Link: https://dailyhodl.com/2022/12/14/the-future-of-defi-is-bright-but-not-glamorous/

Source: https://dailyhodl.com

The post The future of DeFi is bright – but not glamorous appeared first on Fintech News.

What’s Ahead for Cryptocurrencies?

While most of us are excited about the future of cryptocurrencies, we should also keep our heads on our shoulders. Although there is much potential in this new technology, it is by no means a sure thing. Many people will be quickly disappointed by the volatility of cryptocurrencies and the lack of regulation that they face. Some will even lose money by investing in cryptocurrencies, which is why it’s important to carefully consider which investments and cryptocurrencies are best for your situation. The good news is that cryptocurrencies have a bright future, and we can expect them to be more widely adopted soon. This means that more people will start to use them, which will in turn, drive up the price. This in turn will attract more investors, which will drive up demand, and so on and so forth. This is an iterative process, and it’s important not to get too excited about the price of one cryptocurrency — especially if you are an early adopter. Things can change quickly in this industry. What’s more, if you are investing in cryptocurrencies, it is advisable to diversify your investments, so that you do not lose too much of your investment due to single points of failure.

Blockchain Technology: The Future of Digital Finance

Although it may seem like Blockchain technology has been around forever, it has only been in the last decade that it has truly changed the financial services industry. In that time, it has gone from being a tech-fringe idea to a household word. Now, many companies are using Blockchain technology in a variety of industries, including finance. The technology of Blockchain is quite simple. A blockchain is a decentralized, distributed ledger that is distributed among a network of computers. Every time someone trades something on a financial exchange, that something is verified and recorded on the blockchain. All of this takes place with almost no interference from third parties. Traditional financial institutions have been slow to adopt Blockchain technology. While many use the technology in their back-office operations, banks are the only ones who have integrated it with their core systems. This means that for most people, the benefits of Blockchain technology have only recently begun to be realized.

Disadvantages of Cash-Only Financial Inclusion

One of the biggest hurdles that cryptocurrencies and DeFi have to overcome is the dreaded cash-only holiday. For many, this is the biggest downside of all — the lack of access to a bank or savings account. No one should go without access to money that they can borrow or that can be obtained through an ATM or other cash-based financial services. A cash-only vacation also makes it easier for tax evasion and money laundering to take place. There is, however, a silver lining to this dark cloud. As more people start to use cryptocurrencies, the pressure is on banks and financial institutions to improve their services. This, in turn, will encourage them to adopt the new technologies.

How to Enable Financial Inclusion with DeFi

Currently, there are a few ways that banks and financial institutions are enabling financial inclusion. They include: Creating and running digital wallets: These are online tools that allow people to store and manage their money, and also send and receive payments. Offering savings: Many banks and financial institutions offer various savings accounts, including interest rates and fees that can be as high as 30% or higher. Offering loans: Some financial institutions offer loans, and interest rates on these can be as high as 36%.

Conclusion

As we continue to transition to a digital economy, it is essential that financial services are available to everyone, regardless of their income. This includes access to savings, loans, and investments. For more see crypto genius. These are all great steps forward, but there is still more to be done. We need to make financial services available to everyone, including those who have no access to them today. This will require a change in mindset, as well as in-laws and policies. We can start by providing financial services to all, free of charge.

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Defi is expanding business by educating the next generation through TikTik videos

The Defi industry is booming! The decentralized finance market provides financial inclusion to around 1.7 billion across the world who do not possess a bank account, and reports claim that nearly half the world’s population does not possess access to an active bank account or have the same benefits, compared to those participating in traditional finance.

This is one of the major reasons why young crypto investors have been increasingly attracted to this domain. Financial inclusivity is something that the next-gen youngsters crave and currently, the domain is providing a proper incentive through social media videos.

Finance in Tiktok has become quite popular and is paramount for some youngsters. Translated as FinTok, finance-related content has experienced a meteoric rise on social media platforms. Just last year, #crypto exploded and videos and other forms of content based on this topic became quite popular.

Besides, videos with the #StockTok hashtag collected over 1.5 billion views. These money management videos are not just limited to the crypto and Defi market. The #PersonalFinance also garnered over 4 billion videos, which talked about everything, starting from tax and budgeting, savings, and debt.

