Blockchain Technology came into the forefront with the introduction of
Blockchain Technology came into the forefront with the introduction of Bitcoin White Paper released by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009. In just a decade worth of time, the technology has been hyped to be the crusader of change and a tool that would bring in next industrial revolution.
However, many critique does not stop pointing out how cryptocurrency and the trade market has taken away the “Thunder” from the underpinning technology. But, that’s only one side of the story and the actual truth is, cryptocurrencies have acted as a catalyst in propagating the tech to the world.
If we look at the timeline of blockchain from the time in 2009, it has grown in leaps and bounds. The people talk about blockchain with the same enthusiasm as Artificial intelligence, which has been in the public domain for much longer than Blockchain.
Let us look at some of the major trends and use cases of Blockchain that we might see in 2019.
You May Also Read: Blockchain In Fashion
Upcoming Trends and Use Cases of Blockchain Technology in 2019
Those who have heard of Bitcoin must have come across the blockchain which is the underneath tech powering different cryptocurrencies. However, cryptocurrencies and financial implementation is just one use case, while there are various centralized institutions that can use the blockchain to eradicate various grass root problems.
Let us look at some of the major trends which we might witness in the Blockchain in 2019
You May Also Read: Still Don’t Understand Blockchain? Read This!
Blockchain As a Service(BaaS)
Blockchain implementation in real-world beyond cryptocurrencies have been in trend since 2017 and by 2018 it gained a real momentum, but most of them were only for the testing purposes. The main issue with the implementation of blockchain is the cost of setup and complexity involved in it. It’s quite a task to implement blockchain in your business which has been using traditional methods for decades.
2019 might see many big firms offering Blockchain as a service, which would be a cloud-based which would allow the businesses to set up their own blockchain powered ecosystem with the tools made available by the firms offering BaaS. Big brands like Amazon, Microsoft, and many others have already started providing Blockchain as a service and in 2019 the adoption might increase many folds.
Hybrid Blockchains
The hybrid blockchain is definitely one trend you must watch out for as it combines the best of both worlds, the private blockchain, and public blockchain. There are certain institutions which cannot go completely decentralized and might have to contain the exposure to a certain limit. Take governance for example, you cannot make it completely decentralized as they have to deal a long line of protocols and confidentiality. This is where hybrid blockchain can come in as a savior.
Few use-cases of hybrid blockchain include hybrid IoT, banking, supply chain, enterprise services and so on.
Federated Blockchain
Federated blockchain is an evolved form of the private blockchain, instead of one party controlling the blockchain, multiple organizations have the admin control over it and it can be used by organizations which has a number of service departments or partners.
Some of the real-world use cases can be seen in supply chain management, insurance claims, and financial services. Recently Walmart also used the federated blockchain for with the help of IBM for the food supply chain.
Stable Coins
Stable coins have been a success story in 2018 and 2019 might be the year that it becomes mainstream. Volatility in the prices of cryptocurrencies has helped the stable coin market to rise and Tether is the clear example of how popular these types of coins have become in recent times.
Stable coins are generally stabilized against a real-world entity, in case of tether its us dollars, but many other coins use gold and petroleum as well. Stable coins as the name suggest is not affected by the volatility of the market and the second coin bears the brunt of the volatile trade market. However, critics believe that stable coins are like trojan horses as it is heavily centralized and the basic theory is just like any other fiat.
Security Tokens
The 2017 price rise made many investors and enterprises to move towards the cryptocurrency world, and that how ICOs became a rage. ICO’s were basically the crypto way of crowdfunding, but soon people started to make a mockery of the rules and laws through ICOs as most of them in the latter half took shape of scam, duping investors of their hard earned money. This is the reason for the end quarter of 2018, the number of ICOs or the fund raised decreased significantly.
This is where Security tokens came into existence and changed how money was raised in the crypto and blockchain ecosystem. Now, the investors were offered security tokens through STOs where the rights of the investors are protected. The introduction of STOs changed the way money was raised and it might see a more widespread acceptance in 2019.
You May Also Read: What is the Size of Ethereum Blockchain?
Final Thoughts
Blockchain Technology gained a ton of attention in too little time and the cryptocurrency surely took away the attention for the initial years as the investors were mainly focused on the immediate financial gains. However, 2018’s bearish market made it quite clear that the people should be focusing on refining the blockchain technology and make it more mainstream otherwise the crypto trade market might not survive for long.
2019 might see new and mature trends in the crypto and blockchain space and one should be watchful as the progress in the implementation would also help the trade markets to gain upward momentum.
Here Are Few Articles For You To Read Next: