Recently, Mark Zuckerberg shared Facebook’s plans to turn its social media business into a metaverse. And other companies are already developing metaverse-like products, such as Christian Louboutin and Fortnite. What is the metaverse? And how can blockchain technology help shape this? More on that in my newest blog.

Wi-Fi, smartphones, cryptocurrencies and augmented reality, they were all predicted in 1992 by ‘tech nostradamus’ Neal Stephenson in his book Snow Crash. Also known as the “Bible of Silicon Valley”. The book was even the source of inspiration for Google Maps. The metaverse is now starting to gain momentum.

What is the metaverse?

The metaverse is a valid social network. Besides communicating with each other here, you can also build and do things that were not possible in real life. Inspired by Burning Man, Second Life was founded 15 years ago, the first major metaverse.

Millions of people were part of this virtual community, including Barack Obama and a few hundred thousand Dutch people. Companies such as Philips, Nike and ABN AMRO had a virtual branch. Artists such as Direct performed on the virtual island ‘DropZone’ and the Dutch Political Party CDA even took to the virtual street to win souls. People paid with the virtual currency ‘Linden Dollar’ and met in the virtual bar, the predecessors of Bitcoin and Tinder.

The hype passed and the idea of ​​a metaverse was brought to the market in light variants, think of Facebook and Reddit. In the meantime, developments in the field of augmented reality and virtual reality have accelerated. Also through the acquisition of Facebook, Microsoft and Google of various companies in the sector.

Online gaming has undergone an insane growth and development in recent years, where various Second Life elements can also be found. Such as buying and setting up virtual environments and developing an online identity. Billions of dollars a year are now being spent in this in-game economy.

Facebook’s plans

Facebook also wants to transform the company into a metaverse. Now all kinds of companies were already developing metaverse-like products, from metaverse Christian Louboutin fashion shows to metaverse mushroom trips. The creator Epic of the wildly popular game Fortnite recently won $1 billion on its own metaverse vision.

It will be a massively participatory medium of a type that we really haven’t seen yet, with a fair economy in which all creators can participate, make money and be rewarded. — Tim Sweeney, CEO Epic Games

A company like Facebook takes this to a much higher level. This is due to the number of users of the platform, the knowledge of setting up a social medium and AR/VR and of course a large pocket of money to develop it.

This is going to be a really big part of the next chapter for the technology industry, It will be the next generation of the internet — Mark Zuckerberg

Zuckerberg wants to connect more than a billion people in this way. So this goes a bit further than reading a status on Facebook from a friend from another country. And also beyond an augmented reality app, with which you can see in real time what IKEA furniture in your home or make-up on your face might look like.

An environment that you are part of
What really matters is that as a user you feel that you are part of it. As if you are physically in it with other people, in a different place. That’s something most Frankwatching readers have probably never experienced, but many gamers have. Gaming platform Roblox, with over 120 million users, already offers such an environment. It is complete with its own identity, social network, its own rules and enforcement and even a functioning economy.

It’s the newest macro-goal for many of the world’s tech giants — Matthew Ball, Amazon

Facebook has now put 10,000 employees on metaverse projects, Google has already launched many cool projects, as has Amazon with Lumberyard and Sumerian. Apple will most likely launch its own AR glasses soon. With an amazing reach, the company obviously has great potential to set up its own metaverse with all kinds of different functionalities, which fit in nicely with its own products. But just like with Second Life, the strength will come from all organizations that will set up one metaverse together. Instead of all making their own world

A vision that spans many companies; the whole industry. It will be an embodied internet — Mark Zuckerberg

Get rid of the walled gardens
Leaving aside the cool plans of the big technology giants… the metaverse could, in my view, put many wrong developments around the internet back on the right track. The endless stream of disclosures and lawsuits surrounding privacy violations, the data silos that give an almost unassailable advantage in the field of AI, but also the far-reaching influence on many aspects of our lives, provide a fairly negative image of the big technology companies.

Everybody from an individual participant to a major developer should participate on equal terms. Only that way can you get a really enduring free and fair economy that is built on the same foundational principles as our country. If the metaverse is open, each company will still want to own some things. The principle here is every creator owns their original creations and has the right to make the profit from them — Tim Sweeney, CEO Epic Games

Within the developments I see a great role for blockchain technology, in 4 ways:

1. Decentralized organization

No central control by a company such as Facebook or Google, a government or a person, but by all participants collectively. In a decentralized way. Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are organizations without a central authority, which are governed on the basis of pre-programmed smart contracts. What Bitcoin does to money, a DAO does to organizations.

Within a DAO there are no hierarchies, everything is transparent and people who do work for the DAO are paid in cryptocurrencies.

You can already see this nicely in action at Decentraland, an open-source virtual reality initiative. It calls itself the first truly decentralized world, fully operating as DAO. In this interactive 3D world, anyone can buy a piece of LAND, visit a museum or club and take a gamble in a casino. Companies such as Coca-Cola sell virtual products and recently the first VR music festival was also organised.

2. Self-sovereign identity

Decentralized organizations are also nicely in line with a topic I wrote about in my previous article on Frankwatching: Self-sovereign identity (SSI). As a user, you are completely in control of your own identity and data. An ‘open metaverse’, built with ‘privacy by design’ and SSI, provides a great foundation for a world where the user decides with whom he/she shares his data and in what way.

No more creating an account for every part of the virtual environment, where you are obliged to leave all your identity and name and address details. Only 1 account that you manage yourself, carry with you and of which you only share the necessary.

3. Zero knowledge proofs

Going a step further Zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP), a blockchain solution that allows you to prove to another party that you are real. Or that you share your age or gender, for example, without revealing your identity.

An example is a mortgage at Rabobank or ING, which ZKP uses to verify whether your income is in the range to get a certain mortgage amount. Without disclosing your actual income. This principle can of course be used very widely, in metaverse, for example, if you speak white to a medical specialist and want to share certain data, but you prefer not to identify yourself.

4. Non-fungible tokens

One of the major contributions of blockchain technology to the metaverse is the Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which I also wrote about before on Frankwatching. The buyer of the digital artwork Beeple, who paid $69 million for this NFT, has now built up an NFT collection of $189 million and wants to use it to set up virtual museums within metaverse.

Adidas held a virtual fashion show at Decentraland, where the designs were auctioned as NFT. Gucci has sold exclusive virtual bags for $4,000 each, more than the regular physical retail price. Rapper Travis Scott has sold 27.7 million tickets as NFT with his in-game Fortnite concert. Pieces of land on Decentraland have recently sold for more than $500,000.

Online environments are going to be very very big. NFT real estate could one day fetch millions of dollars — Frederic Chesnais, voormalig CEO

More and more companies and industries are working on concepts within metaverse environments. I can already see different brands capitalizing on the metaverse trend in all sorts of cool ways by launching products or boosting their branding. Accenture is even taking it a step further with the ‘Nth Floor Project’, building a metaverse for its more than half a million employees worldwide. This way these employees can come together.

Metaverse: Critical Sounds

As with many other technological developments, metaverse is also dismissed as a bubble and doomed. Think of online gaming and Bitcoin. The amounts paid for a virtual Gucci bag or a piece of virtual land are also grist to the mill for critics. In metaverse, everyone should be equal and the big differences that we see in our contemporary society should not exist.

Unfortunately, social networks without central control and monitoring have already shown what they can cause. Parler and Gab are ‘good’ examples of this. The main criticism, however, remains that “big tech” should not be given too much power within the metaverse, as they already control more and more of our daily lives. However, it is the parties that have the reach, the money and the knowledge to set up a metaverse.

A sandbox for nerds and innovators

In the past year we have rapidly started organizing, arranging and experiencing many more things virtually. Not only the vrimibo, entire weddings and funerals were organized online and the fitness industry is trembling with the masses of athletes who have exchanged the gym for online classes. Although the technology still seems far away, developments are moving very fast.

Although it is still mainly a sandbox for nerds and innovators to play in, I can already see a broad, far-reaching metaverse emerging in 2025. I’m looking forward to going to a virtual concert with a good friend from Singapore with a beer in hand. And doing a calisthenics workout with my sister. Until then, I will continue to satisfy my skin hunger in the old, familiar, physical world.

See, the world is full of things more powerful than us. But if you know how to catch a ride, you can go places — Neal Stephenson

Jan Scheele is active in the web3 (blockchain, crypto, NFTs, DeFi) industry since 2013. Besides (former) CEO of a web3 scaleup and founder of an advisory boutique (working for governments, family offices and several multinationals), he is Digital Leader at the World Economic Forum and Board Member at the Blockchain Netherlands Foundation (BCNL). He is writing, consulting, speaking and training regularly about everything web3, all over the world. Furthermore, he is currently finalizing his book about the rise and global impact of blockchain technology.

Having a driver’s license or identity in your wallet is something normal in our Western society. It’s something everyone has as standard, so we hardly think about it. Whether you are rich or poor, young or old. From the moment the parents register a child with the Municipality, the official identity is recorded in the Personal Records Database and you will receive a Citizen Service Number. Will it soon be replaced by a digital identity, or a Self-Sovereign Identity? In this article I will tell you all the ins and outs about this new form of identity.

An official identity is important and necessary in arranging many things in life. From arranging a bank account and insurance, to obtaining a loan or mortgage. And for access to almost all government services and nowadays even buildings. The privacy laws and regulations have only made this more strict. As a result, more and more people are asked to identify themselves.

