While the volatile (high risk/high reward) nature of cryptocurrencies is intriguing, I am most interested in the long term implications of decentralized systems.
As Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, reminded the community this past week via tweetstorm: “the total cryptocoin market cap just hit $0.5T today. But have we *earned* it?”
Funding and hype is at an all time high. For investors looking to make a quick buck (or perhaps millions) — it is surely an exciting time.
via CoinDesk
But is this really sustainable? Buterin goes on to emphasize the real point of this technology…
The long view informs that any realized returns in the short run will be far less important than the overall impact decentralized systems and blockchain projects can have on our society. I, personally, am much more interested in the underlying technology (Smart Contracts, Authentication, etc.) — moreso than today’s early attempts at building scalable platforms. Like any fledgling piece of technology, much like the early internet, we are likely to see a number of trial and errors before we see blockchain implementations that actually stick.
Nonetheless, I enjoy reading different takes on how to best inject this “frontier tech” into different areas of the modern economy.
Via word of mouth as well as from reading different sources, I put together a list of 6 upcoming projects that I find interesting.
Of course, invest at your own risk. This is not an endorsement, merely a conversation starter 😇
(In no particular order)
1. UbiquiCoin
The team at UbiquiCoin wants to make cryptocurrencies accessible and useful at scale. Unlike most of the popular coins of today, UbiquiCoin is a currency designed to be used in day-to-day life. From purchasing groceries to paying your bills, you will be able to use UbiquiCoin because it is an attempt at a “stable-priced” currency. For any currency to be successful at scale, it must be *at least* somewhat stable and predictable enough. No merchant (or consumer for that matter) will be willing to accept an unpredictable form of payment. UbiquiCoin uses a unique two-coin arrangement that provides upside for investors but also stability for consumers and enterprises.
2. TraDove
TraDove wants to bring transparency and authenticity to the B2B enterprise space. They are effectively creating an intelligent platform to connect business partners via a social network. They use a public ledger to store and log service reviews, ensuring data health and quality. The business to business sales space is massive and crowded — it will be interesting to see how TraDove, along with other players in this space, evolve as consumer demand increases.
3. U.CASH
There are billions of adults across the world who lack access to basic financial services. Furthermore, the modern financial world is fragmented across a host of inefficient intermediary parties. U.CASH, an emerging blockchain startup, is providing a full stack financial service while supplanting the need for traditional banks. Users can easily cash-in and cash-out from retail locations between digital assets/crypto and other financial services. Rather than a conventional coin offering (ICO), they are running an “IBO” (initial bounty offering) in which users can acquire tokens by completing bounties.
4. Cointal
One of the biggest points of friction for people buying and selling cryptocurrencies is that it can be hard to escape the frustrating fees and slow service of the emerging exchanges. Cointal is more of an open marketplace where “coin sellers” can easily create listings to be shared with thousands of interested buyers. They have already done 15 million in transaction volume to date. Furthermore, their unity service will allow users to easily swap currencies using everything from Paypal to Credit/Debit Cards.
5. Odem
Odem wants to unlock higher education for the masses — providing a “high quality education that everyone can afford.” Effectively, they want to ensure that everyone interested in pursuing higher level education can actually do so. Therefore, they are creating a global marketplace that can “assist students in accessing many education options.” They want to develop an integrated platform that pairs students with online education programs. Educators and educational service providers will be able to receive requests for classes and provide instruction.
6. Next Big Thing (NBT) AG
Next Big Thing (NBT) AG is on a mission to create a strong blockchain and Internet of Things ecosystem, where emerging organizations and applications leveraging the security and efficiency of decentralized tokens can can bring their IoT ideas to fruition swiftly and securely. Among NBT’s portfolio, is Weeve, which provides an innovative IoT-to-blockchain architecture in which commercial IoT solutions can be built and distributed. Through Weeve’s intuitive software platform, connecting IoT and blockchains, secure-by-design and cost-free data dissemination and commercialization business models can be implemented.