Since 2021, young adults have been driven toward cryptocurrency adoption and trading, they are also educating themselves about finance and how to take care of their money. Experts believe that the future of Defi will expand if we continue to integrate crypto, finance, and Defi on Tiktok. Defi firms also need to engage with the right audiences in specific ways that will encourage those demographics to enter the domain, adopt more avant-garde technologies, and expose themselves to financial inclusivity.

Link: https://www.analyticsinsight.net/defi-is-expanding-business-among-the-next-gen-via-tiktok-videos/

Source: https://www.analyticsinsight.net

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By Rob Badman

Crypto 2022 – what did the DeFi experts learn?

To state the bleeding obvious (once again), 2022 was, at times, brutal for crypto. Especially regarding the wider perception of the industry, thanks to certain feet-shooting, black-swan events we’re all sick of hearing about. But what’s your take? Any silver linings?

Mark Lurie, CEO of Shipyard Software: “The failure of centralised financial institutions within crypto has an enormous silver lining, which is the renewed attention and emphasis on DeFi.

“FTX and the failure of the centralised financial lenders really puts the problems with custody in relief. Ultimately, that will help massively more people than it has hurt.”

Kadan Stadelmann, Chief Technology Officer of Komodo: “If there’s one takeaway, it’s the power and importance of self custody.

“Although financial sovereignty can seem like a challenge, it’s important to understand the security implications of holding your own funds in a secure wallet versus trusting third parties with them.”

Brian Fu, Co-Founder and Co-Project Lead of zkLend: “The sequential bankruptcies of Three Arrows Capital, FTX, Genesis and BlockFi sent a clear signal to the industry of the risks of centralised exchanges and lending platforms, where the flow of funds and financial health are not transparent and hard for users to assess/monitor.

“Truly decentralised exchanges, market makers (i.e. dYdX, Uniswap), and lending protocols (i.e. AAVE and Compound) have been working as intended throughout both market shocks in May and September. This strengthens the case for DeFi and its advantages over CeFi, especially at times of highly volatile markets.”

Barney Mannerings, Co-Founder, Vega Protocol: “There are lots of things to get excited about… Watching the new generation of projects that were born in the wreckage of the 2017 ICO boom come to fruition, it’s hard not to be incredibly optimistic if you truly understand what’s being built.

“We’re witnessing the birth of a scalable, modular, easy-to-use, global, private, and unstoppable new infrastructure for many parts of society itself. Every component from the base chains to wallets to identity and credential protocols, from privacy to storage to new forms of funding and organisation, and even new media is being worked on.

“I expect the things that are emerging now and will start to take hold in the next year or two will feel completely different to crypto and ‘web3’ so far, in a really good way.”

Isidoros Passadis, Master of Validators of the Lido multi-chain liquid staking solution: “Taking a look at the wider Ethereum community, the completion of the Merge marked a massive achievement for the network in 2022.

“Lido is proud to have played a key role in building up the economic security of the Ethereum Beacon Chain by democratising access to staking. This has benefitted users across the ecosystem and showed decentralised staking’s resilience in the face of some of the worst events in crypto history.”

Chjango Unchained, Contributor at Osmosis, (former Head of Ecosystem at Cosmos): “A positive moment for the Cosmos ecosystem in particular was in January and February of 2022, when Osmosis and other app chains in Cosmos saw their highest daily active volume.

“Essentially, after Bitcoin peaked in December 2021, the Cosmos ecosystem saw a massive influx of interest and new capital toward the end of altcoin season, as the market started to see Cosmos as the winning cross-chain project over other interoperability solutions.”

How does the crypto industry strengthen in 2023?

Kadan Stadelmann, Komodo: “For the crypto industry to achieve credibility next year and grow out of the bear market, security must be held to a higher standard. Security must come above all else including comfort and usability. It’s essential to reshape the narrative of why crypto matters for the average consumer so that the mainstream isn’t intimidated by the technology.

“In order to prevent attacks and ultimately reach a fully trustless and interoperable future, users must understand that self custody is the only real solution. Educating people about self custody and how it differs for each type of bridge and DEX must be a focus for crypto communities in 2023.”

Chjango Unchained, Osmosis: “Decentralised Web and infrastructure is less sexy, but it’s what is needed. Let’s focus less on speculation, and spend more time on building the infrastructure that will make Web3 a reality.