Lack of formal identity and identity fraud

But an identity is not so self-evident; more than 1 billion people worldwide have no official identity. As a result, they cannot open a bank account, set up a business, vote, receive healthcare or get an official job. One of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals is that all people on our planet should have a formal identity by 2030. It has set up the ID2020 Alliance for this purpose.

But it is not only people who do not have a formal identity who experience major problems in their lives as a result. People with a formal identity in Western countries have problems with their formal identity due to large-scale fraud. In the Netherlands, 1 in 10 people is a victim of identity fraud, worldwide there were as many as there were people living in the Netherlands last year, and another victim is added every two seconds. Last year, the damage to consumers was $56 billion.

One of the most underexposed, but promising areas where blockchain technology will have a tremendous impact, is Self Sovereign Identity (SSI): a digital identity. You are back in control of your own identity. Not only physically, but also digitally. Control how your personal data is shared with other persons and/or parties, so that you only share the necessary data in a transaction or interaction.

One ID to rule them all

Just think in how many places your address details are known because of online shopping. What if you move? What if your password becomes known to hackers due to a data breach? Then you would rather update everything once from your ‘wallet app’ on the phone, than go through all parties one by one.

Storing and monitoring your identity on your own phone is not only much easier to use, but also much safer according to studies. The controlled sharing of your personal data also offers countless invaluable opportunities in terms of analysis, collaboration and predictions. Concrete proposals for this were already made in 1985 by the creator of one of Bitcoin’s predecessors, David Chaum, but it is now really starting to take shape.

Digital identity (SSI) in practice

The best example of the use of blockchain technology within the SSI movement, I continue to find the World Food Program of the United Nations in Jordan. Where 400,000 refugees have been given a digital ID on their mobile phone. By scanning the eye, for example, one can pay in a store without the need for money. Or conjure up your own current medical file with a healthcare provider. Refugees cannot be deprived of money they have received from the UN. And the UN can see perfectly real-time which goods it has to deliver to which stores and the medical file is always up-to-date and never lost again.

The largest democracy in the world, India, already works with a digital ID based on biometric data: Aadhaar. Today, 99% of adult residents have an Aadhaar ID, which is used in all interactions with the government. From paying taxes to enrolling in education. This makes the government a lot more efficient and less sensitive to fraud. The World Bank has already called it the most advanced ID system in the world.

Baby on the blockchain

Many governments are working on a digital identity in the background. From Tanzania, where the first baby has already been registered on the blockchain, to Dubai, which will copy the Indian Aadhaar 1–1. It is one of the fundamental building blocks of European governments for the European Union to focus on in the coming period. A start was made on this in 2014 with the electronic IDentification, Authentication and Trust Services (eIDAS) legislation. It was thoroughly reformed last year after many experiments and experiences from frontrunner Estonia and should really get fleshed out next October.

In our own country, Rabobank has been researching the use of SSI since 2016 and there are great startups like Tykn that offer turnkey SSI solutions. The Dutch Blockchain Coalition and Digicampus have been investigating concrete options for the Dutch government since last year.

DigiD already works well as a central ID solution for governments. So we have to wait for a decentralized SSI, with which you can also authenticate at companies. The corona pandemic has accelerated the urgency of an eID, because of the vaccination passport. All European governments are working individually and jointly on SSI. So we have to wait for the concrete translation, as with the Indian Aadhaar.

Concerns about privacy at SSI

The opponents mainly state their concerns about privacy with a digital identity. Blockchain is known for its immutable nature. While in Europe we know the ‘right to be forgotten’ within the GDPR legislation. Something the EU Blockchain Observatory is currently cracking its brains on. Nevertheless, India is also looking to put Aadhaar on the blockchain, because the system still centrally stores the data. Which of course creates a huge security risk.

In addition, the question arises; do you have to make the ID mandatory when, for example, creating a social media profile, so that you can never respond anonymously again? Fake news, hate speech and rigged elections could disappear like snow in the sun, but one of the most basic fundamental rights; freedom of expression can be seriously compromised.

The many hacks that we see in the news every day are creating more and more pressure to take concrete steps in the SSI field in the short term. The coming year will therefore be an interesting one within the European Union, because of all the concrete plans that will be unfolded. As with new technological developments such as autonomous driving and the CBDCs, the technology is already quite advanced. It is precisely the ethical dilemmas and practical implications that still prevent its introduction. In any case, we are well on our way. And I look forward to all the cool developments in the coming months.

Jan Scheele is active in the web3 (blockchain, crypto, NFTs, DeFi) industry since 2013. Besides (former) CEO of a web3 scaleup and founder of an advisory boutique (working for governments, family offices and several multinationals), he is Digital Leader at the World Economic Forum and Board Member at the Blockchain Netherlands Foundation (BCNL). He is writing, consulting, speaking and training regularly about everything web3, all over the world. Furthermore, he is currently finalizing his book about the rise and global impact of blockchain technology.

Gucci shoes, chicken nuggets, chips and beer. They could be ingredients for an evening in a bar of how we still know it before corona. They are also all products of which a Non Fungible Token (NFT) is made. In this article I discuss the latest developments in the field of NFTs and how you can do one yourself.

It’s not just a few innovative creatives who have launched an NFT. Celebrities such as Snoop Dog, Paris Hilton and Edward Snowden, and companies such as McDonald’s, Pringles and Lego are also stepping in. There are more than 3 million items for sale at the time of writing and sales worldwide in the last two months are up 2882%. The marketplaces where you can create an NFT are popping up like virtual mushrooms with more than $750 million in investments in the past quarter. Wonderful developments, but I do see 4 of them all.

1. Tragedy of the meet
The idea makers of NFTs who first came up with NFTs in 2014 did so with an ideology that technology should give artists control over their own work. This would make it easy to sell and they can protect work from misuse by others. In my view, this is also not the basic principle why many creatives put their work on the blockchain, with an NFT.

That’s why I think it’s really cool to see how DJs like Don Diablo are now making money through NFTs by selling a unique song. Or how Nigerians can suddenly serve a simple market. But things like beer from the sound of a fart don’t give the concept a good name in my opinion. Not to mention the red pixel, which is currently on offer for $900,000.

The warnings are therefore flying around the ears of various experts on all sides. And not with the general warnings for sharp price falls and financial losses of investment. NFTs are recorded on the blockchain. Even though this technology has already been nicely developed in many areas in recent years, NFTs are still new.

Garrett Hardin described this as beautifully as ‘tragedy of the commons’. If there is a common resource that everyone has an individual incentive to exploit, it will eventually dry up for lack of regulation of common standards. I now see this happening in NFT land and that makes an impossible search.

2. 404! Artwork not found
The number of cases of people suddenly losing their NFT and getting a 404 for the place is very strong. As the owner of an NFT, you are really dependent on the platform where you bought the NFT. Just like for cryptocurrencies, there are no clear laws and regulations that describe what your rights are. You can therefore not knock on the door of any authorities if a platform appears to be off if you make a mistake yourself when digitally storing your NFT.

As a digital thief you no longer have to go to a museum with a crowbar in your bag. You can rob a digital museum from home. The number of reports of digital robberies and scams therefore strongly influenced.

3. Not your keys, not your art
As with cryptocurrencies, an NFT is managed by a so-called ‘private key’. This is a cryptographic key of numbers and letters. You can store it, just like with cryptocurrencies, or have it stored in the place where you bought it. In the latter case, the platform holds the private key. In a recent hack of an NFT exchange Nifty, all keys were stolen and moved to the hackers’ wallets. Lost their NFT as well. The hackers only have the private key to the wallets of the hackers. These are, because of the cryptographic background, uncrackable.

The credo ‘not your keys, not your wallet’, or in this context ‘not your art’, is very relevant here. Setting up your own wallet for your NFTs is highly recommended. Online with a browser plugin such as Metamask or offline with, for example, a Ledger. You can check whether your NFT is stored securely on the Checkmynft website.

4. Copyright Confusion
The work of several well-known artists, such as Shakespeare, Beethoven and Charles Dickens, has become cultural heritage after their deaths. This is free for everyone to use. Quarrels between Italy and Italy over the use of the opera La Bohème Germany resulted in a general European directive. This makes the work of the author, 70 years after his death, a public good. Something the owners of Disney and Superman have long held back in the United States.

The new, NFT way of making, selling and distributing art automatically raises the copyright question. The digital artwork of Beeple, which was sold for $69 million, has now been made into a website, with which you can generate a new Beeple with a simple click on the button. Can that just happen?

I toured several lawyers in the Netherlands, specialized in intellectual property and technology law. They mainly point to the fact that when you buy a work of art you have the right to use it for personal consumption or to resell it. You are purchasing ownership of the item, not copyright. An NFT is nothing more than a digital proof, a receipt, with which you can prove the authenticity and prove that you are the owner. That receipt is on the blockchain and can therefore not be adjusted and is transparent for everyone.

In principle, the artist can make and sell an infinite number of copies of the digital artwork, with a unique NFT associated with it. As a buyer, it is therefore highly recommended to do good due diligence with the artist before buying a work of art. Is it a unique work or a copy?

How do you make an NFT yourself?
Many creatives I speak to and poll about this are enthusiastic. It provides a worldwide sales market with a few mouse clicks. And because of the removal of all kinds of intermediaries, it also ensures a greater yield for the creative person himself. It is also easy to make and put up for sale an NFT yourself. I list the steps below, and also watch the video for more explanation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fWfPVL6wOA

Step 1: Why do you want to make an NFT?
Before you start, I recommend that you first ask yourself why you want to make an NFT. In my previous article on NFTs, I wrote about the obscene energy consumption required to make an NFT. That touches a lot of sensitive strings worldwide. Are you doing it for fun? Or really because you have a serious creation that you would like to sell?

