If you didn’t just get in here hoping to get quick riches by buying and selling weird tokens generated via complex computing protocols; then you’d realize that blockchain technology is actually a technological, as well as a financial revolution. Cryptographic coins and tokens running on the blockchain have unarguably gained more popularity than the technology which powers it. Abnormal, but its money involved here. As a matter of fact, ‘cryptocurrency’ is more understood than blockchain technology.
Cryptocurrency growing faster in popularity than blockchain technology itself is no surprise. Blockchain is a very complex technology, it’s reasonable to understand ‘a tool for financial freedom’ than ‘an immutable store of data with distributed authority’; lol. However, a lesser percentage have really channeled a tangible effort towards understanding blockchain technology and how it actually works.
Regardless, an investor who makes researches before investing in a project will at least have an idea of what the project hopes to achieve and why it is worth his money…and time. Such investor takes time to understand the project’s mission(s) and what they are building on the blockchain. Traditional blockchains or smart contracts; each project presents a use case for their project which determines the value of their token. An impressed investor would bet his money on this project and hope it delivers.
The crypto-space houses a vast number of blockchain projects with interesting use cases, you could name a handful with a little effort. I’ll mention a few for tips;
Store of value: Get in here bitcoiners! Most cryptocurrency enthusiasts actually. Every cryptocurrency is a store of value, literally. Cryptocurrencies are flexible, stored in wallets, can be sent to anyone holding a similar infrastructure. These features have made it a subject of the financial institution since its inception. Bitcoin have championed the idea of ‘store of value’ as a use case for cryptocurrencies, it has since then sparked off a fierce comparison with digitized gold, a competition it has faced off comfortably. The younger generation is growing a huge preference for bitcoin as a store of value and a better concept than gold. Despite the outspoken volatility, it has won the heart of investors and there is a recent wave of institutions storing part of their reserves in bitcoin.
Jack Dorsey’s square capital announced they had invested $50 million into bitcoin. Dorsey who has always been open about his love for the ‘alpha’ cryptocurrency described bitcoin as an ‘instrument of economic empowerment’. In a similar but less popular news; Mode Global Holdings invested has 10% of its cash reserves into Bitcoin, this amounts to approximately $815,000 (about 66.7 BTC at the time of exchange). Mode Global Holdings thus becomes the first publicly traded company in the UK to make Bitcoin a part of its investment strategy.
Rothschild Investment Corporation is also rumored to have over 230 Bitcoins in its portfolio. Fact is, firms invested in bitcoin are actually way greater than the recorded number. Investors’ fate in bitcoin grows by the day and despite cryptocurrency’s notable volatility, they are no longer ‘scared’ to move their funds into bitcoin. This number is even expected to get larger. Being a store of value have emerged the biggest use case for bitcoin as well as a couple other similar cryptocurrencies.
Initial Public Offering (IPO): Many cryptocurrency projects with a main net owes their survival to the ethereum blockchain. Being the first blockchain project to introduce smart contracts and enable projects generate token on the ethereum blockchain, it has aided the birth of hundreds of new cryptocurrency projects. Fundraising for new cryptocurrency projects have become way easier. New projects can easily generate tokens which represents the value of their project and allow investors buy a portion of this as a stake in the new project. This replaces the concept of shares. A number of other blockchain projects have also adopted this technology and developed it to work even better. This feature can be used even outside core blockchain scenario. Main stream projects can adopt smart contract tokens as securities and shares.
Decentralized finance (DEFI): Decentralized Finance encompasses every attempt by blockchain and cryptocurrency projects to create a decentralized replacement or alternatives to real life financial activities. Decentralized financial systems comprises applications built on top of blockchains which facilitates permissionless financial services and provides a seamless option for running financial activities. DeFi hopes to introduce the core virtues of blockchain technology to the financial system. The bitcoin blockchain introduced the concept of ‘decentralized means of payment’ which runs on a distributed ledger system, the blockchain. Thus, marking the onset of decentralized financial systems.
DeFi projects are expanding the scope of financial systems, shifting the paradigm from ‘portable means’ of payments to smart contract applications running independently on a parent blockchain and offering advanced financial services such as insurance, lending, wealth management and an array of other financial management services using blockchain resources and exhibiting desired blockchain features such as immutability, security, privacy, speed and interoperability.
Amongst the numerous enticing features of decentralized finance projects, ‘yield farming’ has gained its place as the most exciting prospect of decentralized financial systems. The idea of leveraging DeFi protocols to generate interest returns of up to 10% of your initial investment per annum and a couple of other benefits will surely impress any investor. Due to this, DeFi presents an enticing opportunity for mainstream investors to dive into the crypto space — a major cause of the recent boom in DeFi projects.
Artificial intelligence (AI): Notable decentralized artificial intelligence solutions are working with firms outside the crypto space to develop artificial intelligence products and solutions with the aid of the blockchain. SingularityNet led by Ben Goertzel, a very popular and respected name in the AI sector is making breathtaking breakthroughs in the AI space and set to offset the discipline and connect the dots between blockchain technology and the Artificial intelligence — a multi-billion dollar worth concept.
Ocean project is building a tokenized service layer that exposes data, storage, compute and algorithms for consumption with a set of deterministic proofs on availability and integrity that serve as verifiable service agreements. This protocol unlocks data for AI, Ocean is building a market place for AI infrastructures on the blockchain. By this, it presents a decentralized and scalable option.
E-commerce: cryptocurrencies are rapidly infiltrating mainstream systems. Most mainstream sectors are duly represented in the crypto-space. E-commerce is no different to this. Outside the crypto-space, cryptocurrencies are accepted as means of payment in numerous reputable stores. Cryptocurrencies’ flexibility and universality make them a portable means of payment. With values attached to them, they can be easily used for online payment. A safer and faster alternative to credit cards. Cryptocurrency projects are also building marketplaces on the blockchain. Origin protocol is building a blockchain-powered commercial platform. It is building a platform which connects buyers and sellers on the blockchain and allow cryptocurrencies to be used as a medium of payment. It hopes to simplify e-commerce and provide a decentralized commercial platform.
Cryptocurrency and blockchain use cases are growing with every new and unique project. It is almost impossible to make a complete list on the course of this writing. It’s a very vast space, investors are invested in diverse projects. you can personally name even more cryptocurrency use case, which one of these impresses you the most?