2018 has been a great year for Web3.0 and blockchain development. If you a cryptocurrency investor you might not immediately concur considering the extended bear market we have been experiencing since early this year, but the outlook of the blockchain technology adoption is expected to grow exponentially.
The global Blockchain Technology market is expected to grow with a significant rate during the forecast period 2019-2025 owing to the growing demand of distributed ledger technology, increasing cryptocurrencies market cap need of abridged business procedures and creating transparency and immutability and faster transactions.
In this post we will explore some of my outlook predictions for the evolution of Web3.0 and blockchain. Some of these outlooks are bullish mixed with some bearish predicitions for several aspects of blockchain application.
Outlook 1: Currency Market Boom
During the bear market of 2018, various development teams have experienced loss of capital due to massive price declines. The declining market has lead to a cash crunch for many teams in the crypto industry. Due to this lack of funding, its expected that these affected cryptos will soon be missing their development goals outlined in their whitepapers resulting in a loss in investor confidence and thus a further reduction in their market cap.
Although this market down turn will result in the bust of some ICO projects, blockchain’s core technology will develop rapidly; and it is predictable that a large scale of ICOs centered on dApps that offer more practically innovative values will take place. There will be more various forms of tokenization, token economy and ICO models. Trials on blockchain instrumentation by those current platform dominating businesses will begin in earnest.
As CEO of GameXCoin, WoongGyeum Kim predicts, 2019 will be a close-knit race between the real services using blockchain. Many projects will fail, but services with robust models and technology will innovate within the current market. I believe 2019 will play as a catalyst igniting the second growth phase of cryptocurrency market led by STO(Security Token Offering) which is interlocked with the real economy(securities, real stakes, etc.) and stable coins which are interlocked with the banks, the central institutes.
Outlook 2: Decentralized Applications
On the basis of application, the global Blockchain Technology market has been segmented into Application and solution provider, Middleware provider and Infrastructure & protocol provider. By Service provider type, Infrastructure & protocol provider segment will lead the Blockchain Technology market owing to providing customized distributed ledger network for their customer. The application and solutions providers are anticipated to the fastest growing segment due to the application developers develop applications that minimizing the transcription data duplication and offering timely authentication.
On the basis of application type, the Blockchain Technology market has been segmented into Payments, Exchange, Digital identity, Smart Contracts, Documentation, Supply chain management, Governance, risk and compliance management. By application type, the Payment segment will lead the market owing to properties of blockchain to reduce the need for middlemen such as third-party authorization and central agencies from the payment processing. Digital identity segment will be the fastest growing market owing to providing secure and trustworthy identification system.
Outlook 3: Blockchain-As-A-Service
Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) is an offering that allows customers to leverage cloud-based solutions to build, host and use their own blockchain apps, smart contracts and functions on the blockchain while the cloud-based service provider manages all the necessary tasks and activities to keep the infrastructure agile and operational. It is an interesting development in the blockchain ecosystem that is indirectly aiding the blockchain adoption across businesses
BaaS may be the necessary catalyst that can lead to a much wider and deeper penetration of blockchain technology across various industry sectors and businesses. Instead of creating and running their own blockchains, a business, large or small, can now simply “outsource” the technical complex work and focus on its core activities.
Large technology firms are already throwing their hats into the blockchain rings with their own BaaS offerings. Microsoft offers a BaaS module on its Azure platform, IBM has its own BaaS which is focused on private consortium blockchains, and Amazon and Oracle have their own blockchain cloud hosting services.
Outlook 4: Multiple Industry Disturbance
In addition to a positive outlook by investors and consumers, a growing number of companies also appear to be implementing blockchain technology. Almost half of the consumers surveyed said that their employers are planning to roll out blockchain in the near future. The percentage of consumers who said that their employers are considering a blockchain roll outgrew by 12% over the past six months, demonstrating a perceived growth in the need for blockchain technology within companies.
The issuance of government-backed cryptocurrencies will increase. 2019 will see more government-backed cryptocurrencies in the ecosystem. Here are some examples of early potential projects:
- China intends to lead the way in blockchain technology by releasing a national digital currency.
- Venezuela’s oil-backed cryptocurrency, the Petro, has received support from Russia.
- Iran is in the initial stages of developing a cryptocurrency.
- The Russian Crypto Ruble is set to launch Mid-2019 according to the Russian Blockchain Association.
Result: Countries will begin to form trading blocks and use cryptocurrencies as a method of payment for partners within trading blocks.
Conclusion
It appears that although consumers remain positive, investors in the crypto asset sector remain somewhat doubtful. Nevertheless, the overall outlook for cryptocurrencies remains positive with 59% of investors and 72% of consumers planning to increase their crypto holdings over the course of next year.