Step 2: elaborate the legal framework
Also work out the legal framework well. What about property when selling? In the field of copyright, intellectual property and possible royalties. Look carefully at the conditions of the platform where you upload. What do you all agree to?

Step 3: choose a sales platform
The largest NFT selling platform is OpenSea. This is also the easiest to use, so I’ll use that in the next steps. You need a digital wallet for this, of which Metamask is the most used and can easily be added as a plugin in, for example, Chrome or on the iPhone.

Step 4: Link your wallet
At the top right of the OpenSea site, click Create > Submit NFTs. Then you link your MetaMask account to OpenSea in the next step.

Step 5: Upload your artwork
If MetaMask is linked, you will see the My Collections screen. There is also a big blue button with Create, with which you can upload your digital artwork just as easily as you do with a video on YouTube. Just upload the file, enter the correct title, description and keywords and the NFT is ready!

Step 6: Verify the work
You just need to verify the NFT. You can do this by clicking the Create button again and clicking authorize in the automatically opened MetaMask window. After that, the NFT will be live on the platform.

Using a platform like OpenSea is free, so you can repeat this process as many times as you want.

Tulip bulbs and bubbles
Tens of billions of basketball cards were printed in the United States in the 1980s, after respected media outlets like the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times labeled them inflation hedges and millions of Americans bought them as investments. Like the internet bubble that emerged decades later and the previous cryptocurrency bubble in 2017, they all eventually burst due to oversupply.

The current madness will continue for a while. Respected analysts expect the market to be worth many billions by the end of this year. Work is now underway on environmentally friendly NFTs and NFT museums have been opened in China, Russia and the United States. The sector is developing so fast that there are new developments every week. I watch them with enthusiasm.

Jan Scheele is active in the web3 (blockchain, crypto, NFTs, DeFi) industry since 2013. Besides (former) CEO of a web3 scaleup and founder of an advisory boutique (working for governments, family offices and several multinationals), he is Digital Leader at the World Economic Forum and Board Member at the Blockchain Netherlands Foundation (BCNL). He is writing, consulting, speaking and training regularly about everything web3, all over the world. Furthermore, he is currently finalizing his book about the rise and global impact of blockchain technology.

Full piggy banks, negative interest rates, mistrust of governments and banks, but also enthusiasm for new startups, new possibilities and new technology. The hype surrounding cryptocurrency is getting bigger and crazier by the day. What can we expect in the coming months? In my latest article, I share the 6 key developments that will impact the cryptocurrency industry this coming summer. If you are only used to euros in your wallet, the names of the more than 9,600 different cryptocurrencies probably sound crazy to you. Dogs, hamburgers, Dracula and sperm… You can think of it as crazy as a digital currency has been named after it. It is no longer just the early adopters who buy these digital currencies.

According to a recent market effect study, 700,000 Dutch people have already invested in it and 3.5 million plan to do so in the coming months. According to research by Mastercard, that percentage is 40% worldwide.

Elon Musk has shown how strongly the sector can still be influenced with 1 tweet. If we zoom out and look at the previous bull run in 2017, we also saw a strong correction of -20% every month, which then quickly recovered. It will certainly not be the last correction in the market. Especially because in recent weeks it has been proven again how easy this is to achieve.

The Indomitable Bull

After the major crash of Bitcoin in late 2017 and the demise of hundreds of other digital currencies — the so-called ‘altcoins’ in early 2018 — I saw interest in the underlying blockchain technology and currencies fall just as much as the value of the currency itself. The few articles that appeared in the media were mainly negative in nature, focusing on the failed experiments of many organizations and the many myths surrounding crime and energy consumption, which were clearly not properly researched and substantiated. Bitcoin has since been declared “dead” 411 times.

It is wonderful to see how various startups and organizations have continued to build their products in the lee in recent years. Now that the flowers are blooming again, many of these products are being launched and enthusiastically received by investors. The insane amount of money saved during corona, the negative interest and the fact that saving is no longer profitable, has certainly ensured that interest in cryptocurrencies has taken a bird’s-eye view. And, The market is now very bullish.

The predictions of renowned institutions such as Bloomberg and banks such as Goldman Sachs that the price of Bitcoin can still rise to 100–150 thousand euros, only reinforces this. Moreover, The market value has risen from $200 billion to $2 trillion in just a few months. With the predictions about the number of new investors in cryptocurrencies, this will certainly have a strong positive effect on prices and market value.

2. To the moon… or not?

Unfortunately, the madness also creates various shadow sides. During the previous bull run in 2017/2018, I wrote about the importance of doing your due diligence before putting money into a cryptocurrency somewhere.

Bloomberg’s research into the previous bull run showed that 75% of the underlying cryptocurrency projects were outright scams. According to many reports, this resulted in billions of euros in damage, which the (mostly small) investors lost overnight and could not get back.

The many hacks of exchanges, where the cryptocurrencies are traded, also cause people to lose their digital currencies. North Korea has already made more than $2 billion from these hacks, according to a United Nations study.

People are looking for a still relatively unknown currency, which they hope will certainly ‘m00nen’ (go to the moon, crypto language for very strong rise in value). For example, the second best known and largest cryptocurrency, Ethereum, was worth 30 cents at its opening sale and has already surpassed $3,000 in value.

Crypto Influencers

In the search for these hidden gems, people quickly come across the crypto influencers on channels like Twitter and YouTube, who promote various cryptocurrencies with texts like “going to explode” and “going to the moon”. Some do this with a good financial-technical substantiation, as is also the case with stock prices, some purely with an unsubstantiated story, which later turns out to be paid for by the promoted projects themselves.

With the greatly increased value of cryptocurrencies, the number of investors and trading exchanges, it is becoming more and more lucrative for hackers and scammers to be active in the market. Even though security measures are increasing, it is becoming increasingly important as an owner / investor to take a good look at the security of your accounts and storage of the cryptocurrency itself. This is often not thought of, with all the consequences that entails.

3. Tulip bulbs in 2021

Just like in 2017/2018, I expect that the bubble will burst again at some point and the prices of many cryptocurrencies will fall very sharply. After the previous crash, the total market value fell by 80% in a few months, which was even more than the ‘dot-com crash’.

The fundamentals are stronger now. I expect that many projects will not suddenly disappear, because they already offer products and services and have thus become a full-fledged startup / scale-up. In addition, many large companies, banks and investors have invested in the various cryptocurrencies and have indicated that they will do so for the long term. Bitcoin treasuries provides a wonderful overview. All major banks worldwide have now also switched and are offering, or are going to offer, crypto to their customers: UBS, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche bank. Dutch banks have indicated that they are not yet a fan.

In my view, various cryptocurrencies are therefore really here to stay. But currencies that even the creators have indicated that they created for fun (such as Dogecoin), I see in value and attention collapsing again in due course. There’s even a “dog token category” already, with token names like Shiba, Dogelon, Akita, and Ourshib.

Bubbles are good!

As I wrote in 2019: bubbles are good in my opinion. To separate the wheat from the chaff, take the hype off something and focus on real problems that a technology can tackle. They are rapidly providing wider acceptance, lots of PR and growth money for startups and budgets for organizations to experiment with and build on.

Think before you invest

As an investor in cryptocurrencies, it is extremely important to take a sober look at this yourself. Do you buy a cryptocurrency because just like in a regular company that you buy a share of, you believe in the mission / vision / product of the company? Or do you mainly want to gamble high risk high reward on a strong price increase? Unfortunately, research shows that 95% of people who choose the latter lose their money.

So take a good look at your current portfolio and any future purchase plans, to avoid coming home from a cold fair in the coming months.

4. Digital El Dorado

One of the biggest and fastest growing hypes in cryptocurrency and blockchain right now is certainly Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). More and more individuals and organizations are embracing digital art and collectibles. Recently, the total trading volume rose to the all-time high of $1.5 billion in one day. It’s not just the individual digital artworks anymore, like Beeple, which sold for $69 million. On the record day, half a billion worth of digital items were sold from the American basketball league NBA.

Traditional financial institutions are now slowly entering the world of cryptocurrencies, and so will the creative sector. From makers of art, music, films and books, to sports clubs and game developers, who put unique digital items on the blockchain.

Former employees of the two largest auction houses in the world (Christie’s and Sotheby’s) have set up Lobus, which makes it easier to manage art collections with NFTs, but also to (sell) partial ones. For example, you can purchase a digital artwork together with a few friends.

Meanwhile, the largest cryptocurrency trading platform in the world (Binance) has also announced that they are setting up an NFT platform. This will further increase the number of NFTs and their sales worldwide. As a result, the opportunities to trade in NFTs as a cryptocurrency investor are growing.

5. Bitcoin banking

The financial world is being shaken on all sides. The European PSD2 directive makes it possible for large technology companies such as Google and Facebook to enter the market.

A bit overshadowed by the NFT hype, but in my view at least as interesting is Decentralized Finance (DeFi). This revolves around decentralized financing instruments such as loans, savings and insurance, but also trade. The same products that we already know from banks and insurers, but the decentralized blockchain character ensures that the intermediary is removed.

Last year this market was worth a few hundred million, now the total value at the time of writing has grown to $130 billion, as much as the market value of banks like Deutsche Bank. In fact, the products have generated $250 million in the past month for the people who have invested in them.

DeFi on the rise

The various DeFi cryptocurrencies are growing at the same pace in numbers and value. The projects are growing and developing at lightning speed due to the madness in the cryptocurrency market. Not only the free PR, but also the amount of money invested in it, ensures rapid, major technological breakthroughs.

