A lot of things happens every day in the world and Blockchain/Crypto space is not left out in any way.

Experts have suggested 1-3 interesting and current things going on in Blockchain/Crypto space and this is what the have to say.

1. Internet (Information) / Blockchain (Value)

We've got two key elements here. Information and Value. Value has been clearly defined (IMO) as Bitcoin. So now, the next most important thing to me as a person/individual in a decentralized ecosystem behind me understanding my value and being able to share that value around the network is going to be my information.

If my value is my relative net worth, then my information would be... What?

Well, we are very very big believers in identity and have implemented a ton and written a ton under the hood in our architecture, with regards to this (on our team at Wyre). People aren't even realizing it yet, but Bitcoin will capture identity too.

The Internet (Information) = Contribution.

The Blockchain (Value) = Attestation.
The Internet + Blockchain = Reputation.
Lmk if any of that resonates... Because the primary reason for not capturing retention in a financial system is due to the ability to create products for financial scoring/reputation/history...

Just like you would want high-quality video/images to make those a thing everyone uses. For adoption you need integrity. The internet scored big with that.

In networks of value, integrity is still required for sufficient network effects and product offerings that can establish meaningful retention. This is what is to come. Reputation.

Josh Panebianco
Senior Director of Marketing

The most important things going on in the blockchain/crypto space include:

1. The death of many ill-thought-out projects that received ICO funding
2. The transformation of the ICO industry because of the above
3. The slow, but steady, the progress of enterprise applications.

1. Death of many ill-thought-out projects:  This was to be expected by those of us who have witnessed technology bubbles before. But for the younger generation who saw crypto as something 'completely different' and a road to riches, there is still a lot of denials that it is happening. Many projects boasted exciting technological advances. But they either couldn't deliver or there was no market for their cleverness. Their white papers typically did not discuss details of how they would develop, deploy, and support their vision. Their teams usually consisted of well-meaning developers with close to zero operational and management experience. So it is not shocking to veterans.

2. The transformation of the ICO industry: Because of the hard times now being experienced by many amateur investors who jumped on the bandwagon in 2017, new ICOs are having difficulty obtaining funding. The $4 billion raised by EOS this year will likely stand as the high-water mark for ICOs. ICOs aren't dead. But new projects using this creative mechanism to raise money will have to put a lot more effort (and cost) into their white papers to convince investors not only that they have a clever idea, but also that they have the ability to deploy it and create a sustainable ecosystem. And they will also have to comply with regulations that have long been in place but were ignored out of naivete of earlier project teams.

3. Enterprise applications:
While they aren't attracting a lot of press and most don't have their own currency for the public to invest in, enterprises are serious about leveraging blockchain technology. And industries ranging from supply chain to insurance are actively developing solutions. It isn't just a financial services play. These applications are still years away from full production. But their development is being funded and is proceeding broadly across a wide swatch of an industry.

Jeff Stollman

Business - Digital Advertising
The blockchain is designed to bring trust to any trust-less environment. There is a significant need for blockchain in the digital advertising space. In 2017 advertisers spent $224B globally, but $18b alone went to advertising fraud. Over 50% of an advertiser’s ad spend goes to inefficient supply paths. the IAB (internet advertising bureau) has released a report stating that blockchain could solve the problem and there are a number of companies currently trying to solve this issue in different forms. At Ternio, we’re focused on programmatic digital advertising which creates a massive amount of transactions per second. Our technology solves 3 problems in digital advertising 1) giving buyers transparency of where their ad dollars are going 2) mitigating domain spoofing (a common form of fraud) and 3) enabling sellers the ability to be paid on impression delivery. Most sellers (like Techcrunch) currently have to wait 30-120 days to be paid for delivering an impression. That is too long!

Consumer - Spending
Many companies are trying to solve the “utility” issue of cryptocurrency. It’s very difficult to go to a retailer today (online or in-store) and pay for something with Bitcoin or Ethereum. What’s left is the speculation of the future value of those assets on crypto exchanges

STOs
Tokenized securities will be the next big wave that is just starting to gain traction. This is basically equity in a startup company that can be traded as easily as stocks on the NASDAQ. STO’s typically come with all the rights that a standard stock would.

                                                                                                                                                               Ian Kane
                                                                                                                                           Cofounder

TERNIO

Advertising fraud harms brands, agencies, performance marketers, and the ad networks who host them. One of the most rampant forms of ad fraud is click-through fraud, in which AI-powered bots click on ads to trick advertisers into believing a real human has viewed and interacted with their ad.  

Blockchain may be the technology that can help advertisers ferret out fraudsters and share data on the ad fraud perpetrator with other advertisers and brands. Imagine the potential if one advertiser, brand, or ad host sees evidence of fraud, and then reports it to a shared blockchain database of other players in the advertising ecosystem. This method would help quickly identify the fraudster and share this information with the connected parties – such as other advertisers, brands, and performance marketers, who can then ban that user from their pages. Blockchain presents an opportunity to identify fraud and also share that intelligence with the greater community, to stop it before it becomes rampant.

Michelle Barry
Mesmerize Media

• Blockchain in Healthcare

Healthcare is one of the top industries poised to be impacted by blockchain. The primary applications of blockchain are in tracking and security distributing medical records. There are very important use cases using distributed ledger technology (DLT) that can help consumers maintain control of their personal health records and can help providers easily and permanently track events related to care they've provided.

A good example of this is tracking events that happen during EMS to make sure that those events (such as delivery of dosages of narcotics) are properly tracked and instantly shared with emergency department medical staff to make sure the patient is getting the best emergency care possible. This also helps insurance companies do proper billings, helps consumers with billing disputes (see collections practices above!), and helps providers do better analysis of outcomes to make people healthier over time. At $2.3 trillion in spending on healthcare annually in the US, there's a massive opportunity to reduce the cost of the system while adding safety.

• Blockchain in FinServ/Prevention of Financial Crimes

The financial sector is one of the industries best positioned to benefit from the development and evolution of blockchain solutions beyond just cryptocurrencies. Specifically, blockchain solutions can be adapted to inform financial auditing processes, as well as preventing financial crimes.

For financial auditing, enterprises can save large amounts of budget and time by implementing blockchain-based controls in its financial audit processes. In terms of preventing financial crimes, there is the application of blockchain to the collections industry and consumer lending. There are really exciting possibilities to use blockchain to track consumer collections practices and stop predatory collections practices against lower-income consumer and, in particular, seniors. Blockchain could also be used to harden US election systems to increase confidence that voting systems were not tampered with.

Alyssa Niemiec

Sr. Director of Business Technology