From blockbuster to prosperity, the blockchain is behind the hard development, exploration, accumulation and fierce game that has not been known to outsiders in the past nine years. The year 2017 has experienced an extraordinary year in the area of blockchain, allowing the rookie to help you sort out what's going on in 2017's blockchain universe and their future from six perspectives.
Encrypt currency
VC and love Western Europe's game
Exchange
Foundation chain
Application chain
Enterprise blockchain
Encrypt currency
(The top ten cryptocurrencies in the market value by the end of 2017)
Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin and Swisscoin are the well-known cryptocurrencies. By the end of 2017, there are about 1,400 kinds of encrypted currencies of various kinds with a total market value of 600 billion U.S. dollars.
By the end of 2017, the entire cryptocurrency sector started to plunge. However, RIGO coins have been rising, the market value of more than ether, became the market value of Bitcoin after the second largest cryptocurrencies.
So why Ruibo currency dominate?
(CEO Rembrandt Brad Garlinghouse)
Probably the reason is that Brad Brad CEO, said, "The long-term value of tokens depends entirely on what function it solves, how many users are facing the problem, and how big the problem is."
And Rebo is addressing a $ 270 trillion transfer between major banks around the world, leaving each transfer in just three seconds.
(Litecoin founder Charlie Lee)
Litecoin, which had been trading steady at third, dropped sixth place at the end of the year. Founder Charlie Lee announced at the end of 2017 that he would sell and donate all of the Litecoin. In order to better develop Litecoin, to avoid letting others think he holds Litecoin and comment Litecoin is for his own benefit.
And will Litecoin continue to play the role of bitcoin supporter in the future?
"The Lightning Network is a smart contract system built on the bitcoin blockchain that allows both parties to the transaction to make fast, low-cost payments."
The lightning network, which had been slow before, had a positive year-end. While bitcoin high transaction fees and transactions are slow to resolve, Litecoin and other competitive currency ratios may lose the need to exist, but it is still unknown how long it will take for the lightning network to mature.
"Smooth digital currency refers to and is a strictly in accordance with the 1 to 1 exchange of new encrypted digital assets"
In addition to cryptocurrencies, which are subject to price fluctuations, the market urgently needs a stable digital currency that paves the way for blockchain applications that demand gentle price fluctuations. When dealing with each other in the virtual currency, you can also play the role of hedge.
VC and love Western Europe's game
(2017 ICO data chart)
In 2016, the project The DAO raised $ 245 million in just 28 days through love of Western Europe, setting a record for the then love of Western Europe. In the first half of 2017, Silicon Valley blockchain companies raised $ 327 million through West Indies and raised $ 295 million through venture capital.
VC once the two weapons, financial advantages and information advantages are likely to be the collapse of love West, VC will be completely subverted?
(VCs investing in blockchain)
While Western Europe was seen as a potential threat to institutional investors, in the second half of 2017, each VC agency began to invest directly in the blockchain projects of Western and Western Europe, which in turn provided VC with an additional investment route.
Blockchain project financing also evolved from a single love Western European approach to public-private mergers or private equity directly on the exchange. In the second half of 2017, an increasing number of blockchain special funds were established, searching for good blockchain projects that require private placement.
Exchange
(Appstore Download Ranking)
Thanksgiving 2017, Coinbase, the largest Bitcoin trading platform in the United States, added more than 100,000 users and became the most downloaded iOS application in the App Store App Store with more than 13 million users. By the end of 2016, the number of users was only 5 million. On December 20, bitcoin cash jumped 60% for instant as Coinbase announced its support for bitcoin cash.
However, due to the huge network traffic and trading volume, there have been many downtime problems in Coinbase. Downtime has become a common problem in popular exchanges.
(Mainstream exchange)
Exchange's competition is heating up. In order to snatch more users, many exchanges choose desperate to new currency and donated fork currency. However, as the long-term development of the exchange, it is essential to retain its users.
(The largest exchange in the euro Kraken)
What kind of platform is worth the user long-term use?
In addition to currency, user trading experience, access to more overseas licenses and security may be the key factors for the exchange to get more users and long-term use.
(Blockchain Graveyard on the 47 attack data classification diagram)
Among them, the security issue must be the core of the exchange. The attack on the exchange not only undermined public trust in cryptocurrencies, but also suffered huge losses for companies, customers and investors.
Why the exchange will continue to be attacked?
Most exchanges store large amounts of assets in "cold storage," with keys that are completely offline and hacker-free. However, in order to be automatically paid and kept functioning properly, the API needs to be manipulated to pay the customer who wants to withdraw. Exchanges need to be able to automate transactions, the key must be real-time, so there is a risk of being compromised.
(Hardware Wallet Ledger)
One of these Ledger hardware wallets addresses asset security issues by adding access to Bitcoin. But in addition to using hardware wallets to solve security problems, to the central exchange is not able to solve security problems? Will the future of the exchange be decentralized? All worth exploring.
Foundation chain
(ICO financing in all areas)
Blockchain is still in its infancy. Throughout 2017, the area most sought after by Western Europe lies in the underlying blockchain technology. Thousands of times in 2018 investment opportunities are likely to focus on the underlying blockchain technology projects.
(Basic chain project)
Ethereum has achieved great success as a blockchain platform, but its performance, expansion and governance problems have not been well addressed. Who can solve the problem of Ethereum? Who is China's next Ethereum? It takes time to prove it.
Application chain
Application chain is mainly for a subdivision area to expand in the vertical direction to do specialization. The value of the blockchain has come to a consensus. It is another disruptive technological revolution following the technological revolution in the Internet. However, so far, there has not been a real application of the combination of people's life in the area of blockchain. At present, many companies with high market value still remain at the conceptual level.
Which area of the blockchain application will be the first combination with people's lives?
(Three mainstream forecast market applications)
As the current block chain out of a very slow time, a big data can not be accepted; two can not do high-performance computing; three not everything can run in the block chain. Blockchain applications in the forecasted market are just enough to tolerate these three shortcomings.
But the real blockchain application innovation, I am afraid it will take some time. Just like the gradual emergence of the Internet in the late BAT technology giants.
Enterprise blockchain:
In order to meet the stringent standards of business requirements, to do their own business when the block chain to consider many factors, such as the choice of the top blockchain technology, whether to go to the center of the software architecture design, higher technical threshold.
(Tencent blockchain TrustSQL)
The open platform for blockchain infrastructures means that the technology threshold will be greatly reduced. Small probe that can solve the practical problems of enterprises, reduce the cost of enterprise-level blockchain is good.
The blockchain sector will be led by China and the United States in 2018
2017 is the year of the entire blockchain industry. This year, China's blockchain market was naturally screened out by large numbers of speculators in the blockchain, and Chinese blockchain entrepreneurs who had experienced bubbles, speculation and regulatory cycles would naturally have more choices than other National blockchain entrepreneurs more powerful.
In 2018, not the other countries such as Japan and South Korea that lead the development of the blockchain industry will still be China and the United States.
Blockchain Connect Conference, a gathering of scientists and entrepreneurs, investors, developers and industry stakeholders from the top blockchain in China and the United States, is the strongest Sino-US dialogue in the blockchain world and will also become 2018 The global benchmark for the development trend of blockchain. Many media such as Cointelegraph, Bitcoin Magazine, Coin Central and The Information will cover the conference.