These are no longer just individual startups. Entire ecosystems are built with DeFi platforms, such as Persistence. Where the libertine-anarchist approach of Bitcoin was mainly aimed at making banks superfluous, you now see an interesting merger in many areas between the traditional financial institutions (CeFi, Centralized Finance) and DeFi. The Spunta project came from the European Payment Council, a large group of banks has set up the Marco Polo project and a large group of insurers B3i. The most recent highlight was the move by the European Investment Bank, which raised 100 million with a bond on the Ethereum network.

ING has indicated in a recent report (pdf) that they find DeFi more interesting than Bitcoin. A big step in the amalgamation of traditional institutions and these new decentralized variants and a starting point for an insane development around digital currencies.

6.Crypto Catch22

It is an interesting field of tension to exchange ideas with supporters and opponents of cryptocurrencies about regulation versus innovation. Governments are working in all kinds of areas to stimulate innovation, facilitate start-ups and organize a business climate, so that companies like to do business in our country. On the other hand, one of its core tasks is to protect citizens in the broadest sense of the word.

Current policy too strict
Media these days are full of articles about manipulation within the cryptocurrency market and the lack of understanding surrounding the lack of the right regulation. After the European Union announced that it would allow cryptocurrencies, the Netherlands wanted to become a frontrunner and example in terms of legislation and regulations in that area. Unfortunately, due to these strict laws and regulations, many companies have already stopped or moved to another country.

Now I am a big proponent of setting up a good legal framework in the field of cryptocurrencies. But if that stands in the way of innovation or even drives it away, I have my doubts about it. A recent court ruling between De Nederlandsche Bank and a cryptocurrency trader also confirmed that the current policy is too strict.

International cooperation needed

The recent IPO of cryptocurrency company Coinbase has been an important step for the industry, as the company has signaled from the outset that it is working with lawmakers to ensure a well-functioning industry. With the size and very large trading volumes now taking place within the sector, governments can no longer sit back and watch. This requires international cooperation. If it is made difficult for people to buy Bitcoin in the Netherlands, then they are with 1 click at a trading platform located in Malta, where they do have all the freedoms.

The most recent Crypto Crime Report from Chainalysis (the largest blockchain analysis company in the world) shows that less than 0.3% of cryptocurrency transactions are “suspicious” and that this percentage continues to decline. Something that former CIA director Michael Morell also endorses (pdf). Governments are still fully committed to the so-called ‘Know Your Customer’ and ‘Anti Money Laundering’ laws and regulations, even though they are widely known to be ineffective.

Governments react completely differently

We are currently seeing governments react completely differently. India, like Turkey, wants to ban cryptocurrencies. China is leading the way with the development of its own Central Bank Digital Currency, the most blockchain patents worldwide. And recently there was also the statement from the central bank that Bitcoin is an ‘alternative investment’. Even though it is causing power blackouts, according to the government, Iran continues to encourage the mining of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.

In recent years we have seen how many companies have emerged and grown, despite increasingly strict legislation. From Uber and Airbnb to Google and AliBaba. I also expect that legislation and regulations will have an impact on the services within cryptocurrencies in the coming months. Important steps to make the sector more mature and thus more accessible to the general public.

More than a coin

In my view, due to the focus of many media on the prices of cryptocurrencies, we almost forget what all innovation is about: the cool products and services that are being developed.

The Limburg Fortuna Sittard was the first Dutch football club to release its own fan token. This allows fans to become more involved with the club in all sorts of ways. With his ‘Podcast 2.0’ model, Adam Curry offers podcast listeners the opportunity to thank / reward the creator with Bitcoin for every minute listened. In Heerlen, citizens are rewarded for volunteering with cryptocurrencies. Facebook is busy building its own digital currency ‘DIEM’ and has therefore teamed up with a company that will arrange the issuance of the coins. New developments are added daily, fueled by the large new amount of innovation money that is currently being pumped into the sector.

The new, the next, the never heard off

Steve Jobs wanted to put a cool phone on the market with the introduction of the iPhone. At the time, no one could have imagined that in 2021 we would work more than 4 hours a day with the device, with applications such as Instagram, Uber and Google Maps.

The same is the case with cryptocurrencies: we can only dream about what the next steps will be. Ethereum started out as the ‘supercomputer of the world’ with so-called ‘smart contracts’, but has now also become the foundation for the entire DeFi and NFT world. Waiting for the latest, brilliant invention. One thing is certain: crypto is here to stay.

This article is not financial advice and should not be viewed as such. It is my opinion and should only be seen from an info point

Jan Scheele is active in the web3 (blockchain, crypto, NFTs, DeFi) industry since 2013. Besides (former) CEO of a web3 scaleup and founder of an advisory boutique (working for governments, family offices and several multinationals), he is Digital Leader at the World Economic Forum and Board Member at the Blockchain Netherlands Foundation (BCNL). He is writing, consulting, speaking and training regularly about everything web3, all over the world. Furthermore, he is currently finalizing his book about the rise and global impact of blockchain technology.

While the world is still fighting hard every day to get the coronavirus under control, another “cold war” is happening the background, the future of our money; the so-called Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC). Digital bank money is nothing new; worldwide only 8% of the money used is cash, the rest digital and in some European countries this is even less than 1%. The big difference with CBDCs is that the money is managed by a government and not a commercial bank. The revolution around cryptocurrencies and the underlying blockchain technology has sparked this discussion but has been accelerated over the past year by Facebook’s Diem (formerly Libra) project and the announcement that China is well advanced in developing its own CBDC. What is a CBDC, what are they used for and what can you expect? In this blog you will find all the information

It’s going to be the biggest change in the global financial system after Bretton Woods, according to experts. While in the early years of Bitcoin and blockchain the technology was still dismissed as “criminal” and “unnecessary”, in recent years the discussion has turned completely and most countries and economic regions have now started developing their own digital currency. According to research by the ‘bank of banks’, the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), dozens of central banks are now working on this, representing 80% of the world’s population and 90% of economic activity worldwide and will be 20 in the next 3 years. % of the world’s population have access to it.

“The euro belongs to Europeans and we are its guardian. We should be prepared to issue a digital euro, should the need arise.” Christine Lagarde, President of the ECB

In addition to Facebook and China’s announcements surrounding its own digital currencies, corona has given the discussion an extra boost, according to the European Central Bank (ECB). But it’s not just the pressure from other governments, technology companies and the sharp decline in the use of cash; according to the Dutch National Bank, it can also be used to implement monetary policy, such as reforms around debt and a basic income. According to the Russian Central Bank, their digital ruble is mainly intended to restore power over money to citizens and the Chinese Central Bank has indicated that it will not compete with existing payment apps.

CBDC Developments

The main reason for many central banks to develop their own CBDC remains the risks that commercial banks, such as ING and Rabobank take. According to a recent report by the Dutch Government’s Scientific Council, 10 years after the credit crunch, the commercial banking industry is still vulnerable to major blows. Especially in view of the consequences of corona and the risks that the banks still take, central banks want more control over the money flows. Now that the cash, which they manage themselves, is declining sharply and the influence of tech companies on the financial sector is increasing sharply, setting up their own digital currency is a logical step.

What a digital Euro can look like is clearly shown by the first CBDC recently launched in the Bahamas, the Sand Dollar and the many public experiments with Chinese CBDC, the DCEP. Many experts are frantically looking at the experiments in China, which will reportedly launch the coin globally during the 2022 Winter Olympics, to be held in the country. The country made the first banknotes in our global history and now sees 90% of all payments go through the popular apps WeChat and Alipay, the same size as the worldwide payment of Visa and Mastercard credit cards.

The totalitarian state

According to the government, it is not only a response to Libra, but mainly intended to remove all kinds of layers in payments and thus prevent corruption, combat poverty better and, according to many experts, also to control much more tightly where the money goes. This is also the biggest fear of residents of Europe, according to a recent survey by the ECB. The Chinese government is already going a long way with the control of its citizens, because of the more than 100 million cameras that hang in the country, the ‘social credit’ system and the countless algorithms that automatically determine on big data whether you are a criminal or not.

If, with this information and power over the money, it can also determine (by programming this in the code) whether and what citizens can spend the money on, then you are taking away a significant portion of the freedom. Imagine that a government programs that you can spend money on rent and healthy food, but not on fast food, cigarettes or porn. Or worse; because algorithms think you are engaged in criminal activity, your digital wallet is completely blocked. Due to the “social credit” system, already 23 million Chinese are no longer allowed to leave the country, because their score is too low.

Helicopter money

Even though most Chinese are not yet so enthusiastic about the Chinese DCEP, the government was able to get its citizens to create a digital wallet in a very smart way. Everyone who had installed a wallet on their phone received the digital currency deposited on it. “Free money for everyone,” historian Rutger Bregman would say. The adoption of this currency can therefore go very quickly. African countries are already preparing to use the currency in trade with China, and Huawei’s latest phone models already include a DCEP app. Investment bank Goldman Sachs expects the DCEP to be used by at least 1 billion users in 10 years and to facilitate nearly 20% of all payments in China.

“We need to make sure that our currency is fit for the future. Inaction is not an option.” Fabio Panetta, boardmember ECB

Behind the scenes, Europe is also working hard on its own “digital Euro”. European finance ministers, such as Germany’s Olaf Scholtz, have urged to do everything in their power to have an “answer” to the Chinese plans as soon as possible. Several European countries are already experimenting themselves, such as Italy, Ukraine and the Netherlands that even say they want to play a pioneering role in this. The European Central Bank has indicated in a recent report that it will only make a final decision in the summer of this year whether it wants to issue its own digital Euro and its president, Christine Lagarde, recently indicated that if the ECB decides to do so, it will certainly will take until 2025 before it is actually there.

