The crypto market has become quite volatile since April. Bitcoin is leading the way in volatility. Thus, most investors believe that the general crypto market is not a viable investment channel until it is adequately regulated. One of the effects of the volatility of BTC was the creation of many companies and start-ups proposing blockchain solutions. These companies ensured that they greatly distanced themselves from coin trading.
Their mantra was “blockchain, not Bitcoin”. Now, Weiss Ratings suggests that it could be a wise investment decision to all these company stocks as an investment in blockchain technology. According to Tony Sagami of Weiss ratings, blockchain is rapidly becoming as much of an IT priority as network upgrades to large businesses.
Also, blockchain is put in the same category as social media collaboration, cloud transition, Internet of Things, big data, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity. The most recent Deloitte Consulting research for 2019 suggests that around 53% of business managers nowadays put a high priority on blockchain solutions. Sagami did not mention any specific companies but he pointed to increased spending on blockchain projects in the coming years.
However, not all investments are equal or entirely similar. During the 2017 crypto boom, over-the-counter companies rapidly switched to having ‘blockchain’ in their name. All that change of name was done with the companies not having a real product. Furthermore, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) banned using “blockchain” within the name of all exchange-traded funds (ETF).
The Developments
The definition of blockchain has also changed considerably since the first large-scale rally. However, the globally spread anonymous chain of Bitcoin is the exception. Businesses now want to develop lighter models that are more user-friendly. Hence, block production and governance are gradually becoming semi-centralized. In some instances, the consensus is also majorly controlled by a central entity.
Several projects are also now offering business-grade blockchains or side chains including Stratis (STRAT), Stellar (XLM), and many others. A business may also choose to use any blockchain protocol to develop a new network. In the case of hardware, demands are also increasing.
As blockchains constantly become more widely used, some of the tasks are offloaded to start-ups. For instance, in the case of Ethereum (ETH), ConsenSys provides more accessible services to communicate with the larger network. While the interest in blockchain technology is increasing, the previously hot projects are lagging.
Some of these projects have lost at least 90% of their market price without any rebounds. It could be possible that the business-grade blockchains and permissioned networks rebuild the ideas that ICO-based projects failed to achieve.
