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 the blockchain is a technological and financial revolution. Cryptographic coins and tokens running on the blockchain have unarguably gained more popularity than the technology that powers it. Abnormal, but there's 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’ rather than ‘an immutable store of data with distributed authority’; lol. However, a lesser percentage have channeled a tangible effort towards understanding blockchain technology and how it works.
Regardless, an investor who does research 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;
Store of value: Get in here Bitcoiners! Actually, most cryptocurrency enthusiasts. Every cryptocurrency is a store of value, literally. Cryptocurrencies are flexible, stored in wallets, and can be sent to anyone holding a similar infrastructure. These features have made it a subject of the financial institution since its inception. Bitcoin has 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 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.
Investors’ faith 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 has emerged as the biggest use case for Bitcoin as well as a couple of other similar cryptocurrencies.
Initial Public Offering (IPO): Many cryptocurrency projects with a main net owe their survival to the Ethereum blockchain. Being the first blockchain project to introduce smart contracts and enable projects to generate tokens on the Ethereum blockchain, it has aided the birth of hundreds of new cryptocurrency projects. Fundraising for new cryptocurrency projects has become way easier. New projects can easily generate tokens that represent the value of their project and allow investors to buy a portion of this as a stake in the new project. This replaces the concept of shares. Several other blockchain projects have also adopted this technology and developed it to work even better. This feature can be used even outside the core blockchain scenario. Mainstream 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 alternative to real-life financial activities. Decentralized financial systems comprise applications built on top of blockchains which facilitate permissionless financial services and provide 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 Artificial intelligence—a multi-billion dollar concept.
Ocean project is building a tokenized service layer that exposes data, storage, computing, 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 marketplace 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 from this. Outside the crypto space, cryptocurrencies are accepted as a 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.
Cryptocurrency and blockchain use cases are growing with every new and unique project. It is almost impossible to make a complete list. It’s a vast space, investors are invested in diverse projects. You can personally name even more cryptocurrency use cases, which one of these impresses you the most?