“I expected the decentralised web narrative to gain traction, but instead we saw the Web3 narrative play out. Decentralised Web refers to the infrastructure that applications are built on, whereas Web3 refers to the end user applications.

“What I mean by infrastructure is projects like Akash, IPFS, Jackal Protocol and more, which provide decentralised storage, node access, and cloud solutions, among other things.

“The underlying infrastructure that encompasses the Decentralised Web is critical to the growth and long-term success of DeFi and Web3.”

Barney Mannerings, Vega Protocol: “We need to ditch the idea of rebuilding the infrastructure of centralised, traditional finance but without rules or oversight. Trusted institutions don’t work without the trust.

“Tradfi works because it has rules. It’s a bunch of wealthy, opaque, and interconnected institutions that only (mostly, bar the odd blow up every decade or two) survive and continue working because they are under constant supervision. Even then they’re at best self serving and often corrupt.

“Crypto needs to go all in on open systems, open code, self (or at least decentralised) custody, and decentralisation where it matters. We succeed when no-one even wants to build a centralised exchange because the decentralised alternatives are so good that the real world sits up, takes notice, and starts to do business on chain.”

Mark Lurie, Shipyard Software: “Despite the headlines, the Web3 space is doing just fine. Builders are pushing forward making progress.

“The space just needs to keep on doing what it’s doing. Institutions, on the other hand, are burned and their adoption will probably be delayed by another five years.”

Predictions for 2023

Danny Chong, co-founder of Tranchess decentralised finance app: “In the wake of two market downturns in 2022, we can expect to see a reduction in native crypto players over the next few years.

“Instead, there will be more focus on a smaller number of more established projects, and a growth in activity by traditional institution players. This will lead to greater integration of DeFi with TradFi, with the onboarding of more financial institutions into the space.”

Chjango Unchained, Osmosis: “Capital is much harder to come by now, so the era of egregious speculation on things like meme tokens and expensive pictures of rocks and apes is over with.”

Mark Lurie, Shipyard Software: “Regulation will emerge that is good for crypto and DeFi. Ultimately, DeFi will persist despite laws and regulations, just like music file sharing did. Meanwhile, lawmakers don’t like making unenforceable laws, so they will eventually come around to passing common sense regulation.”

Barney Mannerings, Vega Protocol: “I have one fear and one hope. My fear is not all regulation or even over-regulation, but the wrong kind of regulation. It’s clear that if when people put their money and trust in centralised organisations this should be regulated. Especially after FTX that’s fair game.

“However, the anti-privacy and anti-decentralisation trends we’re seeing around Tornado Cash, and the sabre rattling about restrictions on non custodial wallets, or applying regulation to the developers of protocols and DEXs is really worrying.

“The hope, which I am actually quite optimistic about, is that we’ll see more mainstream awareness of the issues driving the need for privacy and decentralisation, and that as a result we’ll see some pretty big adoption of a decentralised protocol or system.

“I’m not sure which one, and I’ll go out on a limb and suggest that it’s quite likely to be something that doesn’t have a token, but there are loads of really interesting projects like PeerTube, Matrix, and Mastodon that are really close to being able to challenge their centralised competitors.

“I think we’ll see the beginnings of a breakout success in the not too distant future.”  

Brian Fu, zkLend: “ZK-rollup Layer 2s are expected to take on a more prominent role in the crypto space as zkSync and StarkNet are rolling out their production versions in the later part of 2023.

“Protocols building on ZK-rollups will become more sophisticated and continue to develop more intuitive features and interfaces for DeFi, GameFi, NFTs and applications.

“Meanwhile, 2023 will be an introspective year for Ethereum. With the Merge now behind us, much of Ethereum’s roadmap defined (the Surge, Verge, Purge, etc…), and L2 solutions implemented, questions around scalability will take a back seat.

“Rather, issues around centralisation and censorship resistance will become more prevalent as regulatory authorities look to impose economic and trade sanctions on the blockchain. The way participants decide to engage with demands from governments will set the tone for other L1s and even L2s.”

Isidoros Passadis, Lido: “Next year we’ll see history made yet again in the Ethereum ecosystem. The advent of the Shanghai Fork signifies the unlocking of the Beacon Chain, allowing users to withdraw their staked ETH alongside additional rewards.

