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What's Changing? - Blockchain

Blockchain

 

Please see below recent blockchain-related developments.

 

See also:

Blockchain

 

March 2023

 

December 2022

 

July 2022

  • The State of Blockchain Q2 22 Report, from CB Insights highlighted how the sector is evolving, with funding shifting away from centralised crypto exchanges and wallets toward NFTs, gaming, and infrastructure & development. 

 

June 2022

 

March 2022

  • Investment in blockchain companies surged from US$3bn in 2020 to US$25bn in 2021. As the technology gains traction beyond crypto, industries from insurance to gaming are seeing blockchain applications. CB Insights analysed the latest innovative ways companies are harnessing the power of blockchain.
  • Annual spending on blockchain solutions is expected to reach nearly US$16bn by 2023. Entrepreneurs are targeting a wide range of industries with the technology: 
    • Insurance: Insurance giants and startups alike are using blockchain technology to prevent insurance fraud, track medical records, file claims, and more.
    • Real estateReal estate blockchain applications can help record, track, and transfer land titles, property deeds, liens, etc. When merged with virtual reality and gaming, blockchain is making it possible to buy virtual land.
    • Food & beverage: As a decentralised ledger that records, stores, and tracks data, blockchain provides a way to monitor the food supply chain and trace contamination issues to their root.
    • CB Insights also analysed more than 60 other industries blockchain could transform.

 

November 2021

 

July 2021

 

April 2021

 

March 2021

 

December 2020

  • Technology expertshave spent years trying to use bitcoin’s blockchain architecture for other applications in finance, but so far blockchain companies have produced more press releases than viable enterprises, warned Quartz. For example, according to DocuSign CEO Daniel Springer, blockchain is still too expensive for the kinds of things his company does.

 

August 2020

 

March 2020

  • Blockchain has had its critics. PwC blockchain specialist Alex de Vries pointed out that the global power consumption for servers running the software for blockchain-powered Bitcoin is almost that of Ireland. But not all blockchain was created equal, explained Aparna Jue, product director at cryptocurrency platform IOHK, which claims to have created the “world’s most sustainable blockchain”. “There are two methods of blockchain - proof of work and proof of stake. Proof of work, which Bitcoin is built on, involves brute force, puzzle-solving computational power. With this method you run a mining pool with many computers trying to solve a problem.” Proof of stake, brainchild of IOHK (whose CEO Charles Hoskinson is also co-founder of cryptocurrency Ethereum), does not rely on such computational power. 

 

September 2019

  • Governments in many countries want to be part of the growing virtual currency trend. By replacing hard-to-track cash with state-issued digital money, governments can more easily find out who is buying what from whom. That could help catch tax cheats and fraudsters, creating more government revenue that can be spent for the public good, and shake up how government technocrats track economic growth and inflation. But depending on how a sovereign digital currency was designed, it could also give the state a powerful new tool to help it spy on citizens. For some governments, that's not a bug, it's a feature, noted GZEROMedia.

 

August 2019

  • Blockchain can help strengthen trust in those who record or verify with trust in a decentralised network secured through cryptography. IBM’s Food Trust was one of the first production enterprise blockchain systems (with Walmart). The French grocery chain Carrefour recently announced that fruits and vegetables whose provenance is tracked through the system sell better.

 

March 2019

  • Vault Platform is a blockchain-based tool that enables employees to securely capture and report harassment. The app is designed to create a time-stamped, tamper-proof record of the incident in question. The reports can either be stored privately on a user’s phone, or shared with an employer. Trend Watching believes that the most striking feature of the app is its ‘GoTogether’ feature. This alerts employees if other people have recorded incidents relating to the same individual, and using a ‘blind network’ enables them to collectively share their reports with their employer while preserving their anonymity from each other. 

 

February 2019

 

January 2019

 

December 2018

 

November 2018

 

October 2018

 

September 2018

 

August 2018

 

July 2018

 

June 2018

 

 

May 2018

  • Blockchain is being used to bring new levels of trust and transparency to various activities, according to Trend Watching: Agora’s voting system transformed Sierra Leone’s elections, the first blockchain university is upending how higher education has typically worked, while consumers can monitor their chickens in China to make sure they’re truly free-range.
  • Bitcoin is on track to consume 0.5% of the world’s electricity this year, claimed Quartz. That’s about as much as the Netherlands; meanwhile, the energy footprint for mining cryptocurrencies is doubling every six months.

 

April 2018

 

March 2018

 

February 2018

 

January 2018

 

Pre-2018

  • Some of the biggest banks, along with technology companies and other firms are making significant investments in research and development to see how they can harness blockchain. These efforts could transform many aspects of business, including how we think about security. Historically, the mainstream cybersecurity philosophy was to build a perimeter wall to keep out intruders. Blockchains could make the perimeter irrelevant by ensuring the integrity of a given network. It is akin to securing the metaphorical veins and arteries of the digital world in order to ensure the health of the body that is the network. 
  • Blockchains, once developed, have the potential to be a powerful solution to many of the security problems faced by financial institutions, argued PwC. The transaction-level cryptographic control associated with blockchains could also extend to manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, the transportation industry, or any sector that makes important products that need to be secure. Blockchain-based technologies at some point could eventually become the backbone for all collaboration and communication that needs to take place in these industries.

 

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