Blockchain Expo Global 2018
If you think that blockchain is something not serious enough, that it is a thing for computer geeks only, we have some news for you. The possibilities of the new technology have already got the global attention, with major industries exploring the new options that blockchain brings.
The recent event in the Blockchain Expo Global program – Blockchain Expo Europe 2018 that was held in Amsterdam on June 27-18 – is a proof of the global blockchain expansion. IBM, Maersk, DHL, Airbus, Philips – these global giants and many more attended the event to share their blockchain experience.
Blockchain Expo Europe is a part of the event series that is held on the global scale. The exhibition has gathered more than 8,000 attendees who exchanged ideas and demonstrated their solutions.
Adoriasoft also had a chance to be present as a developer of distributed applications and smart contracts using the Solidity language and Hyperledger technology. Thus, we can give you a first-hand account of the exhibition by Vlad Kostanda who was among the participants and brought some interesting news about the ambitious blockchain-related projects that are currently in development.
Blockchain for enterprise
Blockchain is not only about cryptocurrencies. Of course, cryptocurrencies are the largest area where the blockchain technology is used, as the finance sector is the best suited to embrace blockchain.
However, deep down, blockchain is the technology of distributed networks that present a new way of data storage and modification that can transform virtually any industry that manages data. Such industries as power and energy, logistics, supply chain, retail trade, real estate are already using blockchain as the medium for secure and transparent transactions.
At the same time, there are even more daring blockchain implementations. Vlad spoke to Ofer Lidsky, the representative of DNAtix – a company working on a blockchain-based network for storing and managing human DNA data. They have tried to use the existing blockchains but found that none of them can provide the necessary anonymity and data protection. Thus, DNAtix is creating an own blockchain platform to enable various DNA services – analysis, storage and transmission of DNA information. In addition, the company is developing a new compression mechanism to be able to compress DNA data to a sendable size.
DNAtix is just one example of how blockchain can be used for its primary purpose – as a secure and protected network of data management.
Blockchain and cryptocurrencies
Naturally, a lot of attention was focused on the sector where the companies working in the crypto trading sector resented their projects. Any new tool capable of making the life of traders easier is guaranteed to fall under the spotlight. Blockchain Expo Europe hosted quite a number of such companies, all demonstrating their interesting ideas.
From the dozens of projects, we would like to mention Tokenview, a Chinese startup determined to create a unified crypto explorer – a platform showing the trends of all blockchains currently in use. At the moment, there are thousands of blockchains with different crypto coins, but no possibility to view them all in one place. Indeed, for all Ethereum-based coins and tokens we have Etherscan, but what about the rest?
The product that Tokenview is about to release is a unified blockchain explorer displaying the behavior of multiple blockchains in the same place. The demand for such a platform seems to be quite high, so we wish Tokenview a successful project completion.
Blockchain security solutions
Today, security products, particularly, those related to cryptography, deserve special attention. This is why we would like to note the solution presented by WolfSSL – an open-source cryptography library ensuring secure communication.
The WolfSSL products are not limited to blockchain security. On the contrary, they represent a reliable security environment for all sorts of desktop, mobile and web applications, IoT networks, cloud infrastructures. Of course, blockchain can benefit from the WolfSSL library, too, as in this area secure communication is especially critical.
The WolfSSL protocol shows a more effective performance than the commonly recognized OpenSSL due to its size and speed. The company has been on the market for over a decade already, and its solutions are supported by years of solid research.
Other blockchain innovations
The number of startups committed to making the blockchain technology better is amazing. We met a lot of enthusiastic people presenting various projects that have a great chance to change the way we use blockchain.
If you ever made a single crypto transaction, you must have used a crypto wallet address – that long string of letters and numbers. One typo or missed symbol – and your crypto money is lost forever. Coinweb is going to take care of that. The company is working on the tool for assigning names to crypto wallets so that instead of a meaningless string of symbols you can use the name of your counterpart. Ethereum users can already enjoy this feature through Ethereum Name Service, however, when Coinweb rolls out its product, human-readable names can be assigned to wallets on any blockchains.
We should also mention an interesting blockchain project aimed at the .NET community. Stratis offers the so-called Blockchain-as-a-Service supporting blockchain application creation in the C#/ .Net development framework. The Stratis solution allows a simple and straightforward flow of development, testing, and deployment of blockchain apps written in C# on the .Net platform.
In the ICO sector, there was a lot of interesting innovations as well. We would like to mention ICOVO working on creating a “healthy environment for ICOs”. In order to reduce the ICO fraud and the number of ICO scams, ICOVO is going to apply smart contract creation based on the concept of DAICO.
DAICO gives the investors the ability to control the distribution of funds raised during the ICO. With this approach, the token holders can control the release of funds from the smart contract in accordance with the progress of the project development. DAICO will prevent ICO owners from gathering the money and disappearing. We are going to follow the DAICO development and inform you about any news from that sector. Subscribe to our blog to be the first to know when the DAICO revolution is going to happen.
On our part, Adoriasoft also presented our experience in building distributed applications, creating smart contracts and other crypto products. Of course, one blog post is not enough to cover all events that took place during these two days. They were tightly packed with new ideas, unique products, interesting integrations and challenging solutions. In addition to blockchain, the attendees could also visit the IoT and AI sectors showing the latest innovations in the connected device and artificial intelligence industries.
The event received quite an extensive media coverage in the dedicated resources. Dozens of online blogs, magazines, and other media platforms attended the exhibition to draw the public attention to the event. Blockchain Expo has already earned popularity in the crypto community – the series of exhibitions spans both sides of the Atlantic and is held for the second time already.
From the announcements on the official website of the event, we see that the preparations for the 2019 Blockchain Expo series are already in progress. When it concerns advanced technology, one year is a lot of time, so we hope to see more mind-blowing inventions and innovations next year. Stay tuned!