TOP ANTICIPATED BLOCKCHAIN TRENDS TO RULE THE MARKET IN 2022

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October 2021

Learn What Blockchain Have in Stores for Different Industries in 2022

A virtual ledger capable of registering and verifying an inundate number of electronic transactions safely and quickly is what a Blockchain is. This ledger technology has greatly impacted the area of application development resultantly expanding it. 

Blockchain step by step

“The blockchain is going to change everything more than the Internet has” – Brock Pierce

The first Blockchain use cases came from the financial institutions and cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum to name a few. According to Statista: “Worldwide spending on blockchain solutions is expected to grow from 4.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2020 to an estimated 19 billion U.S. dollars by 2024”. Industries have shown exceptions in the adoption of Blockchain. Industries like healthcare, food, and energy sector including many others are adopting blockchain technology.

THE BEST GUIDE TO DEVELOPING BLOCKCHAIN APPS IN 2021

Blockchain Applications in Business – What Lies Ahead?

These industries have shown acceptance towards this change as it shows a promising future for these businesses. But at large, the adoption of blockchain technology to change how these industries traditionally operate and how they will in the future is more of a theoretical concept. The real change is taking place at a rather minuscule level compared to its theoretical potential. Does the question then arise; what are the obstacles that impede change at a global level? This will essentially be the focus of this discussion. 

It took more than 40 years for the existing business model to change from traditional to digital but Blockchain technology has penetrated the market faster than anticipated. It wouldn’t take much longer for it to replace the existing models globally with blockchain ones as is obvious from the wide-scale adoption of it. 

According to Deloitte, 53% of C-level officers – from CEOs to CFOs – identified blockchain as an integral part of their organizational infrastructure in 2020 and a technology that can remodel their business models to achieve their desired goals with efficacy. 

Check this to learn more:THE BEST GUIDE TO DEVELOPING BLOCKCHAIN APPS IN 2021

How Have Blockchain Technology Transformed The Traditional Business Models

Blockchain isn’t restricted to cryptocurrency alone but has expanded to almost all industries. Its advantages are countless for every industry because of the nature of the technology and can really improve the working of numerous industries. The most sort after feature of this emerging technology is the security aspect.

Improved transactional security

Record keeping between multiple people/allies/companies isn’t an easy task. Blockchain can be your friend if you’re dealing with record keeping as it can remove obstacles and make relationships work smoothly. Blockchain technology has made global trade more secure and effective. Global shipping collaborations to improve their operation is a thing now.

Digital relationships management redefined

Distributed ledger technology (DLT) is a digital system for recording the transaction of assets. In a distributed ledger, the transaction details are recorded across multiple places at the same time. It provides you with smart contracts to monitor and save various business assets including important documents of ownership. These contracts simplify digital interactions while controlling the transactions. It also offers automated payments when the participants mutually reach an agreement on the conditions mentioned in the smart contract.

Saving intermediaries costs

Industry relying heavily on intermediaries can save costs by using blockchain technology. For instance, food apps like Foodpanda work as an intermediary between the client and the restaurant. The very same real estate business owners use apps like Airbnb and Booking which establishes a connection between the client and the owners. Blockchain has the capability to change this. By its adoption, companies can host their clients on a private blockchain.

Data protection

Another use for blockchain technology is the traceability of every change/modification made to the data. This ensures that the user can track all the changes and is always updated and no unauthorized person can alter the data. The data can’t be changed, faked, maligned, and erased which is a great step towards data protection.

Blockchain Trends in the Financial Sector

Blockchain has been put to use in the financial sector for quite some time now, so much so, that it was the pioneer industry in employing blockchain technology. 

Blockchain can reduce 30% of banks’ infrastructure costs.

Payments across borders 

With blockchain technology, international payments have been made hassle-free and secure. Banks are adopting blockchain technology to get rid of the reliance on third-party apps to keep track of the payments. 

On a global scale, blockchain-driven solutions have the potential of reducing the international transactions’ value, worth 27% of the worldwide transaction market in 2017.

Read more on: THE BEST GUIDE TO DEVELOPING BLOCKCHAIN APPS IN 2021

Insurance 

Because of smart contracts, Blockchain is able to deliver remarkable insurance services. The DLT based contracts allow clients and insurers to process all the requests with utmost precision and transparency. All the agreements and client’s information gets stored on the distribution ledge which helps in verification and up-gradation of information timely. 

Blockchain and 2022 anticipations

Blockchain has already penetrated the financial industry and it is only expected to grow more in the coming years. Digital currency and its transition into a daily life currency has been the center of discussion and garner extreme attention, positive and negative feedback but it will be seen in 2022 that it will expand into a daily life currency. Recently Paypal has shown interest in Bitcoin, which goes on to show the potential and support that digital currency will get in 2022. It will definitely change how financial transactions look at the moment and for the better.

