How to make sense of 2022 and where the
industry may be going next
TORONTO, Nov. 21,
2022 /CNW/ - 2022 has left its mark on the crypto and
blockchain industry. What started as a very promising beginning to
the year has changed considerably; most notably with the dramatic
fall in prices of digital currencies, and several centralized
exchanges seeking insolvency/bankruptcy protection including most
recently FTX.
And yet 2022 has simultaneously seen positive developments in
this nascent industry. We have witnessed Ethereum's historic
technical shift from "Proof of Work" to "Proof of Stake" known as
"The Merge" which brings the promise of more environmentally
sustainable operational practices. Also, some of the world's
largest asset managers, investment banks and payments giants
including Black Rock, Fidelity
Investments, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Visa, and MasterCard have
all made significant investments in blockchain. MasterCard has 89
blockchain patents granted globally with an additional 285
blockchain applications pending worldwide.
On top of that, the Bank of Canada is launching regulation for digital
retail payments while the Canadian federal government announced the
launch of a digital currency consultation as part of its
November 2022 mini-budget.
There is clear interest in an emerging industry that's
experiencing growing pains. Will exchange bankruptcies drive
consumers towards self-custody and decentralized finance? How will
this all be controlled & regulated? What happens next?
Brian Lock, CFO, Wellfield
Technologies Inc – a TSXV-listed decentralized finance (DeFi)
company that uses blockchain to create next generation
financial solutions is available for interviews and can comment
on:
- Where the industry is today and distinguish between crypto as a
product (digital currency) vs. blockchain as a solution (financial
services on the blockchain)
- Understanding industry trends - expected shifts to
"self-custody wallets" as a means of empowering users rather than
financial intermediaries
- What "The Merge" means and why it's such an important step in
creating the next wave of financial services that will be faster,
more transparent and less expensive to use
- What government needs to understand to balance two priorities -
safeguarding investors vs. stifling innovation in crypto/blockchain
for use in digital retail payments and digital currency
development
- How investors are looking at the evolution of blockchain
similarly to the internet's growth and dot com era
SOURCE Wellfield Technologies