The American Kodak moment

Also on the other side of the ocean, a fierce discussion about a digital dollar is raging. The head of the American bank has sparked the discussion here with the statement “we do think it is more important to get it right than to be first and getting it right”. However, experts point to the “first mover advantage” that China will have on the global financial scene, with all the consequences that entails. The Chinese government has already indicated that it would like to cooperate with other central banks worldwide, but with the aforementioned, far-reaching functionalities that the DCEP will have, this is mainly viewed with fear rather than enthusiastically worldwide.

There are still a lot of snags that need to be worked on before such coins can appear on the world stage, in my view. The more central the power over such a currency, the easier it is to hack. But also the informal economy, in which 60% of all jobs worldwide function and come under pressure from government regulated money. The International Monetary Fund also continues to question monetary stability, which can be affected by central bank issuance of their own currencies. The speed at which developments are currently taking place on the world stage are fascinating, but also frightening, when you consider the expected consequences of shifts in power. And, The coming year will therefore be a very interesting and important year for the global financial system.

CEO of Web3

Jan Scheele is active in the web3 (blockchain, crypto, NFTs, DeFi) industry since 2015. Besides (former) CEO of a web3 scaleup and agency, he is Digital Leader at the World Economic Forum and Board Member at the Blockchain Netherlands Foundation (BCNL). He is writing, consulting, speaking and training regularly about everything web3 all over the world. Furthermore, he is currently finalizing his book about the global impact of blockchain technology.

Jan Scheele is active in the web3 (blockchain, crypto, NFTs, DeFi) industry since 2013. Besides (former) CEO of a web3 scaleup and founder of an advisory boutique (working for governments, family offices and several multinationals), he is Digital Leader at the World Economic Forum and Board Member at the Blockchain Netherlands Foundation (BCNL). He is writing, consulting, speaking and training regularly about everything web3, all over the world. Furthermore, he is currently finalizing his book about the rise and global impact of blockchain technology.

The best year ever and a catalyst for many more beautiful things to come next year. The Bitcoin price soared to an “all time high” and in its wake, the many “altcoins”, many big and established ones got in and several big projects, such as Ethereum, are about to launch big breakthroughs. Next year also promises to be a year like never before. In this blog the 5 most important developments that I am looking forward to.

Let’s look back first

Even though it is often said that a day in the crypto world is a year in a human life, the predictions I made in the past year have all come true. The halving, the halving of the pay of the miners of the Bitcoin blockchain network, would not itself lead to large price gains in May, but afterwards. We saw the Bitcoin price dip below $ 4,000 in March and as the year progressed, the price continued to rise, eventually surpassing the old record of nearly $ 20,000. The various crypto startups are also expected to have worked hard over the past year and come with big revelations every week.

The use of cryptocurrencies has increased exponentially worldwide with more than 100 million users and at one point last year 25,000 Bitcoin wallets (digital wallets) were created in 1 hour. Even though there is no telling what the “mother of all coins” Bitcoin will do in terms of price; predictions range from $ 0 to $ 1 million, fueling the massive wall of money being created by governments worldwide to combat the corona crisis, the move of many investors to cryptocurrencies.

Whales are on their way

Where in the previous big “run” in 2017, mainly the smaller retail investors bought cryptocurrencies, in recent months it was the turn of the “big boys”. Microstrategy bought half a billion dollars worth of Bitcoin and their CEO privately for a quarter, payment company Square put in $ 50 million and Paypal bought 70% of all newly created (mined) Bitcoins in the last month. The head of investments of Blackrock, the largest investor in the world, indicated that he no longer sees Bitcoin disappear and even gold disappears over time. That it is not just words, but also actions is evident from figures from, for example, Coinbase, which offers, among other things, “crypto custody”; securely storing cryptocurrencies and saw their digital storage increase in value from 6 to 20 billion dollars in a few months.

The nice thing about blockchain, and especially the Bitcoin blockchain, is that the transactions are all public. You can do very cool data analyzes on it, for example of the large investors, called the “whales”. A nice graphical analysis shows that the large Bitcoin “wallets” with a size of more than 1000 Bitcoin (value of 20 million euros or more) have increased very quickly and that these owners also hold the Bitcoins and do not sell them.

The bull just started to run

After two years of the so-called “bear market” in cryptocurrencies, a long period of declining prices, the “bull market” has finally arrived. The overall size of the market has grown by $ 500 billion since March and it doesn’t seem to be going to end. While the recent price increase is mainly attributed to the larger investors, we are now again waiting for the smaller retail investors. Bitcoin is back on the front page of De Telegraaf and NU.nl, the number of searches around “bitcoin price” has never been higher and it is becoming easier to buy cryptocurrency. Paypal announced that its 300 million users could now also buy, sell and store cryptocurrency, which has already been done by 20% of users in the United States.

With the recent approval by the Dutch bank of a handful of major Dutch cryptocurrency exchanges such as Coinmerce, it will not be long before I will be back in line at Albert Heijn or at the hairdresser. Not only Bitcoin, but also other cryptocurrencies, the so-called “altcoins” have increased in value tremendously and the price of some has even doubled or tripled in a short time. A well-known pattern; in recent years Bitcoin has always been first, after which the altcoins followed exponentially. Promising projects such as Ethereum, Chainlink and Polkadot were especially popular in this.

Big updates from the big boys

The popularity of the various cryptocurrencies is partly due to the major developments that have taken place in recent times and will be launched in the near future. After years of preparation, Ethereum, which is the second cryptocurrency in terms of market value, has started to launch the extensive 2.0 version of its network. An insane leap forward, because of the new way of validating transactions, which makes the network insanely faster, more stable and cheaper in one fell swoop. Because the network is increasingly used to build and run so-called ‘smart contracts’, but also DeFi (decentralized financing, which I wrote about earlier) so-called ‘DApps’ (decentralized applications) and ‘DAOs’ (decentralized organizations), it is also called the ‘supercomputer of the world’ and is attracting attention to more and more investors.

Even though mysterious Bitcoin founder or founders Satoshi Nakamoto has never been heard from, thousands of enthusiasts are still developing the code for this groundbreaking cryptocurrency every day. Problems that Bitcoin has been struggling with for some time; scalability and privacy are being addressed in the short term with the major updates Taproot and Schnorr. Another ‘top 10 project’, Cardano, one of Ethereum’s biggest competitors, comes with the major ‘Govuen’ update, which focuses even more on decentralization and makes all kinds of functionalities available to companies, such as ‘smart contracts’ and ‘DApps’. . With its 3.0 update, NEO will realize its major ambitions to create such a scalable blockchain that the transaction speed is at the level of that of regular banks.

CryptoCrime is on the rise

A lot of money unfortunately also attracts the wrong people; criminals have now also found the virtual route well and billions of cryptocurrencies were stolen last year. Recently another $ 150 million at the major trading exchange KuCoin. According to the United Nations, these are not only self-employed crooks, but even the government of North Korea, who has now stolen an estimated $ 2 billion, mainly to help develop nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, cybersecurity expert Kasparsky also expects criminals to become more interested in cryptocurrencies in the coming year. Especially the newer “DeFi” projects, which often grow too fast to be able to continue to guarantee safety, fall victim to this, as happened recently with Balancer, Akropolis and Opyn.

That cryptocurrency is only for terrorists and criminals, was recently disproved by a board member of Chainalysis, the largest crypto-data analysis company in the world, at a blockchain event that I recently organized in Amsterdam. Although more and more ‘ransomware’ attacks are taking place for which cryptocurrencies are demanded by criminals, the number of criminal transactions has fallen far below 1% and investigative agencies such as the FBI and the Dutch Police even admit that cryptocurrencies enable them to collect criminal money. to follow.

It is up to the government

Even though the industry is becoming more and more mature, there are also many things that are absolutely unacceptable, such as artificially inflating prices. Due to the “pacing” problem, governments are always lagging behind in drafting and implementing laws and regulations, due to the rapid development of certain technologies.

The strict Dutch legislation has ensured that various Dutch cryptocurrency exchanges have now been registered with and are supervised by De Nederlandse Bank. But many of the largest stock exchanges worldwide, such as Binance and Bitmex, are avoiding this dance by establishing themselves in tax and regulatory havens like the Kaayman Islands and Sechelles.

The CEO of Paypal, Dan Schulman, who, as I wrote earlier in this blog, has made it possible for customers to buy, sell and hold cryptocurrency, has therefore called on the industry to proactively sit down at the table with the regulatory authorities, in order to prevent major obstacles from being thrown up in all kinds of ways by international bodies and national governments as a kind of ‘counter-reaction’. Right, now that mass adoption is starting to take such beautiful forms.

MICA

The European Union introduced the “MICA” in September; regulations surrounding the cryptocurrency market. Ambitious and mainly focused on stimulating responsible innovations. Once approved, it will apply to all 27 member states and will finally provide broader clarity about the rights and obligations surrounding cryptocurrencies for consumers and organizations. In my view it contributes to a maturing market and will, due to the certainty it will offer, also attract more and more consumers and companies, to both use it and invest in it, which ultimately benefits the entire market. come.

