Below are my thoughts on the blockchain space as it pertains to areas of growth, crucial sectors for implementation of the technology, and auxiliary sub-sectors I believe will sprout over the next 5 years. As an overall theme, I foresee blockchain seeping into every aspect of our lives as the backend of most digital products will become replaced with blockchain technology. I am bullish on the capabilities of the technology itself as well as the doors it can open between parties, a community, and an overall ecosystem.
Regulation / Government Compliant
Government compliant chains and protocols
- In the future, chains will need to be ISO (bank) compliant so developing protocols on these chains will be important because chains who are not bank compliant will go to zero and hence will die
- Helping institutional buyers move into the space safely and can store assets off chain if needed then transact on chain if needed
Crypto-Tax / Reporting
- Tax management and reporting will be important as more institutional buyers enter the space as the blockchain infrastructure replaces traditional development and more investors want to enter the space
- Moving assets from crypto and reporting them will become the next regulation specific product before a government chain and a central bank currency
Development and Implementation of Blockchain Technologies & Infrastructure
Development tools
- Protocols and tools that assist developers build web 3 products easily will be inherently useful due to need to transform existing code to blockchain
- Current developers are looking to make products easily, so tools help to reduce development and go to market timelines and costs
- Example:
- To create a DEX is very complex but using a protocol like 1inch or cloning an existing DEX like Uniswap v1 is very easy
- Devs can clone, iterate, then build a product in minutes rather than spending lots of time creating the DEX itself
- Name of the Game: Copy up to the standard then innovate from there is how innovation in the space will evolve over the next couple years
Back-end Infrastructure
- In the future all backends of digitized systems will integrate blockchain technology so the move from web 2 to web 3 will be important to innovate / keep up with digital trends
- Current teams of web 2 focused teams will need to either transform current backends to web 3 or replace current infrastructure to blockchain technology
- Eventually all python, java backends of products will become solidity / rust / blockchain
User Facing Infrastructure
- How a user will interact with the new blockchain interface is important as the front of most products will change within the next 5 years
- Identification has turned from signing in with a username and password with 100 different logins to now connecting your wallet
- Wallet is now default sign in for products and offers increased usability and inoperability between products
- Most front ends won’t be as different but the implementation of wallets and other web 3 front end facing features will be needed
One-click crypto solution
- Easily generate smart contracts, DAOs, tokens, NFTs, etc. with pluggable information
- Will be easier for people who don’t understand code to implement and make web 3 infrastructures
Web 3 DApps of web 2 products
- Products proven in web 2 will be rebranded and relaunched in the web 3 ecosystem with blockchain technology will have a proven use case and go to market strategy
Transfer of Assets / Information
NFTs
- NFTs will become a common place in the world from receipts to tickets to almost every document that can be legible
- Different use cases for transfer of assets and general integration of NFTs into the world
- Will be the tunnel to take transactions and physical world assets to the digital world
- Will be used as a store of value and storage for smaller documents/files that are not immediate needed but safer vs the cloud for example
Defi / Payments
- Crypto’s main solution is the easy and transparency of payments between parties
- Use cases include across various geographies with varying currencies and transfer of assets with ease and transparency with transactions being verifiable
- Store of value is important so stable coins will play a large role if they have low gas fees
Chain Analytics
- Pulling data using SQL and deep fundamental chain analysis from defi products and directly from the blockchain will be important to understand and learn about the blockchain and how it is being used
- Will tell the tale on how the chain is being used at the moment and where future trends are developing
Investing and Auxiliary Services
- Creating dashboards and types of analytical tools for investors to trade and access the markets to provide more knowledge and statistics
- Some people simply will want to trade crypto as an investing vehicle as it gains more popularity so providing these resources for traders will be important
Oracles
- API version of web 3 will be important as developers will want to input API data onto the blockchain to use for dApps and other use cases
- Important to bring data on to the chain because a fully integrated blockchain ecosystem will eventually age out web 2 technology and data transfer will need to be implemented
Auxiliary Services
DAO
- This is the next wave in the web 3 space
- Trends:
- 2016: Tokens
- 2021: NFTs
- 2023: DAOs
- Will transform organizations and create a new way to conduct a business as a community rather than a singular management team
- Will also be a quick way to set up a company structure to conduct a mission that the commonality of the DAO wants to do
- Will be a way to easily unite people who feel a product or movement needs to be created
Chain Analytics
- Pulling data using SQL and deep fundamental analysis from defi products and directly from the blockchain will be important to understand and learn about the blockchain and how it is being used
Investing
- Creating dashboards and types of analytical tools for investors to trade and access the markets with more knowledge and statistics
- Some people will not want to be involved in crypto but simply will want to trade it as an investing vehicle as it gains more popularity
Healthcare
- Data encryption for patient records for physicians will be easily transferable in a system today where patient information transfer is not
- Linking of health insurance and patient records / data encryption will be doable
Gaming
- Interoperability between games will be crucial as gaming currency, purchases and ecosystems will now mean hold real value
- P2E model where gamers are financially compensated for the time and effort invested in a game
- Incentive structure for gamers to be paid for their time
- GameFi is combining DeFi and non-fungible tokens with blockchain gaming
Metaverses
- Hardware needs to be developed before metaverse takes off
- Similar to apps before iPhone took off then apps boomed
- Wearables / glasses / connected screens
- Interoperability between metaverses is important as NFTs, tokens, etc. will be connected as users hop ecosystems
Chain Watchlist
High-Level Trend: High TPS + Easiest Coding Language = Best Long-Term Chain
- Over time, the chain with the highest TPS (means lowest gas fees in the long run) and easiest coding language will be the most useful chain that is also ISO compliant
Polygon (MATIC)
- Before ETH 2.0 is released, this is the way to go for EVMs
- TPS is similar to Solana
- Ecosystem is more developed than SOL
- Solidity language is a large plus
- Testing resources like facets and other dev tools are very useful
Algorand
- Future of finance & has very early ecosystem
- Atomic transfers/ease of TEAL coding language/capabilities of chain to make financial products is encouraging
Solana
- Very high TPS and growing ecosystem
- Has problems with shutdown of chains, validators, and being a “centralized” blockchain
XDC / XFIN
- Will become bank compliant in the future and could be the chain that all other chains will have to copy / conform too if it becomes approved by the government
- Very early
