Blockchain faction: traditional giants, academics, political circles, startup companies

Along with the continuous development of the encrypted digital currency industry, the further separation of the currency circle and blockchain technology, the decentralization of blockchain technology, the transparency of data, and the inability to tamper with it are gradually entering people's cognition. The blockchain in the misunderstanding is now breaking away from the fog and making a splash.

In June 2018, Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management announced the establishment of a blockchain financial research center. In 2019, Facebook, JP Morgan Chase, Google, IBM and Tencent, Huawei, Ali and other giant companies have announced the layout of the blockchain field. In August 2019, the central bank announced that digital currency was ready to go.

It can be said that on the research track of this blockchain technology, the four forces of political circles, traditional giants, colleges and start-up companies are meeting in the air, setting off a top "Huashan sword".

What is intriguing is that the situation faced by the various factions is different, and the scenes of the required blockchain are not the same. In this peak confrontation, where are the swords?

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Political faction: central bank digital currency research and development, alternative gameplay into the blockchain

With the development of the economy, the financial market has gradually become more complicated: the unpredictability of the dollar has strengthened, and with the recent announcement by companies such as Facebook and Wal-Mart that digital currencies are being issued, central banks may not be able to rely on existing policy tools to deal with new ones. challenge.

As an alternative currency independent of central bank control, the emergence of Bitcoin has also increased the difficulty of central bank policy to regulate financial markets, but its underlying blockchain technology also provides an alternative possibility for central banks: it can be used to create Your own digital currency.

This possibility was quickly taken into account by global central banks, according to a recent survey of 63 central banks by the Bank, which shows that 70% of central banks are studying digital currencies.

Among these central banks, the Chinese central bank seems to be the fastest in the full launch of digital currency. When Libra is still under pressure from various governments to suspend its release, the news that the Chinese central bank’s digital currency is coming out has already spread, once again stirring the world. A pool of spring water in the financial world.

In fact, from 2014 to the present, the research on the central bank digital currency DC/EP has been going on for five years. The central bank's digital currency project was initiated by Zhou Xiaochuan, the former central bank governor, to protect the sovereign status of the renminbi, accelerate the internationalization of the renminbi, and seize the opportunities for development in the digital currency sector.

At a time when the situation in the world's financial markets is getting more and more severe, the government's development of the central bank's digital currency into the blockchain has also given another possibility for the future development of the blockchain.

Traditional giants: multi-dimensional development, taking the lead before the tide

The blockchain has always been considered as a technology that could subvert the "classical Internet" giant. Before the advent of the second revolutionary era of blockchains, how to lay out the blockchain to prevent it from sitting still has become the focus of the major Internet giants. From the perspective of the blockchains of Facebook, IBM, JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, and Apple's overseas giants, overseas traditional giants have focused on blockchain research. According to data from WinterGreen Research, IBM and Microsoft accounted for 51% of the $700 million blockchain market. Giants such as IBM and Microsoft dominated the underlying technology due to factors such as technology pros and cons. They have also been providing cloud services to others to test and deploy blockchains.

And the traditional giants of China's Internet have also opened the door of the blockchain, and constantly try on the alliance chain, supply chain, and baaS cloud platform, in order to seize the opportunity and follow up the rhythm of new technology in the new technology. Before the tide came, it took the lead.

As one of the Chinese e-commerce giants, JD.com does not hide its enthusiasm for blockchain technology. In January 2018, JD.com released a "White Paper on the Technology of Blockchain Technology in Jingdong District". Although it did not specifically show how to cut the traditional business model into the blockchain, many references to the "chain of alliances" in this white paper. . Jingdong access blockchain is intended to integrate the partners in Jingdong's existing ecology to form a blockchain platform. In the future, JD's services in its application will include commodity anti-counterfeiting traceability, contract and invoice anti-counterfeit public interest traceability, big data security, insurance fraud prevention and transaction settlement.

