Wednesday, December 5, 2018

Adoption > Price 📈

December 5, 2018

Joseph Lubin Says Don't Look at Price, Ethereum Adoption is Growing Rapidly

Intro to Consensys & Mr. Lubin

Joseph Lubin co-founded Ethereum with Vitalik Buterin and others. Now, Lubin leads a company called Consensys.

If you are not familiar with ConsenSys, it is a sort of incubator that consists of software companies building infrastructure, applications, and practices for the Ethereum network. ConsenSys is the largest blockchain software company in the world with roughly 900 employees.

Forget about the price

Not surprisingly, Joseph Lubin is a vocal supporter of Ethereum and its potential to make a positive impact in the world. As the face of Consensys, Lubin pushes real-world adoption of the Ethereum network by facilitating the development of usable applications.

Lubin has a firsthand view of Ethereum's penetration into the market and is by no means worried about the past year's price movements. Ethereum's co-founder recently said:

"Blockchain is more than a market. It's a movement. Market cap doesn't reflect activity. Decentralized networks are growing. 10 billion daily API requests served by Infura. 1 million Truffle downloads. 1 million MetaMask downloads. 12,000 live Ethereum nodes. 48 million unique Ethereum addresses. 3 times LinkedIn blockchain job openings."

Is Ethereum adoption really better than ever?

Although Lubin provides valid points indicating that Ethereum adoption is picking up during the bear market, other indicators say otherwise. Ethereum has two main utilities: hosting initial coin offerings and decentralized applications.

The initial coin offering funding process is very much in jeopardy due to the enforcement of the SEC. The Commission has shown that it will prosecute ICO's that are unregistered securities.

Ethereum's decentralized applications are also looking pretty bleak. The top Dapp on the Ethereum network had only about 1,000 users in the past day and it was a decentralized exchange. If you ignore DEX's, the top Ethereum Dapp only has about 400 daily active users.

EXCHANGE

Binance Chain and a Tattoo, CZ's Latest Moves

We're talking millions

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) has continuously shown the ability to expand and succeed in many different areas of the crypto industry. Now, the 1-year-old exchange is going after the root of the market, a public blockchain.

CZ revealed the new project, dubbed Binance Chain, while speaking at a conference Tuesday. Shortly after the announcement, the official Binance Twitter account tweeted that Binance Chain will be ready in the "coming months" and that "millions of projects" will be able to easily issue their token.

Is this a good thing?

Well, it's hard to say. Some believe this move will increase blockchain adoption. In contrast, others believe this move will only devalue important projects as investors spread investments into new unproven coins.

The million dollar question then is: Do we really need all these blockchains?

CZ seems to think so.

Meanwhile, one community member mocked Binance Chain saying:

"I for one can't wait for Costco to exclusively accept Costcoin, to pay for fuel with oil-backed GasTokens and for my fridge to launder money via the Tangle."

Not a surefire listing

Though users will be able to launch ICOs on the new blockchain, that doesn't mean Binace's crypto exchange will list the token automatically.

Actually, to further explain what Binance looks for in a project listing, CZ got a Binance logo tattoo and wrote a blog post about his experience.

His question to founders is simple: "Are you committed enough to your project that you are willing to tattoo your logo?"

CZ does note that its a "savage" question, but it is something that founders should think about before they conduct an ICO instead of when they are suddenly swimming in millions of dollars.

EXCHANGE

Poloniex Announces New Services for Institutional Investors

Welcoming institutions

On Tuesday, the cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex announced that it has launched new services to target institutions looking to trade cryptocurrencies.

Poloniex plans to offer institutions an API trading interface and an over-the-counter market. The exchange requires a $250,000 minimum trade for its over-the-counter market.

In addition, Poloniex will provide special services to institutional clients. It will provide clients with professional customer support and higher withdrawal limits.

Poloniex explained in their announcement:

"Our highly trained team will guide each institutional customer through the onboarding process, coordinate issue resolution across multiple teams and support ongoing trading activities."

GOVERNMENT

U.S. Airforce Adds Blockchain Education to Training Tools

Tackling supply chain

According to a new report from Modern Materials Handling (MMH), the U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) is looking to educate its students about blockchain.

Specifically focusing on supply chain use cases, the blockchain training consists of tutorial videos alongside a simulation.

In the simulation, the player is asked to distribute digital tokens to suppliers so that the supplier's products can be tracked, organized, and authenticated.

It could be "huge"

According to MMH, AFIT believes blockchain can be "huge" for supply chain initiatives such as creating digital records and tracking ethically sourced materials.

In addition, AFIT commented saying the new technology will allow "better visibility" for the military's "extremely complex logistics network."

BITS

But wait, there's more...

🌴 Binance announced a partnership with Tripio, a blockchain-based hotel booking platform with over 450,000+ hotels.
🚀 Distributed ledger technology provider R3 launched its Corda Settler and will begin supporting XRP payments.
🏥 Massachusetts General, a leading hospital in the United States, is exploring blockchain to organize and better manage patient data.

MEME