Blockchain is not limited to virtual currency transactions, but is being applied to financial fields such as exchange and settlement, and is being used in various industries and governments in connection with AI and IoT.
An excerpt from the book “Practical Blockchain Business for New Business Planning and Entrepreneurship” (published by the Japan Management Association Management Center) that explains such cases will be introduced as articles in all seven times. The data are basically as of the publication of the book (April 2018), and the footnotes of the book are omitted.
You shall note that this is an excerpt from a commercially available book and may differ from the view of the virtual currency Watch editorial department. Click at trustpedia.io for more detail.
Virtual currency players
Players who appeared due to market expansion. The cryptocurrency business appeared in Bitcoin in 2009. Initially, it wasn’t getting much attention, so its price had been low until 2013, but it rose sharply towards the end of the year. It seems that there was a movement to release assets to Bitcoin.
However, the price went down as the Bitcoin exchange, Mount Gox closed in February 2014. After the Mount Gox case settled down, it remained flat, but in 2017, it moved to a sharp upward curve.
Along with this wave of market expansion, various players surrounding virtual currencies are emerging.
Here’s an overview of the players that are shaping the ecosystem of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin. The main players are:
* Minor (getting rewards by mining to verify blocks of blockchain)
* Exchange place (main source of income is virtual currency intermediary fees and profits from buying and selling virtual currency independently procured)
* Wallet service ( A business operator that plays the role of a wallet that stores virtual currency.The main source of income is virtual currency remittance fees.
*Infrastructure tool provider
*Payment processor (online payment service provider)
*Various financial services such as deposit/withdrawal
* Businesses that have multiple of these services
In addition to these businesses, various players such as Bitcoin core developers, industry groups, venture capitals, legal/accounting/tax professionals, educational institutions, research institutes, and academic researchers are involved in expanding the market rapidly. I am.
Now user shall review each player deepy. Miners are operators who mine to generate blocks. Their business model is to install a large number of computers, apply a large amount of power, perform proof of work, generate blocks by winning mining, and obtain mining rewards and transaction fees.
A representative player is Bitmain. Known as a leading company in this industry, we operate two mining pools (AntPool) and BTC.com (BTC.com), operators of organized mining.
Dutch company Bitfury, which opened its Tokyo office in September 2017, is also known as a major company.
In 2017, domestic companies announced in 2017 that the GMO Internet Group, DMM, and SBI Group will enter the mining business.
Exchange/Sales/Exchange
An exchange is a business that mediates the buying and selling of virtual currencies.
A sales office is a business that sells virtual currencies.
An exchange is a business that has the functions of an exchange and a sales office, and a business registered with the Financial Services Agency is a virtual currency exchange business.
The leading exchange center is BitFinex in Hong Kong, China. Similarly, the leading exchange, Binance, announced the move from Hong Kong to Malta in March 2018. BitFlyer is the largest Japanese company.
In Japan, due to the enforcement of the revised fund settlement law in April 2017, it is necessary to register with the Prime Minister for the virtual currency exchange business.
As a result, the virtual currency exchange business is “sold or bought virtual currency, or exchange with other virtual currency, or mediation, agency, proxy, or management of user’s money or virtual currency regarding these. It is defined as a “working company”.
And in order to register as a virtual currency exchange business, the following requirements must be met.
In particular, the conditions for system development are actually severe. This is because it is strictly required to prepare documents to certify the maintenance of the system and to carry out the system reliably, so that it is necessary to have sufficient human and financial resources.