The 2014-2015 Digital Currency Development Report has been officially published

At the end of January 2016, the 2014-2015 Digital Currency Development Report (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") was published. The Report focuses on the current status and trends of digital currencies, attempts to interpret the trends in the global digital currency field from 2014 to 2015 from a professional perspective, and indicates where digital currencies will go in the future.

The report analyzes the performance of digital currency in the market from 2014 to 2015, from price fluctuations to the rise of the futures industry and the analysis of related global digital currency financial products. It can be seen that in 2014, with the recent trends in various countries' policies and regulations on Bitcoin, more venture capital companies have joined in, and digital currency has gradually become closely related to daily life applications.

This book is edited by Chang Qia, founder of Babbitt, and Sha Qian, author of Ownerless Currency, with a preface by Xu Mingxing, CEO of OKcoin, and co-authored by industry professionals. Talking about the original intention of writing this book, Chang Qia said frankly:

"Babit Information has accumulated a large amount of data, reports and research over the years, but these materials have not been well summarized and organized. It is difficult for new friends who have just entered the digital currency and blockchain to get a glimpse of the development of the entire industry from fragmented articles. Therefore, we decided to organize Babit columnists every year to write a chapter in a distributed collaborative way to jointly compile the digital currency/blockchain annual report. The authors who participated in the manuscript are opinion leaders in the circle who have long been concerned about the development of digital currency/blockchain. Some of them are entrepreneurs of digital currency projects themselves, and some have participated in the research and policy discussions on digital currency by regulatory authorities. Their understanding of the industry is unique, professional and forward-looking."

Industry investment and financing continues to increase, tends to be professional, and spreads across the entire industry.

The report mentioned that in 2014, there were 48 digital currency investment events around the world, with a disclosed amount of $324 million and an average investment of $6.75 million. This was a significant increase of 243% compared to the total investment of $9,463 in 2013. (Data source: 8btc.com "Coin Venture Capital").

The trends and characteristics of venture capital are as follows: the investment cycle is not synchronized with the market conditions, and the scale of investment has not been affected by the price drop, but has increased instead; investment tends to be professional and group-oriented; capital drives the industrial chain to extend upstream and downstream. On the one hand, digital currency and the industrial chain are expanding from industries close to money such as foreign exchange transactions, financial futures, and mining to commercial payments and cross-border settlements close to ordinary users. On the other hand, more and more entrepreneurs are trying to innovate at the protocol and infrastructure levels in the fields of blockchain and data mining at the upstream of the industrial chain.

The latest "2015 Global Digital Currency (Blockchain) Venture Capital Report" was also released yesterday. The report shows that in 2015, there were 65 investment events worldwide, with a disclosed amount of US$490 million, an increase of 35.73% over the total investment in 2014. The cumulative financing amount of the entire industry has exceeded the US$1 billion mark. In addition, several Bitcoin startups are striding towards the goal of "Unicorn Club".

Despite what the outside world calls a capital winter, it is clear from the data provided in the report that the level of capital attention in the field of digital currency and blockchain has increased significantly in the past two years.

Official attitude becomes more rational, tax legislation may become a trend

In addition to the investment and financing situation, the official attitudes of various countries towards digital currencies have always been the focus of the industry. As the global legal and public opinion environment of Bitcoin continued to be controversial and uncertain throughout 2014, the policy and legal tendencies and actual legislative results of some countries, especially the Bitcoin policy and regulatory trends of the United States and China, which have the greatest economic influence in the world, have had a great impact on the Bitcoin world. In general, after a short period of confusion and anxiety, the official attitudes of most countries and regions towards Bitcoin have gradually moved towards rationality, objectivity and legalization.

The report points out that from the perspective of various countries' Bitcoin policies and legislative processes in 2014, three changing trends have been clearly revealed: the officials of various countries are mostly committed to putting Bitcoin under normal development efforts under a compliant situation; the positioning of Bitcoin as a "financial asset" has become the mainstream understanding of officials in various countries; with Singapore and Australia as symbols, important progress has been made in formulating tax legislation for the operation of Bitcoin. Tax legislation will replace financial regulatory legislation in the future and become the focus of governments' regulation of Bitcoin.

The report also covers Bitcoin market data analysis, digital currency transaction payment observations, digital currency financial product analysis, digital currency computing power (mining) analysis, competitive currency observations, and the development of digital currency hardware and application software, etc. It provides professional analysis from multiple angles to showcase the entire digital currency industry ecosystem.

Entering 2016, the industry development in 2015 has also confirmed many trend predictions in the book. Chang Qia expressed his intention to continue this book as a brand series:

“The development momentum of the industry in 2016 was actually planted in 2014. Mr. Sha Qian suggested that the “Digital Currency/Blockchain XXXX Annual Development Report” be continued as a brand and published in collections every year. It just so happens that Mr. Yang Guo, the editor-in-chief of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Think Tank Series, has also been paying attention to the digital currency and blockchain industry. Therefore, we decided to work together to compile this book for a long time to provide a reliable reference for digital currency entrepreneurs, developers and investors.”

This book is a non-commercial publication, with a first print run of several thousand copies. Babbitt will give it away to friends outside the circle who are interested in digital currency at offline events, and a small number of signed copies will also be sold. Currently, it can be redeemed in the Babbitt Points Mall.

Reporter: Meng Dada
Source: Babbitt Information