“In-house, Lido will be further democratising staking through various L2 partnerships to provide more avenues for access.

“And in 2023, we anticipate that liquid staking will gain more in-roads as the range of integrations increases. While 2022 has been a year to overcome challenges, 2023 will see a pick up in staking as a standard.”

Is the bottom in or more pain to come?

So… up, down or sideways for the market in 2023? Venture capitalist Tim Draper still thinks Bitcoin can hit US$250k in 2023. Is he dreaming? 

Mark Lurie, Shipyard Software: “There is more pain, but it will hit very quickly. At this point, the major centralised lenders are already going under, even Genesis lending.

“Once the bankruptcies are all exposed and priced into the market, the market will start to recover. But no, I don’t think Bitcoin will hit $250k in 2023.

“That would require the Fed to reduce interest rates and return to money printing, which I don’t think is going to happen in 2023 unless there is a major economic crisis. And if there is an economic crisis, it’s not going to be good for Bitcoin. At this point, Bitcoin responds to macro.”

Chjango Unchained, Osmosis: “I think we are following the normal market cycle. 2023 is going to be similar to 2015. Mt. Gox was hacked in 2015, which caused the markets to come crashing down, leading some to believe that crypto was dead. But then, Ethereum emerged around this time, and boom!

“The growth of Ethereum and ICOs led to the next bull market. So our industry in 2023 might be similar to the way it was in 2015. If we follow this pattern, then 2024 will kickstart the next bull market, and then 2025 will likely be when the crypto markets come raging back.

“This is just one possible outcome though. The other outcome is that the era of these boom and bust cycles are over for the foreseeable future because so much capital has been flushed out.

“In this case, it could be another decade before more capital flows really flows back into this space. If this scenario plays out, the people who remain focused during a lengthy downturn, are those most likely to identify the next Google and make generational wealth.”

Barney Mannerings, Vega Protocol: “I can’t see another crazy bull market for quite a while either, though. That’s probably a good thing, but I do think a handful of networks and protocols will emerge as sensible, scalable, and dare I say robust decentralised technology.

“And they will form the basis for the next period of growth and adoption for crypto and decentralised tech in general.”

Danny Chong, Tranchess: “The crypto industry will be limited by the macro conditions such as high interest rates and sluggish global markets growth.

“Institutions and investors, including reputable players, many of whom have made losses this year, will be more calculative with their funding decisions. Investment activity will be much slower than the past two years with investors taking a ‘wait and see’ attitude.

“Having said that, among the sectors in crypto, DeFi is likely to be the first area to recover as new capital will make its way into other sectors through DeFi.”

What crypto narratives or use cases do you still believe in? 

Mark Lurie, Shipyard Software: “Many: The importance of DeFi is more clear than ever, and gaming historically does well even during downturns.”

Barney Mannerings, Vega Protocol: “I believe in decentralised money and finance. I think we can eventually even get there with payments and finally dislodge Visa and MasterCard.

“I believe in using crypto and decentralised protocols for funding people and projects (not just in crypto), especially once the legalities are more settled on how to do that more easily and casually.

“I believe in a decentralised, open, private, and personal-but-interconnected virtual space that probably used to be called the metaverse, but that term may be a lost cause.

“And in the long term, I also believe in tokens and economic mechanisms as a force for good in society. I think people are a bit fed up with them, and a lot are really badly designed and operated, but they are a good solution to some types of problems.

“Tokens and projects probably need to be a lot less capitalistic and crypto needs to lose the ideological opposition to inflation, which, deployed correctly, can be a decentralising force in a system which otherwise tends towards concentration of power and wealth, as too many in crypto do.”

Danny Chong, Tranchess: “Zero knowledge technology. In 2023, we will see greater implementation of this in existing protocols and new players pushing the envelope with zk-SNARKs.

“As ZK tech enables efficient and trustless data sharing, it will help address lack of transparency and centralisation that has led to project collapses, hacks and exploits. It will also encourage greater collaboration across the multi-chain ecosystem.”

What irritates you most about the crypto industry?

Chjango Unchained, Osmosis: “Blockchain is not a panacea. Just because an NFT is issued on a blockchain doesn’t make it inherently scarce or valuable.