It will be a special year, with the launch of DIEM immediately in January, the renamed cryptocurrency project Libra, which Facebook has initiated, the launch of the Chinese DCEP (digital government currency) and much more. Last year was already one to write in the books in the field of cryptocurrency, 2021 could very well exceed that!

Jan Scheele is active in the web3 (blockchain, crypto, NFTs, DeFi) industry since 2013. Besides (former) CEO of a web3 scaleup and founder of an advisory boutique (working for governments, family offices and several multinationals), he is Digital Leader at the World Economic Forum and Board Member at the Blockchain Netherlands Foundation (BCNL). He is writing, consulting, speaking and training regularly about everything web3, all over the world. Furthermore, he is currently finalizing his book about the rise and global impact of blockchain technology.

We’ve probably never been as dependent on technology as we are now. Working from home, learning, communicating, shopping; think about the problem you have if your phone or laptop breaks down or the internet connection gets lost. According to Vodafone, data traffic has increased by as much as 50% in some areas, the top 4 social media channels by 20% and Netflix has lowered the quality of its streams by a quarter because it could not meet the demand. Although experts are already warning of the even faster-growing power of the already very powerful tech companies, such as Amazon and Facebook, it is also very nice to see how new technologies are used to combat corona.

Artificial Intelligence is used to predict pandemics and accelerate drug development, blockchain technology is now also used in various ways. In this blog 5 things for which blockchain technology is and can be used in the corona crisis.

The rapid advance of blockchain in technology was already a fact. In a previous blog, I wrote that 15% of healthcare executives were already implementing the technology, which is now gaining momentum. The Red Cross now allows donations in Bitcoin and global organizations such as the World Health Organization and my colleagues at the World Economic Forum are setting up one after another cooperation platform so that governments and organizations from different countries can work together.

Sharing Data

This cooperation is urgently needed because corona has no boundaries. Sharing data is currently extremely important to help governments and healthcare professionals make the right decisions, but “just sharing” is easier said than done. Not only because there is a lot of suspicion about the validity of data (the CIA even investigates whether China is publishing the correct numbers), but also simply because the data is stored in so-called data silos, which, according to experts, makes interoperability extremely difficult. Language barriers, cultural differences, privacy laws, and various other obstacles add to that and make it unnecessarily difficult for experts to do their important and urgent work at the moment.

The World Health Organization has taken the lead in setting up corona blockchain & AI platform MiPasa, in collaboration with IBM, Oracle, and Microsoft. Using big data, it predicts trends, detects outbreaks, and supports analysis. China, Europe, and several large hospitals such as the famous John Hopkins have already proactively joined.

Mapping the chain

One of the biggest problems that corona poses on a business level, is the insane disruption of many supply chains. Over 75% of companies now report, their supply chain has been compromised and often don’t know where the actual problem is, because the chain is often long and far from transparent. Not practical, if you want to know as a government, where your shipment of mouth masks currently is located. But it’s not just the face masks or disinfectant soap that has a hitch in the non-transparent disillusionment cable; over 5 million companies source parts or products from the Wuhan region in China, which was locked for a long time. Companies like Apple have almost all their production in sealed China and Dutch eCommerce giant Coolblue even canceled its affiliate program because it could no longer meet the demand due to the decreasing supply of products from China.

Supply Chain Transparency

One of the biggest breakthroughs that blockchain technology facilitates is supply chain transparency. This has already delivered great results worldwide; supermarkets like Albert Heijn and Carrefour that save millions of euros through efficiency gains, dozens of companies worldwide use IBM’s Food Trust blockchain platform to track food from seed to sale, tens of thousands of deaths are prevented by countering fake medicines and many other industries are booking through the strategic deployment of the technology, great progress in optimizing and shortening their supply chains. This is still in its infancy in many industries and one of McKinsey’s main recommendations is to make the chains transparent as soon as possible, to counteract the effects of the corona crisis as soon as possible.

Not only, according to Harvard Business Review, to know 24/7 where products are located in real-time, but also to counter fake products. In China, 31 million fake mouth masks have already been seized, which are supposed to save lives. Alipay has already set up a blockchain platform to track medical devices and the Dutch Tymlez started developing blockchain websites during the hackathon “Tech against Corona” to map the supply and demand of medical supplies. The World Economic Forum has launched a major initiative for all possible supply chains to make them more transparent, efficient, and trusted, precisely because they have also been proven to accelerate sustainability.

Farewell Fake news

Baking soda or drinking water every 15 minutes to combat corona, 5G, and ibuprofen which makes corona worse, hold your breath for 10 seconds to test whether you have corona, all Whatsapp messages from medical professors from Italy and China who give advice and the United States who used corona as a biological weapon to break down China’s power. We used to call this an urban legend, but in 2020 “fake news.” Due to our hyper-connectivity, these types of fake messages spread very quickly and it is sometimes difficult to distinguish them from real ones. According to the World Health Organization, we must, therefore, watch out for a new virus: information disease, the rapid viral spread of fake news about corona.

Facebook and Instagram are already using fact-checkers. The Dutch Cybersprint, together with journalist Huib Modderkolk, is investigating fake websites that claim to communicate on behalf of RIVM. Worldwide, more and more organizations are using blockchain to prevent “fake corona news,” such as in China and Italy. The investigations into the prevention of ‘fake news’ with blockchain have been ongoing for some time; Frankwatching co-initiated the “Blockchain As FactChecker” study, with many groundbreaking results.

Is my donation effective?

Our confidence in practically everything; from media to food and from politics to each other, continues to decline. The number of donations to charities is also decreasing sharply and a sixth of the Dutch even distrust charities, often because of all the money that sticks to the bow and the opacity of the expenditure and impact of it. Corona has ensured that many people donate to charities again; Amazon founder Bezos donated $ 100 million, Microsoft founder Gates $ 100 million, and Twitter founder Dorsey even donated one billion. The big question remains; where does that money all go? Is it well spent? Unfortunately, there are too many examples of charity money, which has been misused, such as Oxfam Novib employees who paid for sex parties in Haiti.

Dozens of charities, including many in the Netherlands, are now busy putting donations on the blockchain. As with supply chains, the donation technology ensures great transparency for both donors and the organization itself. This not only strengthens the integrity of the organization but according to the Longfonds also the projects themselves, which can be executed much more efficiently. Receiving payments in cryptocurrency (such as Bitcoin), which the Red Cross already offers, also ensures that the high transaction and banking costs are avoided.

The helping helicopter

The last big opportunity I see, where blockchain can provide wonderful support in coping with the corona crisis, is not yet operational but is already being discussed and studied a lot worldwide. Many governments are currently printing massive amounts of money to pump into their economies; Europe € 750 billion and the European countries individually already more than € 200 billion and the United States even € 2 trillion. In addition to supporting companies, support packages are also being made quickly for citizens, who are losing their jobs en masse due to the crisis. Almost 50 million unemployed people are already expected in the United States, Spain has already cost a million jobs and expectations in the Netherlands range from 1 to 2 million unemployed.

CBDC

Now in The Netherlands, we have the most beautiful social safety net in the world, but in countries where people do not have such a net, you see the immediate, urgent need of a rapidly growing group of people who can no longer pay their rent or even buy food. Two global discussions and developments are now suddenly accelerated by corona; those about basic income and those about a ‘Central Bank Digital Currency’ (CBDC); a digital variant of the Euro, Dollar, Yen, and all other currencies.
 
The discussion around basic income, also known as helicopter money, is now being conducted by many experts around the situation in America. Trump wants to give every American citizen $ 1000 within a few weeks to be able to buy necessary groceries. Something the US government has done during a few previous recessions. Now there are many studies that show and strongly recommend the positive effects of a basic income, as historian Rutger Bregman summed up nicely in the TED talk he gave at TEDxMaastricht. The problem surrounding the practical implementation lies in the payment. In America, the government wants to send money through traditional checks, which are sent by mail. A slow, fraud-prone, and costly process, which is far from convenient in these times. A CBDC could play a great role in this as it addresses all the problems of checks.

Digital Yen Develpment

China was already at the forefront of developing a digital Yen and has recently accelerated that process. Europe was also already working on a digital Euro and because of the corona crisis, the United States has finally started working on a Digital Dollar, probably to distribute the helicopter money digitally in the most efficient way possible. It is not yet known whether all this will succeed, but the chances are high, especially because of the pressure.

Many technological developments have a negative impact on our society, according to colleagues from the World Economic Forum and other organizations such as the IMF. Let’s hope that corona shows the positive side of technologies such as AI and blockchain and that we can get out safely again soon!

Jan Scheele is active in the web3 (blockchain, crypto, NFTs, DeFi) industry since 2013. Besides (former) CEO of a web3 scaleup and founder of an advisory boutique (working for governments, family offices and several multinationals), he is Digital Leader at the World Economic Forum and Board Member at the Blockchain Netherlands Foundation (BCNL). He is writing, consulting, speaking and training regularly about everything web3, all over the world. Furthermore, he is currently finalizing his book about the rise and global impact of blockchain technology.

Becoming a co-owner of a Ferrari, a Picasso, or a special stock of bourbon; who doesn’t want this? So-called “tokenization” assets using blockchain technology is currently revolutionizing the investment world, and my World Economic Forum colleagues even expect 10% of global GDP to be stored on the blockchain in seven years from now. Why are assets so massively placed on the blockchain, and what does this “tokenize” entail?

