JP Morgan, ConsenSys, & Quorum’s Future / Mexico’s Booming Blockchain Market / Doctor Who Enters The Booming NFT World

August 16, 2020

This week in the landscape…there was no shortage of twists and turns as we saw increased activity around enterprises, digital assets / non-fungible tokens (NTFs), and maturing infrastructure. It wouldn’t be a normal week if we didn’t see the introduction of new projects and concepts throughout the landscape that took their moment in the spotlight (see ?? YAM below). From my viewpoint, all that’s happening right now is only just beginning to set the stage for an exciting future of new applications (DApps). So strap in and let’s get ready for the ride.

Discussions are heating up per reports this week between JP Morgan and ConsenSys regarding the open-source enterprise blockchain Quorum. The two companies have been increasingly active throughout the landscape and a deal of this nature would have a great impact on the debate of private (Quorum) vs. public (Ethereum) blockchains — stay tuned. Speaking of the debate on which type of blockchain is right for some, Paul Brody of EY shares with us why the enterprise has yet to fully embrace decentralized finance (DeFi). Mexico is rapidly becoming a hotbed of activity and opportunity for those in the blockchain and digital currency markets. Alibaba & Mastercard are developing a platform with the APAC Provenance Council (APC) to authenticate and track food, wine, and exports produced in Australia.

Doctor Who becomes the latest to enter the cryptoverse with an upcoming trading card series (NFTs) following in the footsteps of William Shatner (WAX) and Dr. Suess (Flow/Dapper Labs). California Moves Forward With Digital Asset Bill. Daimler Explores Blockchain For Data Sharing following last week’s news of similar efforts from CONA (Coke One North America). China to launching a major expansion of digital currency (CBDC/Digital Yuan) trials including in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area. Aave becomes second DeFi protocol to hit $1 Bn in total value locked as the total DeFi market pushes towards $6 Bn in total value locked ($5.85 Bn at time of publishing / DeFi Pulse). Plus more on the exploding NTF and digital art (see Paris Hilton & Ryley Gilliam) markets, DApps, gaming on the blockchain, and more! Enjoy!

Bonus: For more on the current state of the Blockchain landscape, rising companies, undiscovered use cases, and opportunities check out my upcoming webinar followed by a live Q&A taking place on August 26th at 12:00 PM ET. Register today!

?? JP Morgan close to transferring Quorum blockchain to ConsenSys, investing

Reuters revealed that JP Morgan might transfer its open-source enterprise blockchain Quorum to ConsenSys. This week, The Block cites unnamed sources saying there are advanced discussions involving JP Morgan investing $20 million in ConsenSys as part of a $50 million convertible debt deal. And ConsenSys would take over the maintenance and support of Ethereum based Quorum.…read more

????? The Fourth Era of Blockchain Governance

We’ve entered a new era or the 4th Era of systemic governance design. Systemic governance design also takes a ground-up approach based on first principles while explicitly considering the ways in which a project’s governance must be designed to work in harmony with the governance of other projects in the blockchain ecosystem. And this era, unlike the previous three, will be led by enterprise blockchain…read more be sure to read more from Prysm Group

Related: ?? Enterprises Would Use DeFi, if It Weren’t so Public — Paul Brody

???? It’s Time to Pay Attention to Mexico’s Booming Crypto Market

In the eight months between September 2019 and May 2020, the trading volume of Mexico’s leading crypto exchange, Bitso, grew by 342%, according to the exchange. Earlier this year, Bitso announced it had surpassed 1 million users on its platform, of which 92% are Mexican. For comparison, there are 35 traditional brokerages in the country with under 400,000 active trading accounts in total, according to Mexico’s financial authority, CNBV. “It is truly shocking because we are seeing how only one cryptocurrency exchange has demonstrated greater potential than 35 dedicated investment…read more by Sandali Handagama

Related: ?? Could Digital Currencies Make Being Poor Less Costly?