“There’s a happy medium or middle ground to walk on in order to properly establish your mental model of this space right now. Not all of crypto is a scam, but also, pictures of apes are not the future.”

Mark Lurie, Shipyard Software: “In the wild west, there were heroes and villains. Crypto is like the wild west, with both good and bad.

“But if it weren’t genuinely exciting, it wouldn’t attract scammers. Perhaps it is an unavoidable aspect of every gold rush. Is that frustrating? Is it avoidable? Perhaps not.”

Barney Mannerings, Vega Protocol: “The obsession with prices and wealth irritates me. Markets are interesting because of the information they convey and the things they enable, but I don’t think worshiping profits and chasing riches makes for healthy or interesting discourse.

“But there are an amazing number of thoughtful, generous and brilliant people in our industry (and in the world in general), and when they share their insights and help us build better it’s an incredible gift.

“Similarly, the world is full of wonders, both natural and artistic, and regardless of the hype and frothiness around NFTs, the influx of art and creativity that boom brought was wonderful.”

Link: https://stockhead.com.au/cryptocurrency/the-case-for-decentralised-finance-strengthened-in-2022-seven-defi-experts-share-insights-and-predictions/?utm_source=pocket_reader

Source: https://stockhead.com.au

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Blockchain’s role in helping the environment can go far beyond energy footprints and carbon credits.

By Stefan Renton

Link: https://www.coindesk.com/consensus-magazine/2022/12/13/sustainable-blockchains/?utm_source=pocket_reader

Source: https://www.coindesk.com

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If we learn to read the markets, make smart use of the data at our disposal and overcome a few speed bumps along the way, options will certainly drive the next era of DeFi to higher highs than ever before.

By Greg Magadini

Link: https://www.coindesk.com/consensus-magazine/2022/12/23/defi-derivatives-trading-has-untapped-potential/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=feedly&utm_campaign=headlines

Source: https://www.coindesk.com

The post DeFi derivatives trading has untapped potential appeared first on Fintech News.

By Kevin Helms

India has emerged as a leading global player in the Web3 market, a new report by Nasscom states. Web3 investments in the country grew 37 times from the start of 2020 to Q1 2022 and $1.1 trillion in Web3 economic value is projected to be added to India’s GDP by 2032.

India Emerges a Leading Global Player in Web3 Market

Nasscom published a report titled “The India Web3 Startup Landscape: An Emerging Technology Leadership Frontier” Wednesday. Established in 1988, Nasscom is a non-profit industry association for the technology sector in India. The organization has more than 3,000 members, representing 90% of the industry’s revenue, its website details.

The report states:

India has emerged as a leading global player in the Web3 market, with a competitive talent pool, high rates of adoption and products built for the world.

The total number of Web3 startups in India as of the first half of this year was more than 450; they have raised more than $1.3 billion since 2020. The average deal size in 2021 was about $10 million and there were more than 70 active institutional investors in the Indian Web3 space in 2021.

“Web3 focus grew rapidly in India in 2015-17 with the launch of Ethereum, in line with global growth, but grew phenomenally in 2020-21 after the national cryptocurrency ban was lifted,” the report further details, elaborating:

Web3 investments grew 37x since the start of 2020 through Q1 2022.

In addition, the report estimates that $1.1 trillion in Web3 economic value will be added to India’s GDP by 2032.

Cryptocurrency was never banned in India. However, the central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), imposed a banking ban on the crypto industry which the supreme court lifted in March 2020. In May last year, the RBI confirmed that its crypto banking ban was no longer valid. Nonetheless, the central bank continues to have “major concerns” about cryptocurrency.

“However, Indian Web3 startups see major roadblocks in scaling up due to lack of regulatory clarity and policy direction, risking India’s competitive advantage,” the report describes, concluding:

Web3 will prove game-changing for economies that can bring together the right ecosystem partners to take the right steps early on to facilitate this industry.

Debjani, president of Nasscom, was quoted by local media as saying:

India’s rapid adoption of new-age technologies, its growing start-up ecosystem, and large-scale digitally skilled talent potential is cementing the country’s position in the global Web3 landscape.

“While we are only scratching the surface when it comes to emerging tech such as Web3, the Techade will be all about the technology making significant advances leading to innovative use-cases and magnified positive impact at a grassroots level,” she opined.

