This week in the business of blockchain: Remittance continues to be a use case worth following, marketplaces continue to be a use case worth following and decentralized social networks may have a very high customer acquisition cost. Get the details below.

Pakistan, Blockchain and Alipay walk into a bar

Telenor Microfinance Bank and Valyou of Malaysia have partnered to offer blockchain-based remittance between Pakistan and Malaysia. The new service will run on fintech giant Alipay's blockchain and will be expanded to other countries if the results meet expectations. Officials believe the new remittance service will increase the speed, security, transparency and all of the other good stuff blockchain does.

Sticking with locations you don't normally think about for blockchain adoption, Venezuela will be getting a $1 million airdrop. Former Regan economic adviser and hyperinflation expert, Prof. Steve Hanke, has partnered with Airtm to distribute $1 million worth of crypto to 100,000 Venezuelan Airtm accounts. The hope is that the recipients will then use the crypto and help the local economy. We shall see.

Buying airplane parts on blockchain

Aerospace conglomerate, Honeywell, recently announced it new blockchain-based marketplace, GoDirect Trade. The online marketplace will connect buyers and sellers of new and used aviation parts - something that is done offline 97.5% of the time and normally a highly inefficient process.

Blockchain's trustless nature is what makes this possible. Blockchain allows customers to track parts, images and documentation helping avoid issues like scams and inauthentic parts. This, along with normal online advantages such as easy price comparison and fast delivery, make Honeywell's marketplace a game-changer.

Pay me $1,000 to leave Facebook for your social dApp

Now we know how much it will cost to acquire users at the expense of Facebook. A recent academic study asked subjects to bid how much money they would be will to accept to deactivate their Facebook account. A series of auctions resulted in ranges from $1,000 - 2,000 to deactivate Facebook for a year.

To make things real, the researchers and subjects had to follow through on the deal - so subjects knew in advance that they would actually have to deactivate Facebook for whatever fee they agreed to. This could have been a much more interesting study if we were able to compare Facebook's current value to its users to its value before all of the scandals.

Colorado and NYC love crypto

A new bill has been recently introduced to the Colorado state legislature that would make utility tokens exempt from securities laws. The "Colorado Digital Token Act", if passed, would boost the use of cryptocurrencies by business for growth by removing regulatory uncertainty. Colorado has been leading the US in crypt-friendly regulations and this looks like another way to keep their lead.

The New York City Economic Development Corporation (let's call it the NYCEDC for short), has opened its Blockchain Center in Manhattan with the help of VC fund Future\Perfect Ventures and the trade organization Global Blockchain Business Council. The center will offer learning experience such as coding classes and software development lunch lectures. You can visit the center at 54 W. 21st St.

Movers & shakers

It seems that most of the movers and shakers are still hungover from new year's, hopefully we'll have some interesting deals being announced soon.

• Authenteq, the maker of blockchain ID verification technology, raised $5 million in a round led b Draper Associates
• Parity Technologies received a $5 million grant from the Ethereum Foundation to complete its Ethereum infrastructure and application projects

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