Solana (SOL)
Solana is another ‘Ethereum killer’, as some like to claim within the crypto community. More than killing anything, Solana dilutes ETH’s dominant market share. Much like Cardano, Solana solves issues of scalability and transaction fees that have been a cause of pain for Ethereum users. 2021 was a big success story for the Solana ecosystem.
Binance Coin (BNB)
Binance Coin is the native token of one of the biggest crypto exchanges—Binance. Binance also launched its blockchain to compete with Ethereum’s financial and computing ecosystem. Binance is one huge success story with just one undeveloped aspect—decentralization. But other than that, the company went through tremendous pains to give an exquisite and reliable user experience. Transaction costs are next to none compared to Ethereum and most other competitors.
Polygon (MATIC)
Matic is a ‘layer-2 solution’ formed to support mass adoption of the Ethereum platform. It aims to solve Ethereum’s onchain scalability restrictions. There were and are others, but Matic did a great job back in 2019–2020 of bundling powerful partnerships, setting up collaborations, and garnering a faithful and committed community. Eventually, this led to a meteoric rise in adoption and market capitalization in the first quarter of 2021.
Zcash (ZEC)
With an uncertain future for fiat currencies and monetary policy worldwide becoming more obscure and unpredictable, privacy coins are in high demand. It was one of the most powerful promises of Bitcoin back in 2009—financial privacy in a digital age. Since then, much has changed. Bitcoin proved not to be as private and untraceable as some had expected. After 2014, coins like Monero, Dash, and Zcash entered the crypto playground. Zcash has great bitcoin-based technology and a magnificent team that stands for what it believes in.
Decentraland (MANA)
Decentraland is an Ethereum-based platform that builds a virtual reality, the Metaverse, where you can buy digital land, engage in it and maneuver through it with other users, and capitalize on the processes occurring within the Metaverse. So, keeping MANA in mind as one of the key players in the much-talked-about ‘Metaverse rush’ can prove lucrative in the long run.
An investment opportunity of a lifetime
These are just a fraction of the cryptocurrencies worth discussing. A vibrant, new industry is unfolding—one that will define the destiny of the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ and the entire new world that ‘Web 3.0’ has in store for us.
Major smart-contract players are serious contenders for significant future market share. While Ethereum will not vanish, its challengers will likely seize opportunities to grow massively. This is true for their governance tokens as well as their cryptocurrencies.
Privacy coins with powerful code and inventive protocols are almost no-brainers, investment-wise. Their straightforward use-case will soon be in such desperate demand—especially with inflation being on the loose long term—that investing in them now will print much wealth for those who dare. Their relative worth will skyrocket compared to today’s prices.
According to many, a virtual, parallel reality called the Metaverse is no fringe gamer’s dream anymore. There is already a vast virtual marketplace manifesting that will soon vividly mimic the real world. So much so that trade, business, administrative procedures, and entertainment will have powerful substitute domains. It’s no niche for some futurologists anymore. Metaverse projects will thrive, no matter what.
In conclusion, these new financial instruments are well worth exploring. Behind them are standing entities akin to what Amazon, Apple, Google, and Facebook have been to the IT industry over the last few decades ago.
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