The 10 Most Promising Crypto Partnerships 2018

Over the course of this very eventful year, many Blockchain projects have evolved significantly despite the negative sentiment and have begun to work with other companies. In the process, projects were taken over, other companies acquired, changes made to the regulations and, of course, the respective blockchain solutions further developed.

The analysis of the crypto market from Q1 to Q2 of the year shows that the overall development in the industry is progressive, if rather slow. Although regulations are generally seen as a necessity, they have slowed the pace of the ICOs. The cause of this slowdown is that institutional funds can not invest in the crypto industry until it is adequately regulated.

Partnerships play a vital role in the success of every Blockchain project. Because a solution that does not have a well-founded application, is useless and the absolute most important goal of a partnership is to find a concrete use case. As the blockchain projects continue to evolve and evolve, the current specific purpose may vary from future applications to current, experimental applications.

We’ve put together a list of the top 10 most promising crypto partnerships announced this year. The order is explicitly no rating!

BINANCE AND MALTA STOCK EXCHANGE

There is a lot of speculation about Binance right now. Binance signed a MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the Malta Stock Exchange (MSX) on September 11, 2018, to establish a new digital securities token exchange. This will enable Binance to build the world’s first security token trading platform in Malta.

Malta has become a popular destination for everything that has to do with crypto in recent years, as it is very crypto-friendly overall. In addition, Binance has built a good relationship with the government since they relocated their headquarters to the island in early 2018.

DOW JONES MEDIA GROUP AND BRAVE BROWSER

The Brave browser along with its cryptocurrency BAT has had a very successful year. The browser had 1 million active users in December 2017, while today it has been downloaded over 4 million active users and more than 10 million times. Since 2018 is not even over, we are curious what the trend after the year looks like.

The Dow Jones Media Group announced in April 2018 a partnership with Brave aimed to provide premium content to users and test blockchain payment technology. Available publications include Barrons.com (full access) and MarketWatch (premium access). According to the partnership agreement, both institutions are verified publishers on the BAT platform.

ICON AND LINE

On May 15, 2018, ICON – a blockchain project focused on the interoperability of blockchains announced that they would work with Line. Line is a social media platform with over 200 million active users per month. ICON and Line want to develop their own blockchain network. This joint venture, Unchain, is said to be the developer of the Blockchain ecosystem for Line.

The ICON network is expected to receive a significant influx of users as the joint venture between Line and ICON is expected to connect more dapps and users with the ecosystem.

BLOCKCHAIN.COM AND LEDGER

Blockchain.com, one of the earliest providers of cryptocurrency web wallets, has partnered with Ledger to develop Lockbox, a hardware wallet compatible with the Blockchain.com wallet.

This device gives Blockchain.com users the flexibility to keep at least part of their money in a cold wallet, while the rest of their money is flexible and easy to use in the Web Wallet. So you have developed a mix of cold and hot wallet.

The device worth $ 99.99 is compatible with Windows 7 or higher, MacOS version 10.9 or higher, Linux and Chrome OS. Lockbox is not compatible with other Ledger products because it runs on the custom Blockchain.com firmware. The start of shipping is planned for mid-November.

BINANCE AND TRON

On October 4, 2018, Binance, one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world, introduced the Binance Blockchain Charity Foundation and its mission to the public. The Foundation will support various sustainable development projects and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). The Blockchain Charity Foundation was founded by Binance to find ways to use the blockchain technology for social welfare.

Tron joined the initiative with a donation and promise to partner with Binance to develop the non-profit sector.

COINBASE AND CIRCLE

Coinbase, the renowned crypto exchange, and Circle, the technology company backed by Goldman Sachs, have joined forces to develop USDC. USDC is a new stable coin and has recently been listed on Coinbase.

For the partnership, the Center consortium was formed, which steers the development of the USDC. Center plans to develop stable British British pound, Japanese yen and euro coins, which will then also be listed on Coinbase as they become available.

WANCHAIN ​​AND MAKERDAO

Wanchain, a blockchain project focused on the interoperability (or interaction and communication) of blockchains, announced on October 11, 2018, the Dai, a stable coin developed by MakerDAO, as the first cross-chain ERC-20 token. Dai can be decentralized to Bitcoin because of its cross-functionality. On the other hand, this means that Bitcoin can be used in addition to ether to secure Dai.

LITECOIN AND TOKENPAY

TokenPay, a decentralized payment platform, has acquired 9.9% of WEG Bank in Germany. In addition, they have the option to increase their shares to 90%, subject to customary regulatory approval, on 10 July 2018.

Already on 10.07.2018, the Litecoin Foundation was announced as the beneficiary of this 9.9% stake in the bank. Litecoin will help TokenPay develop its own blockchain, ensuring its stability and future success. Litecoin is integrated into the WEG-Bank and its trading platforms.

AWS (CHINA) AND QTUM

Qtum and Amazon Web Services (AWS) China announced a partnership on October 17, 2018 to develop blockchain-as-a-service solutions for enterprises and developers. Qtum will provide a development platform for smart contracts based on AWS.

Developers and users can efficiently create and launch smart contracts using Amazon Machine Image (AMI), which includes Qtum Core, Solidity, and the Qmix Web IDE. Miguel Palencia, Qtum Foundation CIO, said, “Launching Qtum on the AWS Marketplace provides an easy-to-use and powerful cloud-based solution for end users and businesses. Anyone who wants to develop and build dapps on the Qtum platform or use them as a staking node will benefit. ”

IBM AND STELLAR

IBM operates a distributed ledger solution for institutions wishing to outsource their technological integration. While implementing hyperledgers for private networks, Stellar is the first choice for public networks. IBM currently operates 9 validators in the Stellar network.

IBM’s Universal Payment Solution currently uses Stellar Lumen (XLM) as its transport value for cross-border transactions. IBM is currently considering the development of its own stablecoin to hedge against the volatility of the crypto market. In addition, IBM recently introduced Blockchain World Wire, which uses the Stellar protocol to allow cross-border payments in seconds instead of days. In addition, IBM has announced a partnership with Veridium Labs, which aims to place carbon credits on the Stellar Blockchain.

CONCLUSION

2018 is all about building crypto as a viable alternative to the Fiat currency. Especially in view of the ever-increasing danger of a worldwide recession. Even though the market is preparing for the worst, development in the crypto sector has not slowed down, showing the belief in the opportunities in the industry. With the emerging market conditions and opportunities and the rise of the crypto sector, even big legacy players have jumped on the bandwagon. These partnerships are a strong indication that the future holds far-reaching changes and advancements for us.

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