk.
- Despite EOS and TRON being labeled as ‘Ethereum Killers’ by many, both struggled to grow their user base, and the value captured by their dapps.
- The number of unique active wallets interacting across all Ethereum dapps on a daily basis rose 118% to over 19,000 by mid-December.
You can find the full report here along with a downloadable PDF version.
More For Your Week:
📖 18 Predictions for 2020 by Lawrence Lundy-Bryan of Outlier Ventures
📖 DeFi Trends for 2020 by Ryan Selkis of Messari
📖 GCR Community Predictions for 2020 from Global Coin Research
📖 Demystifying Digital Asset Data: A Look at Bitcoin Transaction Value by Fidelity Digital Assets
📖 5 industries that demonstrate how blockchains go beyond finance by Alison McCauley
📖 EY releases third-generation zero-knowledge proof blockchain technology to the public domain
📖 Orchid Launches Privacy Network by Richard Muirhead of Fabric Ventures / Orchid
📖 The Path to Web3 from The Graph
📖 Meltem Demirors on Government Digital Currencies and Why ‘The Halvening’ Gets Weird by Nathaniel Whittemore
DApps (Decentralized Apps) Watch
📖 Libra’s second roadmap outlines its final push toward mainnet launch
The Libra Association has published its second roadmap for Libra Core, the key software that underpins the planned Libra network. Built on open-source software, Libra’s permissioned blockchain aims to allow developers, companies, and consumers to build their own projects through the system. In its first roadmap released in October, Libra announced…read more
📖 The dapp ecosystem in 2019: What just happened? by DappRadar
📖 Games on the blockchain move into a new era by Robert Hoogendoorn
📺 Tune In:
Make sure to take a few minutes during the holidays and tune in to Nathaniel Whittemore’s latest episode of The Breakdown featuring Peter McCormack. In this special end of year episode of The Breakdown, Peter discusses why the past year represents an inflection point for citizen action and sovereign protest around the world, and why 2020 is likely to see a continued bloodletting among non-bitcoin cryptoassets. Enjoy!
👉 Download the NEW Blockchain for Infrastructure Landscape Q4 2019 edition & DApps “Stack” Landscape
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