In recent times, there has been so much roar in the news about cryptocurrencies making headlines. However, beneath the pulsing sound of this noise, there is a silent revolution brewing.

This revolution is known as Blockchain– the technology that underpins the whirlwind that surrounds everything cryptocurrency.

Now, moving at breakneck speed, the blockchain is on its way to disrupt other industries and shape the future of digital innovation.

Industries across finance, healthcare, and supply chain, are some of the industries where practical solutions by the blockchain are now being used. It doesn’t even entail the use of cryptocurrencies, a tell-tale sign that the blockchain is stepping out of the cryptocurrency shadow as the full-blown technology that it is.

From a bold experiment invented in 2008, it is amazing to see how far this disrupting innovation has come. With this shift in blockchain application even away from cryptocurrencies, only those who are intentional about staying atop the blockchain trends to follow as the years go by will remain profitable. In this article, we will explore some of these blockchain trends.

Stablecoins Kicking Away the Rollercoaster Ride that comes with Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin and Ethereum have surely topped the chart as the most famous cryptocurrencies; however, their volatility remains a cause of worry. With this volatility comes the tendency to lose money just as quickly as you make it especially if you aren’t one with good trading knowledge or mindset.

However, stablecoins are pegged to a stable traditional currency like the United States Dollar or Euros, thus, the volatility is absent. At the time of writing, the largest stablecoins by market cap are Tether USDT ($91 billion), USDC ($24 billion), Dai ($5.3 billion), and TrueUSD ($2.3 billion); with a total of about 157 stablecoins.

With the rapid growth of these stablecoins, it is safe to say that they would be suitable as rewards, especially in promoting Environmental, Social, and Governance issues, not limited to renewable energy usage, recycling, etc. These are matters that affect different countries around the world and with stablecoins being used in such cases, it will become obvious how important they can be especially as they are not affected by volatility in the market.

Enterprise Blockchain Might Just Become The Next Big Thing

According to a study by Deep Analysis, the enterprise blockchain technology sales market will grow to $13.2 billion in 2024. The concept of enterprise blockchain technology simply entails

harnessing the power of blockchain technology to improve efficiency, security, and trust within business networks.

It's a transformative technology with the potential to revolutionize how businesses operate and interact with each other. With the permissionless feature that the blockchain comes with, which would greatly facilitate only authorized persons accessing a network or ledger, it is no surprise that this is something that would interest multiple businesses in 2024.

Absolute Transformation of Traditional Finance

Decentralized finance is already changing the narrative guiding the functionality of money. Now, users have more control of their finances instead of a central authority.

Away from that, DeFi is contributing its quota to insurance, loan provision, alternative savings, fast and secure payments, etc. All of these and more would be things to watch out for. There will be more decentralized financial platforms coming out and giving the traditional banks a run for their money.

Wall Street? No! Blockchain Street Filled with Security Token Offerings (STOs)

STOs aren’t a new phenomenon in the cryptocurrency space–but attention was drawn to them more in 2023.

Tokens themselves refer to a digital representation of assets where ownership is backed or managed by the blockchain. Tokens can be used to represent anything; land agreements, physical objects, etc.

Thus, asset tokenization stands for the creation of tokens on the blockchain to promote efficient and secure transactions. Such tokenized assets or security tokens are backed by assets like bonds, corporate stocks, real estate, and even cars. They are also subject to securities laws and regulations which makes them good investments.

Research shows that the tokenized digital assets will be a $16 trillion market– a 50x growth by 2030. In Europe, an STO boom is expected in the next five years, featuring a growth rate of about 81% yearly between 2021- 2026.

The beautiful thing about STOs is that all transactions are recorded on the blockchain. In real estate asset tokenization, the use of STOs has become quite popular, especially because of its fractional ownership feature.

Through fractional ownership, a whole property can be divided into multiple tokens and sold for bits. The issuer of this real estate offers the tokens at a much lower price, which allows for an investment opening where multiple people can come in to invest.

Examples of such real estate STOs include Blue Karma Secrets Hotels & Resorts in Bali, The St. Regis Aspen Resort in Aspen, and many others.

Blockchain for Secure Identities on Digital Platforms

The coming of digital ID has been a very hot topic for a while now. Blockchain provides secure access to data, efficiency, and transparency. Thus, it is not strange that people are looking into applying the blockchain in a matter as important as digital identity.

Pilots testing the digital identity have been launched in Switzerland, Japan, and Estonia. With the shift to online services and remote work prompted by the Covid outbreak, it is expected that this will yet continue into coming years.

Massive interest in Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs)

A central bank digital currency is the fiat currency of a particular country offered in digital format and of course, powered by the blockchain.

Many banks are actively researching about this concept; exploring the benefits, threats, and possibility of acceptance. This research might just begin to bear fruits soon.

Blockchain Transforming the Health Sector

With the outbreak of COVID-19, leading to the development of a vaccine suitable for managing it, another problem of how to distribute this vaccine arose. Blockchain technology seems to be a solution for this issue relating to supply chain management.

For example, in the UK, two hospitals utilized the help of the blockchain to track and monitor the storage and supply of COVID-19 vaccines that happened to be temperature sensitive.

Blockchain also helps healthcare facilities in providing safe care for their patients as well as helps to speed up the vaccination process, which has the ripple effect of ensuring that more lives are saved.

Despite having conquered the pandemic, the blockchain is still being used as a means to enhance supply chain management especially as it concerns healthcare,

Blockchain in the Media and Entertainment Sphere

In 2023, about 4.95 billion people are actively using social media in the world– an increase of 7.07% year-on-year from 4.62 billion in 2022. Almost everyone is active on at least one social media platform, however, these systems come with the cons of storing and sharing our data. In addition, if there should be any security breach on such platforms, our data may be at risk.

This is where the blockchain comes in with its decentralized-powered solutions. With social media platforms built on the blockchain, users can easily track the movement of their information, where it goes, how it is used, get paid for their content, get rid of annoying ads, etc.

An interesting example of a blockchain social network in Africa is Gamic, a Web3 social communication platform based in Nigeria. It allows users to talk, share information, and get paid for the content being shared.

Final Words

The list of trends to follow is numerous, and we could keep listing the different use cases that the blockchain now empowers us with, especially as most of them are no longer a theory but reality.

2024 is right around the corner, and the best thing to do is to leverage the opportunities that blockchain technology presents to every one of us regardless of the industry we operate in.

This is your cue and my cue to look out for more ways by which blockchain technology can be made effective.