1. Industry Risk Analysis
(1) Policy Risk
The blockchain technology application industry faces risks associated with uncertain policy stages:
– During the policy – making period, the regulatory frameworks of various countries are vague and subject to dynamic adjustments (for example, the regulation of cryptocurrencies has shifted from leniency to strictness). Entrepreneurs are prone to sudden changes in compliance standards.
– In the policy implementation stage, there are differences in law – enforcement intensity (such as regulatory conflicts between data sovereignty and cross – border data flow). Enterprises need to bear the adaptation costs of cross – border operations.
– During the policy evaluation period, technological and ethical disputes (such as the lag in the recognition of the legal validity of smart contracts) may force the reconstruction of existing application scenarios.
– At the end of the policy period, the reduction of industrial subsidies or the tightening of licenses (such as China’s rectification of the cryptocurrency mining industry) will directly impact the stability of existing business models.
(2) Economic Risk
The global economic slowdown has led to a tightening of capital market liquidity. The rising financing costs have put blockchain startups in a dilemma of reduced VC investment and declining equity financing valuations. The cyclical fluctuations in market demand, combined with the sharp volatility of cryptocurrency prices, have weakened the purchasing willingness of enterprise – level customers for blockchain solutions. Moreover, during the downturn of the traditional economy, regulatory policies have become stricter, and the increasing costs of anti – money laundering and data compliance have further squeezed profit margins.
(3) Social Risk
The blockchain technology application industry faces the social risk of a deepening inter – generational trust gap:
– Younger users have a high acceptance of the concept of decentralization, while the middle – aged and elderly groups strongly question the security of virtual assets, which doubles the inter – generational user education costs.
– Negative industry public opinions (such as cryptocurrency exchange collapses) are likely to trigger inter – generational value conflicts on social media. Young users tend to support the narrative of technological innovation, while traditional consumers strengthen their demands for stricter regulation.
– Emerging application scenarios (such as NFT digital collectibles) face the risk of inter – generational cultural identity fragmentation. The digital asset forms pursued by Generation Z are fundamentally different from the property concepts of the older generation, resulting in the normalization of public doubts about the industry’s legality. Start – up projects need to bear the additional social cost of reconciling inter – generational concepts.
(4) Legal Risk
The legal risks faced by the blockchain technology application industry are concentrated in the following aspects:
– Regulatory uncertainty (there are significant differences in the compliance standards of various countries for crypto – assets and smart contracts, and cross – border data flow is likely to violate privacy laws such as GDPR).
– Unclear digital asset rights confirmation (disputes over the ownership of on – chain assets occur frequently).
– High – pressure financial compliance (it is difficult to fulfill anti – money laundering obligations, and there are technological blind spots in on – chain transaction tracking and KYC verification).
– Disputes over the enforcement effectiveness of smart contracts (the legal liability division caused by code vulnerabilities is not clear, and the courts have not yet formed a unified judgment standard). Entrepreneurs need to bear high compliance costs to cope with dynamic legislation and may fall into risks of patent infringement or illegal business operations due to the lack of industry standards.
2. Entrepreneurship Guide
(1) Suggestions on Entrepreneurship Opportunities
Entrepreneurs in the blockchain technology application field can focus on areas in urgent need of a trusted mechanism, such as cross – border payments, supply – chain finance, and digital identity management. They can enter the digital transformation of the real – world industries by building enterprise – level alliance chain solutions (such as agricultural product traceability and electronic certificate verification). They can use smart contracts to develop automated settlement systems to reduce the transaction costs of small, medium, and micro – enterprises. At the same time, they should pay attention to opportunities at the infrastructure layer, such as the development of DAO tools and on – chain data analysis platforms. They should give priority to high – compliance scenarios such as medical data rights confirmation and carbon credit tracking, quickly build a minimum viable product with the help of open – source frameworks, and verify the business closed – loop through government – enterprise cooperation pilots.
(2) Suggestions on Entrepreneurship Resources
Entrepreneurs in the blockchain technology application industry should focus on quickly validating core scenarios (such as cross – border payments and supply – chain finance), and give priority to integrating mature public chain or alliance chain underlying facilities to lower the development threshold. They should obtain policy resources such as government industrial funds and compliance sandboxes. They can attract tech geeks through developer communities and open – source projects and use a combination of equity and Tokens to incentivize the team. They should jointly build pilot projects with industry associations and traditional enterprises to obtain real business data and cooperation endorsements. They should also reserve legal counsel and license resources in advance to cope with the regulatory differences among countries.
(3) Suggestions on Entrepreneurship Teams
Blockchain entrepreneurs need to form a cross – domain and composite team. The core members must have both blockchain underlying development experience and vertical industry knowledge, and at least one technical leader proficient in smart contract security auditing should be included. Members with a financial compliance background should be introduced to deal with regulatory risks. In the early stage, a 15% – 20% option pool should be reserved to attract talents with experience in the implementation of cross – scenarios such as the Internet of Things and big data. The OKR management mechanism should be adopted to strengthen the synergy among technology, business, and operation. A weekly code mutual review system should be established to ensure democratic technology decision – making. It is recommended that the core team maintain a size of 5 – 7 people and achieve distributed collaboration through DAO tools. The founder must personally participate in the actual development of DApps on at least three mainstream public chains to avoid the risk gap caused by the disconnection between technology decisions and business implementation.
(4) Suggestions on Entrepreneurship Risks
Blockchain entrepreneurs should give priority to ensuring technological compliance and security. They should choose a niche area (such as supply – chain traceability or digital asset rights confirmation) to enter precisely and complete the third – party security audit of smart contract codes. They should monitor the regulatory dynamics of various countries in real – time and embed compliance modules (such as user KYC authentication) at the early stage of business design. The minimum viable product model should be used to verify the market. They should give priority to cooperating with leading enterprises in the real – world industries to implement benchmark cases. They should establish cross – chain technology reserves to cope with the risk of industry protocol fragmentation. At the same time, they should avoid crossing the red line of illegal fund – raising through the design of the token economic model.