There’s nothing new here. I’ve been talking about applications for the last couple of years, but very few care - the industry is still mostly obsessed with infra and gambling. Some people told me “next bull things will be different” - but nothing has changed; indeed, I only see a greater indulgence in infra and degeneracy as speculation has returned. I have given up on things ever changing, but I’ll keep writing occasionally, repeating myself.

Ge Dongbo, the chief engineer of the Shanghai Economic and Information Commission, stated at the 2023 Open Source Industry Ecology Conference that Shanghai will strengthen the research and development of open source technology and innovation, vigorously promote enterprises to increase investment in open source in fields such as basic software, industrial software, information security, cloud-native, big data, artificial intelligence, blockchain, etc., cultivate a group of excellent open source projects and communities, and welcome domestic and foreign open source social organizations, open source innovative talents, and open source projects to settle in Shanghai. Shanghai will provide the best open source innovation business environment.

As interest rates continue to rise, more and more companies are turning to blockchain-based private lending when seeking financing. According to data from the RWA.xyz platform that tracks debt, active private loans through digital ledgers have grown by 55% since early 2023, reaching approximately $408 million as of November 28.It is reported that one of the main advantages of blockchain-based private lending is the potential to lower borrowing costs. Although interest rates vary depending on the specific transaction, some blockchain protocols have rates below 10%, while traditional suppliers have rates as high as double digits in the current market environment.

Blockchain ledger payment platform RYVYL has partnered with distributed ledger technology company R3 to launch the blockchain-as-a-service platform "RYVYL Block". The platform will leverage RYVYL's background in digital solutions and R3's blockchain technology to ensure smooth integration into existing business frameworks, with the aim of simplifying blockchain integration and providing enterprise customers with access to the tools needed to develop secure distributed ledger infrastructure and build modules with rich business APIs and fast implementation.

WeBank revealed in its latest activity that since 2017, WeBank has successively open-sourced its core blockchain development achievements to the world. So far, it has released 13 blockchain open-source projects. FISCO BCOS, the blockchain underlying platform led by it, has been open-sourced for 6 years. The domestic open-source alliance chain ecosystem built around it has attracted more than 5,000 institutions, over 100,000 individual members, 50 certified partners, and over 500 core contributors.

Reltime, a blockchain technology company headquartered in Oslo, Norway, has announced the completion of financing provided by the Research Council of Norway. Reltime has built a Web3 platform based on Layer 1 authoritative proof blockchain, supporting use cases such as non-custodial wallets, SuperApps, loyalty programs, payment solutions, lending services, QR codes, CBDC and digital legal currency, practical tokens, as well as customer management functions such as eKYC, identity management, SLA and reporting. The new funds will be used for its development plan to use 5G mobile phones as Layer 1 micro-transaction blockchain node validators.

China's national-level blockchain initiative, the Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN), has announced that it will use blockchain technology to verify the real-name identities of China's 1.4 billion people. The initiative, called RealDID, was spearheaded by China's Ministry of Public Security with the help of BSN. The RealDID service launch will enable users to register and log in to websites anonymously using DID addresses and private keys, ensuring that business data and transactions remain disconnected from personal information. This move is likely to spark concern among data-privacy advocates, especially as China's top social media platforms mandate content creators with over 500,000 or 1 million followers to publicly display their real names or those of their financial backers.

According to a report by Fortune Business Insights, the blockchain gaming market is expected to reach $614.91 billion by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of 21.8% during the forecast period of 2023-2030.<br>In addition, the report also revealed the leading companies in the global blockchain gaming market, including Dapper Labs Inc., Sky Mavis, Animoca Brands Corporation Limited, Illuvium, WAX, Immutable, The Sandbox, Mythical Inc., Splinterlands, and Wemade Co.

According to a notice from the National Intellectual Property Administration, China Telecom Limited has applied for a patent for a "blockchain-based node management method, device, equipment, and storage medium" with publication number CN117201488A, with an application date of May 2022. The patent abstract shows that this disclosure provides a blockchain-based node management method, device, equipment, and storage medium, which is related to the field of communication technology. The method includes: receiving a registration request from a first node, wherein the registration request of the first node includes role information of the first node; responding to the registration request of the first node, performing role security management on the first node according to a role security management policy, obtaining a first node identifier, role information of the first node, first credibility level information of the first node, and first permission information of the first node, wherein the first permission information of the first node is obtained based on the role information and the first credibility level information of the first node; associating the first node identifier and the first permission information and storing them on the blockchain, controlling the operations of the first node on the blockchain-based network resource sharing system according to the first permission information of the first node stored on the blockchain, thereby improving the overall security of the system.

A blockchain bill called the "Deploying American Blockchains Act" has been passed by the US House Energy and Commerce Committee. The bill will direct the Department of Commerce to "enhance the competitiveness of the United States in the deployment, use, and application of blockchain technology or other distributed ledger technology." The bill has not yet been approved by the full House of Representatives. Experts say that there is currently no corresponding bill in the US Senate, which is a major drawback for most cryptocurrency legislation this year. The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives is not eager to accept any digital asset bills and is generally believed to be unlikely to change its policy. The best option for such bills may be to negotiate and merge them with other efforts into larger and more valued legislation.