Time to All In?
With the advent of 2020, blockchain and cryptocurrencies have also established themselves and proved their importance.
Over the past few years, more and more large enterprises, government units and central Banks begun to embrace blockchain and even consider launching central bank digital currency (CBDC). Cryptocurrencies, which were scorned a few years ago, have also become popular investment projects, and have spawned commodities such as futures and funds.
Bitcoin has been successfully established for more than a decade now, and cryptocurrency has built its own ecosystem and strong and stable community.
In addition, the foreign media has summed up 7 benefits for Blockchain in 2020, follow Starteos’ step to learn more:
Bitcoin rewards halved
According to Nakamoto's design, the mechanism for halving bitcoin rewards is designed to accommodate the programming limit of the bitcoin protocol cap of 21 million pieces. Based on current block production rates, the bitcoin mining rewards will drop from 12.5 BTC (about $90,000) to 6.25 BTC (about $45,000) in May.
Why is this important? There are several reasons, but the first and most obvious is that this suggests that fewer bitcoins will be produced in the future, which in turn reduces the overall rate of inflation across the network.
Bitcoin's inflation rate will fall from 4 percent to 2 percent, putting it close to some of the world's fiat currencies, and while many don't expect that to have a dramatic impact on prices, it does mean that miners' influence on the network will wane as mining incentives are cut in half.
In addition, many people are looking forward to the halving, which they believe will put bitcoin back into the bull market. Because in the past, when bitcoin mining rewards halved (in 2012 and 2016, respectively), prices rose significantly, though not immediately; After bitcoin's poor performance in 2019, many hopes that 2020 will be different.
Central bank digital currency CBDC
In 2019, countries are reported to be planning to set up their own digital currencies, and this year it will accelerate. At present, the United Arab Emirates, Japan, Sweden, Russia, France and other countries have announced their own digital currency plans, and China, which is fully committed to the implementation of blockchain, has made great efforts to lay out a clear framework and plan in 2019, and is ready to launch.
Although the United States remains cautious about cryptocurrencies, government officials have also begun to call for and study the possibility of digital dollars. The former chairman of the CFTC once said that "the dollar should be sent into cyberspace". Amid calls from all quarters, the US may also turn to join the ranks of digital currencies in order to maintain dollar hegemony.
Big companies take actions
A number of industry leaders are exploring digital assets and applying blockchain technology applications, including JP Morgan, Wal-mart, Tencent, Samsung, etc. Big Banks such as Societe Generale, a French financial giant, has also issued bonds on ethereum worth about €100 million which was the first attempt to securitize bonds among large Banks.
Ethereum 2.0
Ethereum is also entering the second phase of its large roadmap as bitcoin faces halving. The next iteration of ethereum has two broad goals: to introduce PoS consensus and end the energy-intensive PoW consensus; And introduce high profile sharding to help coordinate network speed and throughput.
Sharding: splitting the database into different pieces, each network only needs to handle a small part of the transaction, and synchronously with other network nodes, using the division of labour to speed up.
However, as protocol level algorithm is continuously delayed, it may take some time to introduce PoS consensus mechanism. Eethereum 2.0 will be deployed and tested in seven phases over several years, with phase 0 (also known as Beacon Chain) to be released in the first quarter of this year, although many products are still in their infancy.
Defi is maturing
Decentralized finance has had a great year in 2019, Decrypt notes, with more than $400 million locked up in decentralized finance applications, the number of DeFi registered addresses growing more than 1,600% over the past year, and start-ups like Compound have also moved in in large numbers.
Many will set the tone for the 2020 financial software based on building block chain is an important year, but if DeFi really want to be the mainstream acceptance and make the circulation more popular, it still needs the tools and interfaces to be more convenient, easy to use, so as to make it easier for people who don't know much about cryptocurrencies to buy digital assets and participate in decentralized financial services.
Blockchain will have a place in the 2020 Olympics
As Tokyo takes over hosting the next summer Olympics, blockchain will also be in the spotlight for the Olympics. Mitsubishi Estate Company, which manages nearly a third of all buildings in Tokyo's business district, has teamed up with electronics giant Fujitsu to provide data sharing built on the blockchain between restaurants, hotels and other companies during the month-long sports extravaganza.
In a city with 37 million residents and a problem of overcrowding, the city's ability to do business is declining; The application of blockchain can speed up the information of people's reservation status and passenger experience in restaurants and hotels, which can effectively reduce waiting time and improve efficiency. Mitsubishi Estate Company is also working with SoftBank, the multinational conglomerate, to help process data on the blockchain, according to Decrypt.
In addition, Paris has been discussing the possibility of the launch of blockchain before the 2024 Olympics; Pierre landau, the head of France's cryptocurrency task force, has revealed that he could use tokens at the Olympics to combat scalpers, adjust ticket prices to meet demand and even help prevent the wrong distribution of drugs to athletes.
Regulators will work together
According to a report from blockchain venture capital firm Outlier Ventures：
"As exchanges are forced to become more professional, zombie tokens will be delisted more frequently, and investors will gradually gravitate toward high-quality projects, evaluating tokens no longer based on a vision, but projects in 2020 will be all about attraction and usage."
And the regulatory push will intensify with the development of cryptocurrencies: in the US, for example, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) says that for transactions over $3,000, all currency services, including cryptocurrency, must submit customer information.
The UK-administered LawTech report, released in November 2019, also noted that cryptocurrencies "can be treated as property in principle," defining the legal status of cryptocurrency in more detail.
"This will increase the confidence of law firms to adopt new technologies and encourage investors to invest," said Simon Davis, President of the Law Association.
For the development of blockchain technology, 2020 will be a year with the right time right place and right environment.
Right time
2019 is the first year of 5G application and the starting point of the outbreak of the Internet of things. Meanwhile, China's central bank digital currency is expected to launch in 2020, and the U.S. Libra will launch in a compromised version in 2020. This will give a big boost to the popularity of digital currency.
Right place
Blockchain 3.0 technology (cross-chain, side chain, partition, sharding, etc.) can improve the performance of blockchain, improve the ease of use, operability, and scalability. Most of these technologies are expected to mature in 2020.
Right environment
a. China has listed blockchain as the core competitive technology of the country and will greatly promote the commercial landing of blockchain by means of polycentralization and alliance chain.
b. Singapore's first batch of Sandbox Express will officially enter the operational phase.
c. The Financial system represented by JP Morgan Coin of the United States will realize the new generation of bank infrastructure (the integration of payment, clearing and settlement) in the form of alliance chain.
With the adoption of blockchain, the public will have more confidence in cryptocurrency and DeFi. In the face of 2020, continuously mastering the pulse of the blockchain is also a way for us to keep pace with the development of the times in the digital trend.