Link: https://news.bitcoin.com/web3-ecosystem-to-add-1-1-trillion-to-indias-gdp-by-2032-report/

Source: https://news.bitcoin.com

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Valentin Pletnev was frustrated with economies that recklessly print money and intensify the struggle of their citizens. In crypto he found an ungoverned terrain to enact change. So he co-founded Quasar Finance, a decentralized finance (DeFi) project in the Cosmos ecosystem with plans for chain-agnostic investment opportunities.

Link: https://www.coindesk.com/layer2/2022/10/10/defi-for-the-masses/?utm_source=pocket_mylist

Source: https://www.coindesk.com

The post DeFi for the masses appeared first on Fintech News.

– Decentralised finance, or DeFi for short, is a system in which customers can access financial products directly on a decentralised blockchain network, without the need for middlemen such as banks and brokerages.

– DeFi has grown immensely within the last year to become a sector valued in excess of US$250 billion. The industry grew more than 88 times in size between May 2020 and May 2021 – and it shows no signs of slowing down.

– The growth of DeFi can be explained by the appeal it has to consumers. To access financial products on public decentralized blockchain networks, consumers do not need a government-issued ID, a social security number, proof of address, or similar documentation. This opens up access to financial products to the billions of people who cannot access financial services because their data is not held on “traditional” sources.

– Another significant benefit of DeFi is that it removes most of the parties that have traditionally served as middlemen in financial transactions, such as payments infrastructure companies like PayPal or Visa. By removing these intermediaries, DeFi also removes many of the fees involved in each step of a financial transaction.

– ‘Smart contracts’ are programmes that run on blockchains and can be triggered automatically when certain conditions are met. These smart contracts help developers build far more sophisticated functionality than merely sending and receiving cryptocurrency.

For example, a smart contract could be used to establish a loan agreement between two people. If certain terms are not met, the collateral could be liquidated. All of this would happen automatically through computer code, doing away with the need for a bank or any other middleman.

Smart contacts such as these are used to build decentralised apps, or dapps for short. Dapps are like normal apps and offer similar functions. The key difference is that they are run on a peer-to-peer network, such as a blockchain, which means no single entity has control of the network.

– In this brave new world, we can move, store, manage, organize, govern, create, fragment and direct anything and everything of value to whatever end we desire, peer to peer. Financial services are no longer centralized within an industry; they are decentralized across blockchain networks such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Terra Luna, Avalanche and Cosmos. Decentralized finance (DeFi) is shaking the windows and rattling the walls of Wall Street banks, government agencies and global institutions. Call it the DeFi Revolution.

– Every industry will feel DeFi’s impact, because finance is the cardiovascular system of the global economy, the lifeline of all other industries.

-To be clear, DeFi and DeFi staking is not fintech. Fintech applications, while important, still require banks and other intermediaries to establish trust between parties, verify account balances and perform the business logic — clearing, settling, contracting and so forth — that makes the system work. And in the end, most fintech innovation is digital wallpaper — a sleek user interface that conceals the old system beneath. Instead of slapping on a fresh coat of paint, DeFi reimagines finance from a networked point of view with digitally native assets, or tokens.

– By virtue of being decentralized, it is currently difficult to hold individuals or entities accountable for security failures, hacking incidents, and the theft of digital assets within the DeFi market.

The post The DeFi revolution appeared first on Fintech News.

Blockchain, the underlying infrastructure behind cryptocurrencies, is likely among the most transformative technological innovations of our age, with promising use cases for many industries. In a nutshell, blockchain is an open and censorship-resistant database model, secured by encryption and decentralization. Blockchain records information in blocks on a shared ledger, storing a synchronized copy of it on all the systems participating in the network, hence assuring its immutability. As companies start recognizing the benefits of this technology, we’ve seen exciting new blockchain developments this past year. Below we’ll take a look at five of the biggest blockchain trends of 2021 and what they might mean for the next year.

Blockchain in supply chain

Blockchain can be a game-changing technology for multiple sectors, especially for the supply chain industry.

The distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine has created more stringent logistic requirements, due to the vaccine’s limited supply and need to be kept refrigerated. As a result, two UK-based hospitals have started experimenting with blockchain technology — which they were previously using to track chemotherapy drugs — to monitor and track the supply chain of vaccines. Vaccine shipments are equipped with internal temperature sensors, and a rise above the minimum threshold temperature will automatically create an entry in the blockchain, removing the affected dose from the supply chain.

