As expected, blockchain technology isn't going anywhere if the growth statistics are anything to focus on. It's dynamic, evolving, and advancing with time and industry demands. Initially and for several years after its creation, this technology was only known for its use in cryptocurrencies. But that notion has since changed. Blockchain is known for much more. Its uses in securing all sorts of transactions, making businesses more efficient and transparent, and many other uses can't go unnoticed.
While it keeps revolutionalizing processes and operations across sectors, niches, governments, and industries, it's crucial that all players keep up with its trends and predictions. So what does the future of blockchain look like? This article looks at some of the main predictions experts have made.
Blockchain trends to dominate 2023
Last year as has been the trend in the past decade, more businesses adopted blockchain or were actively planning to use the technology. Some transformed it into a marketing tool in their sales decks to show adaptability and innovation. Whether that has changed or not, only time will tell. Either way, here's a look at what you should expect to see as the year progresses.
Higher blockchain adoption by businesses
Enterprise blockchain continues to make waves in the business landscape as a way to improve operational efficiency, security, and transparency in business transactions. More business owners and managers are recognizing the technology's potential to improve numerous areas of operation. This includes better security.
First, the technology has no single point of failure because it's on a decentralized network. This makes it harder for cybercriminals to hack or attack businesses using blockchain. Second is that at its core, blockchain is immutable and requires consensus to alter or add transaction entries. This feature makes it attractive to businesses as a way of ensuring transparency and security in business dealings and transactions.
Transparency also means that all parties can view transactions on the network. As such, when a business deals with partners, suppliers, internal teams, or other stakeholders, there's no fear of fraud and other issues that arise with mistrust. Blockchain development service providers are helping businesses create custom ecosystems that suit specific business needs and use cases.
Decentralized everything
Decentralized applications (dApps) have been around for a while. These applications have been preferred by many because of their stability. This means that, just like distributed ledgers, they operate on multiple nodes. This is where they derive their stability in that even when some nodes are off, the applications are still operational. This gives them an edge over their traditional counterparts and, therefore, their continued growth.
Similarly, decentralized finance (De-Fi) will continue with the same trend in revolutionalizing financial operations and services. De-Fi helps bridge the gaps that traditional financial services leave, such as quicker transaction times and eliminating intermediaries that increase transaction costs.
The newest decentralization comes in the form of Web3 or in simple terms decentralized internet. This technology evolution promises to create an open, autonomous and highly intelligent internet. The global financial crisis in 2008 brought to light some serious issues with decentralized control systems.
Fortunately, there's blockchain technology to solve that issue and help in creating a decentralized internet through Web3. There are currently some blockchain networks that can support Web3. However, the entry of blockchain 4.0 is predicted to grow the adoption of Web3 further. Through smart contracts, decentralized internet will feature higher security, better integrations, interoperability, and automation. In addition, the storage of Peer to Peer (P2P) data files is resistant to censorship.
More practical tokens and tokenization
Blockchain is also used to create tokens or digital assets for various uses in business. These are unique and secure assets representative of the value of something else. In the past, tokenization has helped dramatically in fractionalizing assets to make them accessible to more people and to reduce the acquisition value. The known benefits of asset tokenization include the following:
- More transparency: Transactions are all recorded on a public ledger, and anyone in the network can verify them, eliminating trust issues.
- Higher security: There's no chance for theft and fraud as assets are transferred irreversibly. This leaves no room for fraudsters to benefit from fraudulent operations.
- Cost efficiency: Tokenization offers investors a cheaper way to increase or grow their investment portfolios. It also provides an easier route to access markets than traditional methods that often require significant resource investments.
Tokenization and fractional ownership can be used in many areas, such as real estate and other big asset purchases or company shares. This allows for easier acquisition and disposal of assets. But there are also different emerging, and practical ways tokenization is being used. This is in the form of crypto airdrops. But how do crypto airdrops work? These are freebies best used as a marketing tool to increase user engagement.
You can also create social tokens by tying rewards to them. In short, a social token is a cryptocurrency that allows brands or creators to monetize services or experiences. They also help to build user engagement and act as an additional source of income for the business.
Metaverse
Metaverse has been in the buzz for a while, and you have not heard the end of it yet. With an estimated market size of $100 billion in 2022, this technology aims to be the next big thing in creating experiences in anything. You can host a Christmas party for a global company with staff in different geographical locations or showcase a product to clients anywhere.
Metaverse can help you connect the real and the virtual world to help you achieve connection, communication, and engagement goals. It helps to create a more natural-like experience for virtual experiences. This technology integrates other innovative technologies, including Augmented reality, virtual reality, the Internet of Things, blockchain, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing.
Take away
While these are not the only blockchain trends to expect in 2023, they form the basis for the main categories that will make some waves. There's much more information for people to learn and understand blockchain and many ways to incorporate it into running your business. A reputable blockchain developer can help you know more about these predictions and how you can use blockchain to grow your business.