?? MasterCard, Alibaba back blockchain to track food, wine exports

Alibaba and Mastercard will develop a platform with the APAC Provenance Council (APC) to authenticate and track food, wine, and exports produced in Australia. The platform will be based on the VeChainThor blockchain to track products and use Mastercard Provenance as the ledger for transaction verification. Exports between Australia and China, and create an efficient intercontinental financial ecosystem will be the main objective of the platform…read more

?? NBA Stars Lining Up to Become Backers of New Blockchain Project

The Brooklyn Nets’ Spencer Dinwiddie and Garrett Temple, the Miami Heat’s Andre Iguodala, the Los Angeles Lakers’ JaVale McGee, and the Orlando Magic’s Aaron Gordon are the players investing in Dapper Labs. The company is raising $12 million in its latest financing round to scale Flow, as the project’s known, with additional backing from Coinbase Ventures and Distributed Global…read more

Related: ????♀? Doctor Who to Enter the Cryptoverse

Related: ?? The pandemic is causing the rise of making real money from virtual worlds — L’Atelier BNP Paribas

More For Your Week:

?? YAM: An Experiment in Fair Farming, Governance, and Elasticity — Yam Finance

?? California Moves Forward With Digital Asset Bill

?? Daimler Explores Blockchain For Data Sharing — Ocean Protocol

?? One Million South Koreans Now Have Blockchain Drivers Licenses

?? ShareRing Uses Blockchain To Solve Self Sovereign Identity And Proof Of Health Simultaneously

?? B3i partners with reinsurance blockchain Ritablock to extend DLT platform

???? China to Launch Major Expansion of Digital Currency Trials

?? Aave becomes second DeFi protocol to hit $1 billion in total value locked

DApps (Decentralized Apps) Watch:

?? Unraveling the Blockchain and Crypto Gaming World One Click at a Time

Blockchain brings a number of benefits to gaming, some of which are inherent blockchain attributes that apply to many industries. The transparency of blockchain technology can bring provably fair gameplay. Its security, meanwhile, can guard against fraudulent play or hacking. But perhaps the biggest evolution that blockchain has brought to gaming came with the development of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Essentially, NFTs allow players to own their in-game items, characters, and abilities and then trade these items with other players.…read more

Related: ?? Exploring Ultra’s Gaming Blockchain — eosio

?? Matic is Quickly Becoming the Go-To Platform for Gaming DApps & Beyond

Although there is a wide range of Layer 2 scaling solutions on the market, Matic is the leading scaling solution by far in terms of adoption (with 60+ DApps building on our infrastructure already and 60+ more in the process of integrating/exploring integration). This makes Matic…read more

Related: ?? How Ethereum fuelled the NFT boom

?? 2020 Is Becoming the Year of Staking With Some Major Achievements

The use of staking will become more widespread this year on the protocol level with Ethereum 2.0’s expected arrival, along with the continued development of Cardano, Tezos, and Algorand, ultimately changing the landscape of the future networks and blockchains. While both proof-of-work and proof-of-stake have a lot to offer, this year, in particular, promises to be a special one for proof-of-stake.…read more

Related: ?? Winston-Salem’s hottest startup aims to disrupt the world of blockchain

?? Hello, Web3 world: HackFS builders ready for Filecoin launch

?? MetaMask changes will boost performance but could break dapps

?? State of Ethereum Wallets, Summer 2020 — makoto_inoue

??? Research: State of the Blockchain & DApps 2020:

Available now, for free is my latest research on Decentralized Applications or DApp “Stack” Landscape Map — the Q2 2020 edition. This map provides a full overview and taxonomy of the emerging DApps industry highlighting over 400 global companies teaching playing a vital role in building next-generation applications. As a bonus, I’ve included some of the ecosystem players and groups you need to be familiar with as you prepare to release your applications. If this is the first version you’ve seen of the landscape, consider it your guiding roadmap to further understanding not only the industry but all the core technology required to build a full or partial Decentralized Application (DApp).

Additionally, you can find my Q1 2020 research on the entire Blockchain Landscape. This is now the fifth edition of the landscape. You’ll find over the map includes 747 companies (900+ total unique + broader key Ecosystem players) that have seen $22 bn+ USD in funding raised from 2010–2020 — over $18 bn invested alone since 2017!

?? Want to stay up-to-date with all the headlines, investments, in-depth research, and latest landscapes on the Blockchain, DApps, DeFi, and FinTech industries? Subscribe and follow me on Twitter for weekly updates and more!