Blockchain technology and the systems that surround it have seen incredible progress over the last few years. From something that few people were familiar with to a common point within world-wide news networks, the blockchain has taken incredible strides. But, as with every major technology, the applications of blockchain have shifted and morphed over time. As we continue to move further into 2022, several core trends are emerging, each one using blockchain technology in an exciting and innovative way. In this article, we’ll be taking a look at the top trends that are currently emerging within the blockchain space, touching on the companies that are at the forefront of these developments. We’ll be discussing: Social Trading - NAGAX Community Scholarships - UniX Play2Earn - Jelurida Content Creation - Creaton Improving Security - Partisia Comprehensive Regulation - Alkemi Entertainment - Banger Games Community Voting and further NFT functionality - iZUMI Let’s get right into it. Social Trading - NAGAX While other trading communities that focus on stock or commodity trading are solitary pursuits, cryptocurrency and NFTs have a thriving community that rallies around them. This is especially the case thanks to the development of social trading within the blockchain space. , a web 3.0 social investing platform set to release in March 2022, will allow users to gain access to a community of like-minded traders. NAGAX Users of this platform are able to see exactly what other people are trading in the world of crypto, either clicking on their profile and copying them or watching them from afar. With active discussions on the NAGAX social feed, users are interested in learning more about how to trade cryptocurrencies and what key trades are currently going on. Within this more social community, NAGAX has further added to the blockchain trend of copy trading and social trading. Instead of having to muddle through the complicated world of crypto by yourself, you’ll be able to join this platform and find a whole community of people looking to actively help you. When you copy someone else’s trades, you pay a small fee, which is then given to the creator. This creates a symbiotic system within which both the expert and the beginner traders get something from social trading. With strong ideas driving this platform, this innovative form of social trading is an exciting prospect for 2022 that the blockchain community is closely watching. Community Scholarships - UniX , one of the first play2earn gaming guilds, has the ambitious goal of providing a method for individuals from around the world to leverage the platform in order to build a living for themselves. UniX Based on P2E, with users being able to rent from UniX, they allow gamers from around the world to make the most of these earning structures. Especially focusing on underrepresented communities, UniX provides scholarships to their gamers. These scholarships lease valuable NFTs to gamers around the world, allowing them to perform well in their matches and produce an income for themselves. This concept has taken the world by storm, allowing people around the world to actually make a living off play2earn gaming. Their community has grown, now representing the world’s largest gaming community on the blockchain, with over 190,000 users, 5,000 students (that have received a scholarship), and over 10 million views. Their recent partnership with The Sandbox, which is one of the larger Metaverse gaming projects, represents a further avenue through which UniX users can develop their own income streams. Although play2earn is a competitive arena that is notoriously hard to get into, UniX provides an accessible stream for individuals around the world, affording people from developing countries the opportunity to create full-time incomes with impressive figures. This people-first approach is an impressive and innovative application of the blockchain that we’re excited to follow in 2022. Play2Earn - Jelurida Gamification is a strong aspect of any platform, enticing players and ensuring that everyone has a good time. Yet, blockchain has taken this even further over the last few months, with 2022 shaping up to be the year where play2earn gaming really makes it big. One of the leading play2earn gaming platforms that uses blockchain is , which runs on Ardor. Jelurida This system has launched a range of play2earn games where users can earn and trade NFTs as a reward for playing. The largest of these games is , which centers around card collection and battling. Mythical Beings Different cards, which can be unlocked by playing, trading in repeated cards, and beating other players, have a range of different functions in the game. Each of these cards acts as a unique NFT, giving them inherent value and further increasing players’ desire to collect them. Within the game, users are able to have fun while also earning these NFTs. By trading, selling, or exchanging their cards, users are then able to actively generate an income through this play2earn blockchain scheme. While play2earn gaming has already started gaining steam, 2022 will be the year where this system is taken to the next level. Content Creation - Creaton Content creation and digital influencers are a niche that has been growing in popularity consistently over the last ten years. Of course, with the innovation that blockchain continually brings, this, too, has seen a promising new trend emerging. , a platform that allows content creators to make subscription-based content portals, uses the concept of NFTs in order to monetize their content. Creaton A content creator can make a post, video, or artwork and place it on this platform. Instantly, the post will be minted as an NFT. Their fans can then pay to access these posts, with the blockchain allowing for real-time calculation of time spent on a page, rather than monthly fees. That means that users can access the content for the amount of time that they want, paying only for the time they spend on the page. This innovative format for content creation and sharing will give even more power to creators, letting them craft monetizable content hubs that their fans can access. Creaton recently raised , further demonstrating the excitement that follows this project. $1.1 million