FedEx has integrated the blockchain into its chain of custody to improve traceability and provide a trustworthy record, helping to address customer disputes.

DeBeers is using the blockchain’s tracking technology to monitor the source and progress of every single natural diamond they mine.

Smart contracts are fostering blockchain adoption

2021 has seen an increase in blockchain adoption, partly thanks to the development of smart contracts. Smart contracts are essentially agreements between two or more parties, recorded as computer code on the blockchain — making them immutable and tamper-proof for all parties. Smart contracts are automatically executed by the blockchain when the set predetermined conditions are met, making trustless agreements possible without any intermediaries.

Smart contract algorithms make blockchain-based services accessible for companies that don’t have the means to invest in years of research and development for their blockchain network. DeFi platforms like Ethereum, Solana and Avalanche enable companies to create smart contracts directly on their blockchain and benefit from their immutability. Statistics by Valuates Reports predict the global smart contracts market will grow from US$106.7 million in 2019 to US$345.4 million by 2026 — with increasing adoption in banking, supply chain, insurance, and real estate being some of the major driving factors of the industry.

You can use smart contracts for all sorts of situations that range from financial derivatives to insurance premiums, breach contracts, property law, credit enforcement, financial services, legal processes, and crowdfunding agreements.

The concept of a virtual metaverse has caught the attention of some of the biggest companies worldwide, considering Facebook’s US$10 billion initiative to rename the company Meta and start developing a metaverse strategy.

Pros of the metaverse:

1. Increased engagement — virtual reality is supposed to increase the time users spend online and consequently spur content consumption

2. The new content market — the metaverse offers huge opportunities for creating and selling virtual content, far greater than those of Instagram or Tik Tok

3. A new branch of the economy — according to Zuckerberg, Metaverse must have its own comprehensive economic system

4. A new level of communication — metaverse will allow people thousands of kilometers away from each other to communicate as if they were sitting in the same room

Hoping to get a head start, Nike also announced the launch of Nikeland, the company’s own metaverse built on Roblox. Nikeland will offer users a virtual experience where they can create avatars, play sports games and acquire virtual Nike merchandise.

Competing with Facebook’s centralized metaverse concept, the idea of a decentralized metaverse emerged, as the Winklevoss twins raised US$400 million to build an alternative metaverse experience to Meta. Whether a centralized or decentralized metaverse will become the most popular alternative is yet to be seen, but both iterations need to address the accuracy and reliability of data, and this is where blockchain comes into play. Applied to the metaverse, blockchain can store user data on a tamper-proof, shared ledger, assuring users of its immutability. As blockchain ledgers are openly verifiable, this will create more trust in these emerging virtual environments.

NFTs are introducing more use cases for blockchain

NFTs, short for non-fungible tokens, have been among the hottest trends in blockchain technology this year. NFTs are minted on the blockchain as unique tokens that can’t be duplicated, hence introducing the principle of scarcity to digital assets for the first time. NFTs enable a myriad of new use cases for blockchain, extending beyond art and digital collectibles.

The music industry was among the first to embrace NFTs, as artists started tokenizing their songs and selling them directly to their fans. Another advantage for the music industry is that NFTs can enable automatic royalty payments to record labels, musicians, managers, and all the parties involved.

Vogue has also launched two digital covers as NFTs in its September edition, marking the fashion magazine’s entry into the metaverse. Beyond magazine covers, philanthropy is also proving to be a compatible use case for NFTs. The founder of Visualize Value, Jack Butcher, has created an NFT fund to help Afghan families affected by the recent conflict. Each NFT was priced at 0.028 ETH, or US$89.50, covering the emergency needs of a family for an entire month. 

Last but not least, NFTs are ushering in a new era for play-to-earn gaming, as games like Axie Infinity and MIR4 are tokenizing in-game assets and characters. The tokenization of in-game assets represents the first time in gaming history that gamers are the true owners of their items, which they can sell on NFT marketplaces for cryptocurrency, extracting real-world value from these games. As the metaverse concept is being developed, NFTs will likely become a significant part of these virtual worlds, and gain new use cases in the process.

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