By Rishabh Bhansali
The year 2021 will be remembered as the year cryptocurrencies became mainstream. Investors and regular traders entered the crypto exchange world as public awareness grew and profit margins grew. According to reports, there are over 300 million crypto users worldwide. At the end of the year, the worldwide market value of crypto was $2.21 trillion, with Bitcoin still commanding 40% of the market. Solutions based on crypto and its underlying blockchain technology, such as Metaverse, NFTs, and DAOs, have blown up big time, attracting billion-dollar investments from all over the world. Risk-takers who are willing to venture down new paths may be surprised by the enormous potential of the following emerging technologies.
Metaverse: Portal to the Crypto Future
It’s critical to understand the current-world metaverse impact before addressing potential future advances. Governments and large tech companies are both strongly invested in the metaverse. Blockchain technology and AR/VR accessories are used in the technology that combines the physical and virtual worlds. Despite the fact that it is a developmental technology, the excitement surrounding it is real. Meta (previously Facebook) is one of the largest investors, with a $10 billion investment. Microsoft, Nvidia, Epic, Roblox, and others are among the major players.
Meanwhile, at the recent LEAP technology event in Riyadh, multibillion-dollar investments in the field were announced, including the building of a full-fledged metaverse metropolis. The metaverse economy is powered by cryptocurrencies, while blockchain is at the heart of the technology. Future predictions show an even better future, with marketing spending estimated to exceed $800 billion by 2024.
Blockchain and NFTs in eSports
From fan tokens and digital collectibles to fan loyalty and engagement platforms, blockchain applications for the sports industry are enabling new innovations and revenue streams in a variety of ways. Outside traditional physical games, this enables clubs to extend their brand online and meet the needs of a younger ‘digital-native’ fan base, thereby growing their fan base and securing their long-term future.
Because of its adaptability and ability to be applied to almost any use case, blockchain technology is increasingly assisting the physical and digital sports sectors in meeting their challenges head on by monetizing their fan bases, increasing engagement, and building loyalty, trust, and efficiency.
To ensure their long-term survival, sports teams are turning to blockchain solution providers to help them implement custom blockchain solutions. As evidenced by the football industry, the NBA, and Esports, these innovations are assisting in the creation of profitable new revenue streams, increasing fan engagement, improving ROI for sponsors, and allowing teams to remain competitive.
NFTs, DAO, DeFi, and more
The ease with which commercial organizations can construct a virtual workspace with greater interconnection, realizing the underlying principle of blockchain decentralization, is a significant benefit of the metaverse. DAOs, crypto tokens, NFTs, and other assets will grow as a result of upcoming metaverse advancements, encouraging the creation of a decentralized digital economy.
While digitally signed collectibles may appear to be a passing craze, NFT trading has risen dramatically, with about $41 billion in digital assets spent in 2021. NFTs are a lucrative revenue stream for artists, singers, celebrities, and content creators, with sales increasing by 704% in a quarter in 2021. The trading markets are performing well and are likely to continue doing so.
DAOs, or Decentralized Autonomous Organizations, aim to distribute rights among all members of a blockchain network. DAOs have been successful in venture capital, developing NFT marketplaces, social media platforms, and charity funding due to their smart contract governance and entitlement tokens. The United States Constitution DAO raised more than $40 million in order to purchase an original copy of the United States Constitution. With 497,000 active DAO voters and 1.7 million governance token holders, the worldwide market DAO capitalization in 2022 is expected to be around $21 billion.
Decentralized Finance is another important component in the creation of a completely decentralized economy. The intriguing alternative offers various solutions to the old banking system’s problems. It is capable of protecting the user’s asset valuations and is frequently backed by stablecoins and digital smart contracts. Users should, however, be skeptical of the service provider’s legitimacy. Fraud and frauds involving DeFi are prevalent, with a global total of $10.5 billion reported the previous year.
NFTs as Collectibles
Unlike regular digital collectibles, digital collectibles (also known as crypto collectibles) powered by Non-Fungible tokens (NFTs) are usually individually unique (or probably rare) and limited in quantity. This means that NFTs can be used to create “limited edition” collectibles, and their uniqueness can be verified by immutable blockchain technology. This makes them an ideal tool for clubs and teams to use when creating digital trading cards, in-game assets (for Esports and the gaming industry), and game memorabilia for fans to buy and trade.
Practical Blockchain Applications: Futuristic Tech
Play-to-earn (P2E) gaming is one NFT application that has gained ground in recent years. P2E games, as the name implies, are games in which participants can acquire NFTs and other crypto assets as a compensation for participating. These in-game assets can be retained, exchanged, and traded for money on the blockchain. With e-sports events becoming increasingly popular, prize-gaming is really nothing fresh, but the P2E model has numerous distinguishing aspects that set it apart from the ‘winner takes all’ strategy of eSports.
P2E games, as opposed to traditional prize gaming, incorporate the earning and creation of digital assets into the gameplay. The NFTs amassed will frequently be valuable as in-game assets that provide a competitive advantage, as well as collectible assets in real-world terms.
With its distributed storage features and ability to filter data/transactions through uniform consensus, blockchain is seen as one of the major disruptors in the current tech scenario. Other sophisticated technologies, such as AI, Big Data, Cloud, and IoT, can be easily integrated with the technology. Banking and finance, fintech, healthcare, space technology, logistics, and supply chain management are just a few of the industries where blockchain solutions are in great demand. However, the possibilities certainly do not end there.
When we look at blockchain technology more closely, we can see that its intrinsic qualities can be applied to a wide range of applications. Easy access, transparency, immutability, and traceability are all priorities for the distributed ledger technology. As a result, the blockchain architecture may be simply leveraged to create solutions that benefit end-users and the overall process, both financially and in terms of performance efficiency.
We presently live in the digital age, wherein anyone’s work may be copied and distributed to millions of people with a single click, even without the owner’s consent or knowledge. Since the internet provides the instruments for unauthorized limitless replication of people’s intellectual property, current DRM (Digital Rights Management) techniques have been largely ineffectual. Using blockchain to eliminate the gatekeeper curtain would allow creators to communicate directly with their followers, measure engagements and sales in real time, manage their copyright licenses, and undertake individual auctions.
Blockchain development companies have been delivering blockchain breakthroughs through better-performing white label trading exchange solutions. The architecture is adaptable to forex, cryptocurrency, and stock trading. Real estate (both physical and virtual), reputation exchange, and even gaming are all feasible solutions.
Future Prospects
The internet, like the rest of the world, is evolving. Unless you’ve been living under a rock on a deserted island, you’ve probably heard that the internet is transitioning to Web 3.0 – the third version of the World Wide Web. Simply put, the third version of the web promises users that they will become “(part)owners” of the internet, owning their data, information, creations, and transactions rather than being reliant on a group of large technology firms known as “The Big Tech.”
Furthermore, users can fund themselves by accepting payments (and prepayments) from their customers and patrons, reducing their reliance on investors and financial institutions. The third version of the web promises to focus on the creators by controlling and converting their online addresses into a wallet and high-security safe box. There is no way for the world to avoid Web 3.0.
The author is co-founder, FanClash
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