NFTs- The Coming Of Age Digital Art Revolution

NFTs have become a big thing in the crypto world and have grabbed the attention of celebrities, artists, sportspeople, and crypto enthusiasts.

I believe the second renaissance is here,” says Jack Conte, the chief executive of the online creator funding platform Patreon.

What does NFTs mean? These are non-fungible tokens. A single copy of an original digital asset can be turned into an NFT to sell, purchase and collect. It can’t be replicated and is something that should be kept in mind. 

The NFT blockchain trend has tremendously picked up from its 2017 release. But believe it or not, a blockchain can not only host the token representing the deed of ownership. It can actually create the NFT itself. And that is something we will widely see happening in 2022 – blockchain used to create artworks itself. There are already many startups working in this domain. 

This is blockchain and non-fungible tokens are positively transforming the digital works and rights perception.

How will Blockchain improve things for creators in 2022?

Blockchain has been phenomenal in changing things around and for the good. In the digital arts industry, it has been nothing short of exemplary and how it has given creators the freedom to create and the protection of ownership of their work. Digital rights protection and the violation have long been a debatable and huge concern for the creator community and with so many people taking up digital and social media as a career, it is all the more important to provide them with digital rights protection. 

It has been implemented in many of the developed countries but developing countries are largely still to adopt it. People have found themselves a career in digital and social media and therefore it is rather important to help them make the most out of it especially in the developing world where employment opportunities are always far and few in between. We will see blockchain helping creators in the developing world in 2022 as it has in the developed countries. 

Healthcare Revamped By Blockchain Adoption

Blockchain adoption healthcare

Blockchain has revolutionized health as it has many other industries. Blockchain-based contracts are becoming popular in this industry as well for similar reasons as in the money transfer industry. It allows maintaining privacy and transparency with the patients and their records. 

One of the recent and important uses of Blockchain has been seen in the distribution of vaccines in the healthcare industry. The challenge was the safe and effective distribution of the vaccine to the people. Vaccine distribution poses challenges as people are reluctant to get it in the first place which can call for extra vigilance and accountability. 

Blockchain has proven to be a great tool in supply management as it offers accountability, transparency, enhanced security, and efficiency. Countries have started to make use of it to track the distribution of vaccines to keep people’s trust in the process. 

The reason for choosing it are numerous and listed down below:

  • Real-time visibility 
  • End-to-end traceability 
  • Risk management

Blockchain transforming healthcare business for the better

There are multiple use cases of blockchain in the business industry. Some of the most prominent ones are listed down below. 

Supply chain management

Blockchain is of great use in supply chain management as it allows secure and transparent transactions and the transfer of goods from the first destination to the last. Goods start from one point and reach their destination through different channels and blockchain helps in keeping track of all the channels and transactions. This allows the minimization of delays, cut extra expenses, employee failures, and security of transactions on the way.

Media and increased mass popularity 

The forecast for worldwide investment in blockchain solutions for the media industry is US$1.54B in the next four years, with an annual 32% increase during 2018-2024.

The growth of blockchain solutions in the market can be attributed to the transformation of content to make it a mass commodity and piracy issue. Third parties to lead further issues of insecure transactions and payments. This is when blockchain technology steps in as helps producers contain the situation and provide them with real-time monetization models. This cut expenses to make payments by 40-80%.

Real estate

According to an estimation, people are likely to sell their accommodations every five to seven years while others exhibit the tendency to move around like 12 times. This can put blockchain to good use in the real estate business. Customized solutions catering to real estate problems can speed up the selling, renting, and purchasing of properties by ensuring secure and fast transactions and the documentation gets easy and protected.

Blockchain in real estate

Blockchain in healthcare – Predictions for 2022

Blockchain has been tremendous in transforming the healthcare sector but it will continue to do so in the coming year 2022. We have and are living through a global pandemic the like of which we can’t find in our recent past. Vaccination is still in progress and it is important for the world to vaccinate the whole of the population as soon as possible. Blockchain has helped run and manage the vaccination distribution more than one might have thought a year back. It has made vaccine distribution efficient, effective, and transparent. 

Other than vaccination, Blockchain will help transform the traditional ways of providing healthcare in far-flung areas and in developing countries in 2022. People will be able to access a doctor and treatment more easily than they ever had and it can be of great help to motivate people to take mental health seriously by destigmatizing it in the developing world especially. The major reason for that is the lack of trust among people regarding their personal information. Blockchain-based applications will help keep the personal information of the patients safe thus reinstating among people. 

