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"FATF makes it clear that it takes an expansive view on virtual asset and VASP definitions, and that most existing arrangements have some party involved that would qualify as a VASP, either at the development or launch stage of the project. Draft guidance specifies that DApps usually have a "central party" involved in creating and launching an asset, setting parameters, holding an administrative key or collecting fees, and such entities involved with the DApp may qualify as VASPs."

Ethereum's competitors have come to the fore, and are challenging the platform's dominance by shifting the Dapp market share in favour of emerging platforms like EOS and Tron.

DeFi-focused blockchain Algorand is launching smart contract capabilities that will allow DeFi solutions and dApps to be created that are more scaleable than on Ethereum. Specifically it is implementing stateful smart contracts within layer-1. These are more flexible than stateless smart contracts, which require all conditions to be met at once before the funds are unlocked. Stateful smart contracts, one of Ethereum's strengths, can release funds when a sequence of interactive steps have been taken or conditions met, allowing for more sophisticated DApps and DeFi solutions. Algorand already supports stateless contracts, atomic swaps, and Algorand Standard Assets within layer-1. Algorand also says that its blockchain provides "negligible" transaction fees, a pointed reference to "first-generation" networks such as Ethereum.

The price of XRP crashed following a huge airdrop that will credit all XRP holders who hold funds in participating exchanges and wallets with free Spark (FLR) tokens. On the morning of December 12, immediately after the airdrop all of the top ten coins by market capitalization were up 2-4% but XRP was down about 10%. The FLR, to be distributed by Flare Network on a yet-unreleased blockchain, is a smart contract utility fork of XRP. The pair will attempt to challenge Ethereum's dominance in decentralized finance (defi) and decentralized applications (dapps). Flare integrates with Ethereum's Virtual Machine, allowing existing Ethereum dapps to be ported over to Flare to serve the XRP ecosystem.

Brendan Blumer, CEO at Block.one, the company behind the development of EOS, one of the largest platforms for building decentralized applications (dApps) claims that Ethereum is controlled by a 3 pool cartel that refuses to upgrade the scalability of the protocol, while taking billions per year in mining fees as well as $90 per transaction, and selectively reversing transactions.

Hua Li produced a nice diagram to show a comparison between Web 2.0 apps and Web 3.0 DApps.

A paper by Chris Brummer and Agnes N. Williams highlights, with respect to decentralized finance (DeFi) in a U.S. context, the ambiguities inhabiting legacy disclosure obligations and offers a conceptual roadmap for assisting developers and regulators. Furthermore, it introduces a series of crypto-native tools to modernize disclosure delivery in DeFi systems.

The Canton Network, launched in May 2023 completed its exploration of a privacy-enabled open blockchain network for real-time atomic settlement and immediate reconciliation across counterparty systems of tokenized investment asset transactions. Based on more than 350 simulated transactions, the project proved that the blockchain could be leveraged to streamline and synchronize financial applications while at the same time adhering to regulatory asset control, security, and data privacy requirements. It involved 15 asset managers, 13 banks, four custodians, three exchanges, and one financial market infrastructure provider. It exchanged tokenized securities, money market funds and deposits across 22 decentralized applications (dApps).

"Dai may also be poised to become the stablecoin of choice for ETH users, for a variety of reasons. An upcoming Coinbase listing, the potential for ICOs denominated in Dai, payroll sent in Dai, and dApps like Augur using Dai, all point to the need for Dai or something similar in the future."

The SEC's approval of live streaming platform YouNow's Props token offering falls under Reg A+, which allows startups to raise up to $50 million in a public offering with fewer disclosures than a full IPO requires. Blockstack, a decentralized web platform for DApps, was the first blockchain firm approved under Reg A+.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) looks to be going after decentralized finance (DeFi) applications in their recent draft guidance released. When it comes to DeFi platforms, the FATF said its standards may not apply to the underlying software or technology, but entities involved with the decentralized application (DApp) such as owners or operators may now be considered virtual asset service providers (VASPs). Virtual asset (VA) escrow services, including services involving smart contract technology, brokerage services, order-book exchange services, advanced trading services, and custody providers will all considered VASPs.

The increased frequency of flash loan attacks is sending ripples across the DeFi community. Apart from the monetary loss, we also see a major dip in confidence amongst the dApp developers. Likewise, these headlines further fuel skepticism against the blockchain and DeFi community impeding the efforts being put in for their mass adoption.

Algorand is a Pure Proof of Stake (PPoS) blockchain designed to facilitate the future of finance. It was designed by Turing Award-winning cryptography expert Silvio Micali and is supported by the works of the Algorand Foundation.

Tron introduced its non-fungible token (NFT) standard, TRC-721, to take over the growing NFT market. DApps created on Tron's TRC-721 will be compatible with Ethereum's ERC-721 standard.

"Solana claims that its blockchain is capable of sustaining more than 50,000 transactions per second (TPS) at peak load, which would make it arguably the fastest blockchain currently operating. To put this into perspective, this is close to 1,000 times faster than Bitcoin (max throughput ~5-7 TPS) and more than 3,000 times faster than Ethereum (max throughput ~15 TPS)."

Rosetta is an open-source specification and set of tools that purports to make integrating with blockchains simpler, faster, and more reliable. For developers of new blockchain projects, the Rosetta interface makes it easier to ensure compatibility with exchanges that use Rosetta, and can dramatically speed up the time it takes exchanges to integrate with new blockchains and protect customer funds by ensuring specific security conditions are met. For the broader community of crypto developers, Rosetta makes it easier to build cross-blockchain applications such as block explorers, wallets and dapps.

The BSN is a cross-cloud, cross-portal, cross-framework global infrastructure network used to deploy and operate all types of blockchain applications. It provides a shared blockchain resource environment with the twin goals of reducing the cost of technology adoption and supporting interoperability between different blockchain applications (DApps).

Bianjie has launched the first open permissioned blockchain on China's Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN). This WenChang blockchain is powered by Cosmos' interoperable blockchain ecosystem. WenChang Chain is compliant with Chinese enterprise standards and offers permissioned controls. The global city node infrastructure, deployed by BSN, presents developers with a ready, open blockchain network so they can focus on refining the application layer, develop business logic, and deploy dApps in an easy and more cost-effective way.

Bitcoin is something you hodl. Ethereum is something you build on. At least that has long been the official narrative, with projects favoring dedicated smart contract networks over Bitcoin for spinning out dapps and second layer solutions. Like all crypto narratives, however, this one has started to shift, as projects reappraise the benefits of crafting censorship-resistant applications anchored to Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Cash.

TRON is a decentralized application platform and a blockchain-based operating system. The initial objective of this platform was to help resolve issues in the global entertainment sector. They later expanded the scope of their vision to tackle the whole DApps market.