In fact, in the field of blockchain, it is not a giant company in Jingdong that bets on the alliance chain. As early as 2015, Tencent began to lay out the blockchain. In March 2018, Tencent signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, and released a block supply chain alliance chain and cloud platform. Combining the resources and technical advantages of both parties, we will jointly promote the application of various technologies in various vertical logistics and supply chain professional fields such as automobile logistics, e-commerce logistics, cold chain logistics, pharmaceutical logistics, dangerous goods logistics, and road freight transportation.

However, in the process of entering the blockchain, the traditional giants also face many challenges. First, the technology is incomplete. The centralized products are far higher in efficiency and experience than the current blockchain products. Second, the scale problem. Because it was originally an interesting gameplay initiated by technical geeks, the threshold for ordinary users to understand is very high.

However, in any case, the traditional giants will enter the blockchain with their own strong capital, which will be a big plus for the development and application of blockchain technology.

Academic School: Blockchain Technology "Sweeping the Earth"

In the year of 2018, the arrival of the bear market poured cold water into the hot currency circle. When the currency circle was a mess, "people go tea cool", the concept of blockchain detonated the major industries, under technological innovation and the times. Almost all of the focus is on blockchain technology practitioners, but it is often overlooked. An ivory tower army is marching into blockchain technology.

According to Coinbase's research report, 42% of the top 50 universities in the world have opened at least one blockchain-related course. Among them, Stanford University and Cornell University have already opened more than 8 courses. The famous schools with strong scientific research strength have begun to pay attention to the blockchain.

From the research level, the academic blockchain generally pays attention to the research at the technical level in the early stage. With the deepening and development of the research, it has gradually expanded to the financial, supply chain, energy, law and other aspects, and large enterprises inside and outside the industry. Cooperation with banks, government agencies, etc., seeking to solve existing technical problems.

For example, Plekhanov University of Economics has entered into a partnership with cryptocurrency miners and cross-industry blockchain company Bitfury, and the two companies will launch an entrepreneurial accelerated incubator for blockchain projects. The domestic Tongji University participated in the research on the early blockchain related fields of the People's Bank of China and incubated several blockchain entrepreneurial innovation projects.

At present, compared with ordinary blockchain enterprises, blockchain colleges have greater advantages in terms of capital, talents and policy support. They have almost no so-called survival pressure and industry competitive pressure, which also makes the school more capable. Focusing on the advancement of blockchain technology and the search for solutions, the development of future blockchains will reach a peak under the enthusiasm of many universities.

Start-up company pie: Winter has arrived, the era of unicorn competition is still not over

With the growing popularity of blockchain technology, from long-term companies and multinational companies to ambitious start-ups, a large number of teams are eager to enter this game field, research and development in the field of public chain and smart contracts, hoping to The big trend of the blockchain era finds its own position.

However, under the wave of blockchain, most projects will die in the future. Those projects that do not make a tree and send out only to cut the leeks will definitely die. But those projects that are technically innovative have a certain dependence on centralization. Such projects, if the project team can persist in efforts, with the development of hardware, advances in technology, and the recognition of social blockchain projects, it is possible to provide a development environment for commercial applications in order to truly integrate into the social economy and information network.

As winter has arrived, with the bursting of the cryptocurrency bubble, digital assets have entered a long bear market, the pressure of supervision, the difficulty of financing, and the admission of traditional giants, have to admit that the development of start-ups is unprecedented. Dilemma. However, the dilemma does not obliterate the possibility of all success. The rigor of traditional venture capital requirements for start-ups will in turn eliminate a number of air companies that cannot build practical solutions. On the other hand, start-up companies with clear value propositions and stable market strategies in the blockchain industry. , still able to gain a foothold in the torrent of blockchain.

The blockchain industry is facing a revolution. Whether it is politics, traditional giants, academics or start-ups, they are striving to find their own direction in this historical torrent. They are constantly on the public chain, Staking, DeFi and Web 3.0. Attempts have been made. Although the scale of application of blockchain is still limited, it is undeniable that technology is moving forward and the future of blockchain will be born in a new look, in R&D and polishing.

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