dollars with their idea As 2022 continues onwards, we’re likely going to be seeing a new form of content creation, one that is driven by NFTs, the blockchain, and user-forward services. Improving Security - Partisia Blockchain As the online world becomes more complicated, the need for digital security has never been more apparent. Although many security platforms use the blockchain to grant a higher level of decentralized security, they do so by compromising the safety of data in this public access system. That’s where comes in, effectively solving this problem with an innovative use of combined security features. Partisia Blockchain Founded by world-leading cryptographers, entrepreneurs, and developers with extensive experience in commercial-grade security software, Partisia Blockchain has taken the security world by storm. This technology creates a unique security experience, combining blockchain technology with multi-party computation ( ). MPC This combination allows businesses to benefit from decentralized technologies while also ensuring that their data is confidential, secure, and blocked from public access. As this is an incredibly stable and efficient security process, Partisia Blockchain could very easily represent the next step in safety protocol, crafting an innovative security solution that makes the most of what the blockchain has to offer. As the world seeks more comprehensive security solutions for Web 3.0, Partisia Blockchain presents itself as a unique answer. Regulation Compliance - Alkemi Network Over the past few years, billions of dollars have been put into the DeFi industry, with the total market cap now resting around . $117 billion USD While many institutions have already turned to this innovative system, organizations that rely on legacy infrastructure have yet to take the plunge. Especially relating to banking institutions, one of the main preventative factors that stops mass-adoption of DeFi is regulation issues. That’s where comes in, acting as an institution-grade liquidity network. Alkemi In short, the tools that Alkemi offers creates a seamless pathway that will allow financial institutions to get involved with complaint DeFi. Additionally, with specialized User Interface and , the institutions can now access DeFi liquidity without worrying about the regulatory ramifications, further facilitating the movement. advanced reporting tools One of the ways that Alkemi brings centralized systems on-chain is through their partnership with , with its global verification features helping to streamline the onboarding process for individuals and financial institutions alike. KYC-Chain By running KYC/AML permissioned liquidity pools, alongside customer due diligence, Alkemi fulfills the compliance regulations that financial institutions have been waiting for. With regulation compliance, centralized financial institutions can now move to DeFi without risk. With this alternation, Alkemi has paved the way for 2022 to be the year that CeFi moves to DeFi solutions. Entertainment - Banger Games Although many play2earn games have come out in the blockchain space over the last 18 months, many face a similar issue - they’re boring to play. Considering these are games, their central purpose should still be entertainment, something many are completely missing the mark on. attempts to shift the blockchain gaming industry back onto the right path, adding blockchain elements onto games that are already blockbuster titles. Banger Games Instead of creating games from scratch and hoping that people enjoy them, Banger Games adds a layer of blockchain functionality on top of already famous games. One example of this is Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, which is the most played game on STEAM. Integrating NFTs and other play2earn aspects into these games will cause a further uptake of them while also simultaneously bringing millions of gamers on-chain. Typical examples of earning opportunities include completing in-game objectives, winning SMART tournaments, and eventually earning through lending out your idle computing power to enable others to play with. Converting winnings into Banger Coins as well as XP, users are granted multiple reasons to keep grinding their favourite games. Bringing entertainment back to the play2earn industry, this gaming opportunity is one that everyone should be closely following within 2022. DAO Governance with veNFT’s - iZUMi Finance In February of 2022, Finance released an announcement that spoke about its decentralized autonomous organization (DOA). iZUMi This DOA aims to incite a new method of governance, with a quadratic voting system that is based on veNFTs. In short, these veNFT governance tokens will allow community voting to be taken to the next level. While still using the industry-standard ERC271 token, these veNFT tokens will allow users to vote, return staking rewards, and boost proposals. Representing a major step forward for NFT utilization, this DOA governance voting system allows a whole new method for conducting any form of voting. Not only will this additional application reduce the number of iZi in secondary markets, boosting the token’s value, but it will also allow any holders of these NFTs to gain staking rewards each month. As these tokens can be traded on mainstream NFT platforms like OpenSea, there is also no danger of losing liquidity on iZi locked into veNFTs. As community has always been a core aspect of the blockchain, the new community voting system that veNFTs enable will further drive this feature of blockchain. In 2022, we’re likely to see community participation become even more important in blockchain. Final Thoughts Blockchain is a technological ecosystem that’s seeing new developments rise up every single day. The eight companies on this list represent trailblazers in their industry, pushing the bounds of what people thought was possible with decentralized systems. Whether you’re looking to follow exciting gaming projects, social activism, financial movements, or social trading opportunities, these blockchain platforms provide unique solutions to a plethora of distinct problems. As we continue to move further into 2022, we’re excited at the new opportunities that we’ll see a rise within the blockchain ecosystem.
