Blockchain & Web3

Established in 2018, the mission of the Blockchain & Distributed Ledger Observatory is to generate and share knowledge on Blockchain and Distributed Ledger related topics and contribute to the development of the Italian market, creating debate and meeting and comparison opportunities for the main players that are active in this field.

2021 has been a year of maturation for the Blockchain and Distributed Ledger world. Technologies proceeded in their evolution and transformation journey while events, such as the booming of NFT and the growth of DApps and DeFi, captured the interest of institutions, companies and media across the world.

Today, these technologies are no longer merely tools to improve existing processes but enable the creation of innovative and unprecedented organizational models. Together with other technologies Blockchain could be at the base of the “next web revolution”, in other words Web3, a sort of decentralized web that could become the natural evolution of the current web, centralized and dominated by big techs.

Due to the collaboration between the Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering Department and the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, the Observatory analyzes these topics from both a business and technical perspective.

Furthermore, in 2021 – from the Blockchain & Distributed Ledger Observatory – the Blockchain Innovation & Solutions HUB was founded, an impartial player that aims to promote, facilitate, and enable Blockchain projects involving different players through the creation of a precompetitive development environment where companies can conduct applied research activities.

The 2022 Research on Blockchain & Distributed Ledger

In the 2022 edition, in keeping with the previous edition, will further develop the following areas of research:

6 lines of business research:

• Application environments in Italy and the world: analyze international projects as well as how Blockchain and Distributed Ledger technologies are used in projects by companies around the world.
• Italian market: estimate investments and number of projects implemented by companies in Italy; determine the level of knowledge and adoption of Blockchain and Distributed Ledger technologies in Italian companies.
• Startups and innovative trends: analyze startups across the world and the spread of collected funding; description of the Italian startup ecosystem as regards Blockchain.
• Opportunities offered by crypto-assets: analyze token application opportunities to identify the potential of digital assets.
• Blockchain Ecosystems: analyze main Italian and international ecosystem projects based on Blockchain and Distributed Ledger technologies. Identify major benefit categories that characterize the use of the technologies and current chief limitations to the development of such projects.

6 lines of tech research:

• DApp and programmability: analyze leading decentralized applications on the market by amount of active users, study their tokenomics and adopted business models.
• Data privacy: identify modes enabling to share data and information in Blockchain and Distributed Ledger platforms.
• Performance and scalability: identify the differences and of ways of filling the gap between current performances of existing platforms and requirements of various applications.
• Interoperability: analyze main approaches to interoperability between different platforms, and of potential benefits.
• Comparison of platforms: continuously monitor major and most interesting platforms and comparison of most relevant features/characteristics.
• Convergence with other techs: monitor interaction of Blockchain and Distributed Ledger technologies with other technologies (i.e. AI, IoT)

2 lines of legal research:

• Compliance and regulation: analysis of regulatory developments in countries already included in the Research Framework and addition to new ones.
• Analysis of some vertical matters on new topics that will be defined by the Research team in collaboration with research supporters.

4 vertical research streams:

• Identity: analyze main Blockchain digital identity solutions and the opportunities provided. Study the potential for businesses and public sector bodies of the Self Sovereign Identity model.
• Supply Chain: analyze application of Blockchain and Distributed Ledger solutions within the production chains of various sectors.
• Web3 & DApp: study new decentralized web models and the business opportunities provided by decentralized applications.
• Tokenization: analyze primary tokenization applications and solutions, and the possibilities offered by digital assets.
• DeFi: analyze main decentralized finance sector DApps available on the market, by total value locked.
  

The thematic areas will be defined in detail in coming months and confirmed with Partners and Sponsors at the Kickoff Workshop scheduled for April 1, 2022.

In order to encourage an ongoing dialogue with institutions, associations, and research centers, an Advisory Board will be set up with the aim of directing research on the most valuable trends for companies and institutions. The Advisory Board will consist of a small group of institution representatives.