If you “tokenize” something, it means converting something physical into digital tokens, which are then added to the blockchain. The latter guarantees secure transfer and transparency. If you want to buy or sell a house, you usually go through a cumbersome process with different parties such as a broker, notary, and bank and some parts of this process are not transparent. This is precisely because not the whole process is transparent. According to several studies, this is one of the main causes of the credit crisis 10 years ago. In addition, because several parties are involved, each with their own outdated systems and of course a certain urge to make money, these processes are expensive and slow.

That’s why there are currently many companies and governments, working to “tokenize” their assets on the blockchain. Every day, billions of assets are tokenized worldwide, from Japan to Luxembourg and South Africa, and institutions such as MIT, Oxford, and the Dutch Central Bank endorse the great benefits. Advantages such as transparency, but also the ability to act quickly 24/7 worldwide, without all those intermediaries, ensure the great interest. Also, because assets can be partially traded and assets that were previously illiquid, which are now and are therefore easy to trade, bring a whole wave of new trading opportunities to the global financial market.

Tokenizing

It is, therefore, not only real estate objects, cars, or art, but also things like copyrights, shares, metals, grains, and for example, music licenses that are tokenized. Tokenizing all of this not only facilitates fast transfers, but also global trade in them, and the use of blockchain technology means transactions cannot be erased or modified, ensuring security and confidence. Because you can also trade certain assets fractionally, the trade suddenly becomes available to small investors and people like you and me. For example, you can only buy a fraction of an Amazon stock of $2,000. The Amsterdam startup Bloqhouse has developed a platform with which you can buy fractional real estate and the Amsterdam startup The Share Council has a solution to simplify co-ownership.

Something that doesn’t keeps the amateur busy? Actually, many Dutch people already benefit from “tokenization.” Apple Pay, which was introduced by ING bank in the Netherlands, works through “tokenization” and payment provider Payvision, even expects that by 2023, more than half of all e-commerce transactions in the Netherlands will run through this technology.

Although you can create your own token on the blockchain with platforms like Fabix in 5 minutes, there are still many challenges for “tokenization.” The underlying blockchain technology is still in full development and that is why it is still far from mature in various areas. One of the biggest challenges at the moment are laws and regulations. Many countries are lagging behind, as a result of which there is not yet a clear definition of a token, good standardization is lacking, and all rights and obligations around it are still often unclear. How about, for example, if you want to transfer ownership of your holiday home in Spain to a Frenchman from a legal point of view? And fiscally?

Challenges

What if you share a real estate object or painting with 10 other owners, and 1 of the owners wants to sell his share? Or should maintenance be carried out? One of the biggest challenges currently still lies in education. While training and talking about blockchain with Bloqon, I notice that the knowledge about the technology is still very much in its infancy. In addition to the basics of operation, understanding the global impact and future applications for most people is still far from clear.

Tokenization

It is clear with all presented plans, that cool future applications are lurking. From tokenizing basketball teams, so that fans can also participate, to tokenizing a trip, so that you no longer have to show your passport, ticket, etc. while flying. Of course, there are also wonderful opportunities in the field of, for example, the ‘gig workers’; How nice would it be if you, as an Uber driver or Deliveroo deliverer, get a share in the company by means of tokenization and thus also a profit distribution? There are already startups such as Fairride and Lazooz that offer such solutions, but just like the underlying blockchain technology, it is still in its infancy. With the many amazing plans and rapid technological developments, we are on the eve of a special revolution in the field of ownership!

Jan Scheele is active in the web3 (blockchain, crypto, NFTs, DeFi) industry since 2013. Besides (former) CEO of a web3 scaleup and founder of an advisory boutique (working for governments, family offices and several multinationals), he is Digital Leader at the World Economic Forum and Board Member at the Blockchain Netherlands Foundation (BCNL). He is writing, consulting, speaking and training regularly about everything web3, all over the world. Furthermore, he is currently finalizing his book about the rise and global impact of blockchain technology.

Counterfeit eggs and shrimps, sand sold as pepper and colored sugar water as apple juice. The scandals surrounding food fraud are becoming increasingly bizarre, sometimes concerning complete products, sometimes partial. Research has shown that 43% of American salmon is incorrectly labeled, 70% of the “Italian Extra Virgin” olive oil that is not at all, and that the chicken on the Subway consists of only 50% chicken meat. In China alone, more than half a million security breaches were discovered and died worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly 500,000 people died last year.

In the Netherlands, too, our trust is constantly being damaged, by the “horse steaks” and constant stream of revelations by Dutch programs such as the Keuringsdienst van Waarde on “fake” sweet mashed potatoes and liquorish.

I was therefore not surprised that various studies show, that consumers no longer trust food, its producers and sellers. In the Netherlands, according to the FNLI, more than 75% of consumers mistrust their daily meal and its ingredients and think that 30% of the labels on food are incorrect. Not to mention the various quality marks, such as Fairtrade and Beterleven. Combined with the fact that consumers are starting to live more consciously, there is increasing pressure on food producers to ensure more openness and transparency.

Fake Product Industry

It is not only food scandals that cause a lot of deaths. Unfortunately every year, the number of people dying from fake medicines worldwide is growing fast. In Africa alone, the WHO calculated that 1 out of 10 medicines sold is fake, causing more than 100,000 deaths a year in the continent. According to the OECD, the fake product industry has now reached 500 billion worldwide and financed, among other things, the terrorist attacks in Madrid in 2014, which claimed the lives of 191 people. In his manual, the terrorist organization Al Qaeda even recommended selling fake products to finance terrorist cells. The European Union recently calculated that 5% of imported products are counterfeit.

Trust is one of the most important parts of our society, which ensures that it continues to function. It is the glue that holds our world together and the cement of the foundation that sustains relationships and from which businesses can grow and thrive. Relationships between individuals, but also with organizations and governments. It ensures that we want to be part of something, invest talent, time and effort somewhere and do just that little bit more. Even though it is difficult to describe, we feel very clear when it is gone, with all its consequences.

‘without trust we cannot stand’’

Transparency & Trust

One of the key reasons why I am so incredibly enthusiastic about blockchain technology, is that it can revolutionize supply chains and in many areas can restore consumer confidence through transparency about the chain. Trust whether the product is genuine, whether it contains the ingredients it promises, but also by providing insight into where the product comes from and under what circumstances it was made. In the Netherlands, supermarket Albert Heijn is already doing this with her orange juice, supermarket Jumbo with the talapia fillet and spice distributor Verstegen with her nutmeg.

Many companies worldwide have put all their products on the blockchain; Bitcanna (where I am the CEO) does this with cannabis products, Nike with her shoes (CryptoKicks), Louis Vuitton with her bags, Porsche with her cars, DeBeers with diamonds and there are also several startups that deal with gold, medicines, clothing and wine put on the blockchain. According to Juniper research, this alone can save the food industry $ 31 billion.

This is not just about simply having consumers verify whether the product is genuine, according to Capgemini research, 89% of companies do so because of the efficiency benefits and associated cost savings that Albert Heijn and Carrefour have already made public. The transparency also gives the consumer a good idea of how the product is produced. According to Unilever’s CMO, this is not only important to map out the sustainability of the company and product, but consumers are also much more likely to purchase a product if they understand the production process.

RIFD Chips

The WWF, for example, uses its “bait to plate” project, through RIFD chips, to make it clear whether certain tuna has been sustainably caught or not, and supermarket chain Carrefour provides a glimpse into the chicken coop. If you stand in front of the shelf and you choose organic chicken meat, then you also want to be sure that this is it, for that higher price, right?

Personally, I find the possibility of mapping chains better, especially interesting because the waste of food, for example, can be prevented beautifully. In 2020, we still throw away one third of our food globally and blockchain technology already ensures that this is greatly reduced with its transparency. In many other areas too, it ensures that consumers regain confidence. Moreover, In governments by reducing corruption within elections and land ownership, in the media by combating “fake news” and various other matters. The technology certainly does not provide a solution to all the problems in this world, but in various areas, it is busy reducing one of the most important parts of our society; trust.

Jan Scheele is active in the web3 (blockchain, crypto, NFTs, DeFi) industry since 2013. Besides (former) CEO of a web3 scaleup and founder of an advisory boutique (working for governments, family offices and several multinationals), he is Digital Leader at the World Economic Forum and Board Member at the Blockchain Netherlands Foundation (BCNL). He is writing, consulting, speaking and training regularly about everything web3, all over the world. Furthermore, he is currently finalizing his book about the rise and global impact of blockchain technology.

Two years ago I couldn’t turn my ass in the supermarket, or someone was talking about Bitcoin and blockchain. Two years later, I no longer hear anyone outside of my filter bubble saying these buzzwords and it is only the fresh orange juice, talapia filet, and nutmeg that delight me with their immortalization on the blockchain. I still firmly believe that the technology is going to make a huge impact on our society, as I also predicted in my previous outlook blog last year. But the developments will go a lot slower as many people predicted last year when blockchain was awarded the ‘most overhauled word of the year’.

Research firm Gartner predicts that in line with their ‘hype cycle’, it will take at least another 5–10 years before the major implementations at companies will start to pay off. Only 10% of companies will start using the technology in the next 5 years. This will add $1 billion worth of value to the organizations that will use the technology in the upcoming year and, according to forecasts, even $ 3 trillion in the upcoming 10 years.

Wonderful, all the predictions, but what can consumers already do with technology as of today? What impact does it already have in the Netherlands and what can we expect in the coming months? Questions that I often get, when I speak or train about blockchain/crypto. Therefore in this blog, the 7 trends in the field of blockchain, which I expect in 2020.

