Lisk

Yesterday, I had the pleasure to attend a talk about blockchain governance from key members of the Lisk development team as well as the CEO Max Kordek, who gave me the Lisk Casino chip as a giveaway.

Lisk is headquartered in Zug Switzerland and also has a German entity called lightcurve. Lisk is a blockchain application and sidechain platform that people tend to compare to Ethereum, even going so far as to calling it a copycat. However, there clearly are many big differences between the two organisations. Similar to Ethereum, Lisk also wants to enable its users to develop decentralized apps (short dapps) using their blockchain technology. Lisk's value proposition is that they will make it a lot easier for you to develop a Dapp and to bring it to market. Lisk is a platform for dapps and custom blockchains written in JavaScript. This is a pivotal difference to Ethereum, which is written in two languages that were created by Vitalik Buterin himself. (Serpent and Solidity). Actually, this is also, arguably, a key advantage that Lisk has over Ethereum, since JavaScript is the most written language in the world of programming, and thus significantly lowers the barrier to entry for people developing Dapps on Lisk. In this manner, it also fosters rapid development cycles. Developers can build, publish, distribute and monetize their Dapps within Lisk's custom-built cryptocurrency powered system. Furtheremore, with Lisk every Dapp is running in its own sidechain with no limits, as opposed to a single bloated blockchain. Also, a key trait of Lisk is its focus on user experience, making it accessible for everyone. Finally, a key feature of Lisk is its integrated Dapp Store, in which you can sell your own dapps that you will have created with Lisk.
Lisk's ICO took place in April 2016 and the coin is currently (14 June 2017) at around 4 USD (coinmarketcap). The Lisk team has announced a major release of their applications for the end of 2017.
I am definitely excited for this one!
Go Lisk!