These are some of the expectations from blockchain technology in 2022. It will definitely transform media as remote work has become the new norm and digital media has taken up the traditional media space. This calls for more stringent ways to maintain transparency, accountability, and costs and blockchain technology has proven to help with that in the past as well. We will be seeing customized apps rolling out to cater to this new problem as a result of the change of work models.

The Environmental, Social, And Governmental Impact

One of the emerging blockchain trends of 2021 and 2022 is the adoption of blockchain for the realization of environmental, social, and governance goals. 

Blockchain has offered solutions in the energy industry to trade energy without having to have intermediaries and governments can recycle programs. In addition to this, it helps in reducing carbon emissions, improving supply chain management and traceability.

Energy reforms 

With a centralized grid system, power distribution becomes a hassle. The peer-to-peer energy blockchain system helps deal with the problem of long-distance transmissions and electricity storage. It allows the sale of surplus energy locally thus not having to move it.

Rewards of recycling with blockchain 

Recycling is important if we want to protect our environment. People recycle but they would be more inclined towards it if they get rewarded for it. Some of the blockchain-based recycling programs have introduced rewards for people in the form of cryptographic tokens. This is one example that can be used to lure people into recycling properly and regularly. 

Reducing emissions 

Governments have started adopting blockchain technology to contain carbon emissions. Recently, the European Commission, an institute of the European Union (EU) has shown support for blockchain technology to improve transparency, accountability, and traceability of carbon emissions. 

Climate change is an issue that is hammering the present and will possibly hamper the future of the generations to come if we don’t take action today. The use of blockchain technology to mitigate the effects of climate change is a step in the right direction.

Blockchain and electoral reforms

Blockchain technology is being used in making the electronic voting process more reliable, transparent, and accountable. Governments have suffered the rigging allegations from the opposition and vice versa. This leads to governments that aren’t fully functional and delivering to the masses. The welfare of the people gets compromised in this tug of war and that can be solved with the adoption of blockchain technology to create apps that can make the electronic voting process fast, error-free and transparent. It will build people’s interest in the democratic procedure of choosing governments and the smooth functioning of the respective governments. 

Non-profit organizations and charities 

Non-profit organizations and charitable organizations face similar challenges of maintaining transparency and accountability. Blockchain can keep track of the fundings and ensure transparency for both government and non-government organizations. It ensures that the money being raised is safely transferred to the concerned authorities and everything is put on record for the donors to see and trust.

Blockchain predictions for 2022

In the environment, social and governance sector, the change has just started to show results. The adoption has been steady and is predicted to pick pace in 2022. Blockchain-based applications will be used to change the political landscape and how governments function. Electoral reforms will be possible now with blockchain and it will strengthen democracy. States in the United States have used blockchain-based applications to conduct remote elections facilitating people to be part of the process at their own convenience. Illinois state has used blockchain technology to secure the identity-related information of its citizens. 

As discussed above, Blockchain can become a game-changer in the environment sector. Climate change has wrecked havoc and is one of the biggest challenges facing humanity. Blockchain-based applications have proven to be helpful in reducing carbon emissions and protecting the environment around us. Programs run to preserve the environment can be regulated, tracked, and made secure using these applications and we will be seeing this and a lot more happening in 2022.

Blockchain Is Making Strides In The Tech Industry

Blockchain-as-a-Service, or Baas, is a cloud service for designing and managing smart contracts and decentralized applications with blockchain technology. It is currently being adopted by established businesses as well as startups.

Many world-renowned companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Amazon, Alibaba, and SalesForce now provide Blockchain-as-a-Service. It helps enterprises save financial investments and time from not having to establish software from scratch when they can use the software to leverage their services to make the most out of it.

Blockchain and content streaming goes hand in hand

Content streaming using blockchain is another hot trend that will pick up in 2022 and the years to come. It isn’t a sole prediction but something that is happening as we speak. Different companies are providing blockchain-based solutions for video streaming services. It will help developers, content creators who would like to transition to live video streams and broadcasters who will be able to reduce infrastructure and streaming costs incurred.

The final two cents!

The use of Blockchain technology in different industries is a growing trend for the visible benefits that it has to offer for each of these industries. It is going to mark other industrial territories in the future and the current features will only get improved and enhanced in 2022. It is going to change the old ways with better and improved ways in the coming year and will greatly change how things used to work and that too for the better.

author

Fahad Ali, Author

Fahad is PM at ARFASOFTECH but has a knack for writing. He enjoys writing about the latest technologies and evolving trends. Most of his writings revolve around trending technologies and their integration into operations.

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