Extensive Adoption by Companies

The many blockchain experiments that have been or are currently being carried out by organizations are being completed successfully more and more. In some industries, it even seems like a real challenge to announce the first new, cool and working applications; “FOMO Solutions”. Although many companies keep their successes secret, to stay ahead of the competition (confirms a round of calls with the larger advisory firms, assisting them), there are also plenty of companies that use it as a PR tool to show their innovative character.

Within the Dutch supermarkets, we have already seen the orange juice from the Albert Heijn, the talapia fillet from the Jumbo and the nutmeg from Verstegen being placed on the blockchain. The entire supply chain of the products has been made transparent, in order to meet the rapidly increasing concerns about food safety, the authenticity of food and conditions for employees and the environment in which the food was made.

The Dutch government continues to experiment at all possible levels and came up with various practical solutions, built with the technology. Earlier, I wrote about the Personal Bound Budgets, lampposts, parking functionalities and other things that are operating a lot more efficiently and error-free, because they make use of blockchain nowadays. The Dutch fine collecting agency CJIB will start using the technology to help debtors, by activating a financial ‘emergency stop’ for people who have fines they really can’t afford.

Different Blockchain Projects

Worldwide, interesting blockchain projects are piling up, from the various car builders who use the technology for, for example, verifying car parts and facilitating car parts, to soccer clubs such as Atletico Madrid and Jufentus, who have launched their own cryptocurrency for fans to invest in the club and give access to unique features. However, many adoption successes are not (yet) directly visible and visible to consumers, such as the efficiency gains that for example supermarkets Albert Heijn and Carrefour have achieved in their supply chain.

We are going to see a lot of great developments in the coming year because half of the companies now realize that blockchain is going to disrupt their industry and that it is a priority to take action on this. According to Forrester, the experiment phase is over and next year, the majority of companies will focus primarily on implementing the technology within the existing company.

Startup Showtime

They grew out of the ground like mushrooms and fell down by bushes; the blockchain startups that emerged at the height of the hype in 2017/2018. While searching for “the new Bitcoin”, billions of euros were invested in all kinds of startups, hoping that the price would, like Bitcoin and Ethereum, “moon”; increase hundreds of percent in value. Unfortunately; 80% of these startups turned out to be outright SCAMS and most other startups had to close down their operations due to mismanagement, no demand for the product or simply because they could not deliver the promised product.

Fortunately, the hype has finally come to an end, most unrealistic adventurers and short-term fortune seekers left the scene and serious startups are coming up with more and more special applications and solutions. There are a number of Dutch startups that have survived the “cryptowinter”, have meanwhile built on nicely and have already put the first working applications on the market.

Blockchain Network

Bitcanna, putting the global cannabis industry on the blockchain, launched its own blockchain network, token, wallet and is currently conducting the final tests to launch its full global payment solution for companies operating in the cannabis sector. In addition to the much-needed payment solution (many companies in the sector do not receive financial services and still largely work with cash), it also works on the transparency of the entire supply chain; “seed to sale” and a decentralized review option to prevent fake reviews.

Other cool companies that are currently making nice progress, are Safeguard, which reduces calamities within companies, Guts, which makes a great fist against ticket fraud and extortionate prices, Wordproof, which is ‘timestamping’ content at websites, to prevent abuse and CargoLedger, which digitizes and simplifies all administration related to ship transport. If we look at the public schedules of the different companies, there are many cool developments planned for 2020, which I will, of course, follow with great enthusiasm.

Impact Stories

Great, all those efficiency gains for companies and practical new applications for consumers; for me personally the most exciting thing about at Blockchain, is the real impact it has and can have on humans and society. No evolution, but real revolution. With all the negativity of failed experiments by companies, the inseparable connection that people still see with Bitcoin and all the negativity that surrounds it with price drops and use by the underworld, but especially also; the great ignorance about how it works, impact stories are very important in taking the next steps. In my opinion, they really demonstrate the right to exist in technology and provide the necessary support.

The World Food Program has “put” hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria on the blockchain, making it easy for refugees to pay with a digital currency, virtually eliminating robberies and quickly and safely loading medical data into a hospital. And, The sale of goods via blockchain also ensures that stocks can easily be tracked and supplemented, that the payments cannot be fraudulated and that refugees can build a life again with their own digital ‘wallet’, in which money can be saved.

Remove Plastic Waste

The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has already launched several projects and there are many dozens of projects using blockchain to remove plastic waste from the sea, clean rivers, reduce CO2 emissions, combat overfishing and provide basic financial services for people in developing countries to build an existence; offering a digital identity (1 billion people have no identity, with all its major problems) and banking facilities (nearly 2 billion people do not have a bank account, which means that they cannot save money for their children for example).

As with many companies, the many non-profits also show that there is plenty of experimentation being done with the technology and looking to 2020, these organizations are working hard on successful product launches and implementations for the wider public. It will, therefore, be a year of real impact on a global level, which will also lead to major breakthroughs within the non-profit sector.

National Crypto’s

Last year I already predicted, that governments would take major steps to set up their own, national cryptocurrency. Former IMF Director Christine Lagarde has previously called on central banks to explore the possibilities to do so, but Facebook has greatly accelerated this discussion with their announcement of Libra. Several countries have already introduced their own currency, such as Ecuador, Senegal, Singapore, Tunisia, and Venezuela, and countries such as Dubai, Ecuador, Russia, Estonia, are currently experimenting with it. In Germany, 200 banks have joined the lobby to introduce a digital Euro, and the recent announcement that even China is going ‘all-in’ with blockchain is certainly a sign that a digital yen is coming in the short term.

Many central banks admit that national cryptos are insurmountable because ultimately they want to keep control of the monetary system and prefer to take power away from banks. Where it is impossible to invite a representative of Bitcoin for a senate hearing or forbid the crypto, this is possible with Libra, which is currently being grilled by all possible governments and even banned in countries such as France and Germany.

In the coming year, we will see a lot of cool developments, especially in this area. As mentioned, China will launch its own crypto in the short term, we will see if the Libra will be launched as planned and, above all; what the effects will be of the introduction of all these own national cryptos. It is wonderful to see how countries circumvent the American sanctions with crypto, such as Venezuela and Iran, I am curious to see what further impact this will have on a global level.

Necessary Regulation

In my 2019 outlook, I already indicated that laws and regulations are essential in taking the next “quantum leap” by the blockchain technology. According to research by PWC, the great lack of clarity about and the lack of regulations regarding the technology is the biggest barrier for companies to start using it. This is mainly due to the “pacing problem”; the problem that making and / or adjusting laws can sometimes take years, while technology sometimes develops exponentially within a few months. For example, AirBnB grew from 20.000 to 80 million bookings in one year.

When the GDPR legislation was launched, it was outdated already, due to the rapid rise of blockchain (which in parts is at odds with this legislation). Former Dutch Minister Kamp already said that legislation ‘should promote digital innovation and not slow it down’, and my colleagues from the World Economic Forum also raised this major issue internationally.

Fortunately, many new laws and regulations have been announced for 2020, which will replace the old-fashioned rules for paper and mail with bits and bytes in various areas. In January, the Dutch Law on the prevention of money laundering and the financing of terrorism (Wwft) will be the first to be updated, bringing the various Dutch companies actively under cryptocurrencies under anti-money laundering supervision and thereby legally obliged to combat money laundering and terrorist financing (KYC, AML). In addition, various discussions are being held, about the rights and obligations surrounding the so-called “smart contracts”. Because what about bankruptcy and where do companies have to go? What about the rights and obligations within cross-border contracts? The much-loved GDPR legislation will also receive an update in the coming year, in order to embrace blockchain technology more than to oppose it

What Can We Expect More for Exciting Developments?

Developments for which I do not expect major breakthroughs in 2020, but which will see nice further developments, and which we should certainly keep an eye on, are “non-fungible tokens”, the “tokenizing” of assets and “self-sovereign identity”.

“Non-fungible tokens” are digital currencies with a unique feature. Every Euro is the same, but every dog ​​is unique and therefore not freely exchangeable or replaced by an identical item. We saw precursors as “CryptoKitties” for digital cats and “Decentraland”. Many dozens of projects are currently digitizing a wide variety of issues; from collector cards from sports clubs to art, wine and won items within games.

One level deeper goes the “tokenizing” of possessions; the use of digital coins to indicate ownership. This makes it possible to change ownership, real estate, shares, gold, and other valuable assets within a fraction of a second. But also, the fragmented purchase of these assets, as the Dutch startup Bloqhouse already offers with houses. According to my colleagues from the World Economic Forum, no less than 10% of global GDP will be on the blockchain in 2027.

Self-sovereign identity

A “long shot”, but a really cool development, is the “self-sovereign identity”; manage your privacy yourself and fulfill all possible transactions with a single digital identity. Decide for yourself with which parties you share your identity data, to quickly arrange matters digitally or, for example, to prove that you are an adult when purchasing alcohol. For the Dutch government, it is the spearhead in the field of blockchain and dozens of startups are developing products. My Care Log is one of the first successful products to be launched, waiting for the next launch.

The planned developments alone will make 2020 a very interesting blockchain year. Of course, I am very curious about what else unexpected surprises will take place.

Jan Scheele is active in the web3 (blockchain, crypto, NFTs, DeFi) industry since 2013. Besides (former) CEO of a web3 scaleup and founder of an advisory boutique (working for governments, family offices and several multinationals), he is Digital Leader at the World Economic Forum and Board Member at the Blockchain Netherlands Foundation (BCNL). He is writing, consulting, speaking and training regularly about everything web3, all over the world. Furthermore, he is currently finalizing his book about the rise and global impact of blockchain technology.