In 2021, there are several important areas of blockchain that are worthy of attention: crypto trust, crypto bank, STO, decentralized exchange, DeFi + NFT, new stablecoins, putting assets on chain, digital identity, crypto collectibles, new public chain and blockchain distributed storage. Users who know CyberVein may find that CyberVein is also involved in some of the above fields so as to keep pace with the times.
1. Crypto Digital Asset Trust
The crypto asset market in 2020 has brought so much excitement. Over the past year, whether it is Defi’s innovative products or the skyrocketing value of BTC, the field of crypto assets has shown a steady and positive trend as a whole. A large number of mainstream institutions on Wall Street are aggressively entering the crypto asset market. At present, more than 16 listed companies have announced their holdings of BTC, and more companies are currently joining the trend. The growth rate of GBTC is also astonishing. At the beginning of 2020, their entire company’s assets under management were only $2 billion, while by January 2021, its entire assets had exceeded $27.7 billion.
2. Crypto Digital Asset Bank
On January 13, a cryptocurrency custodian company obtained a federal bank license from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of Currency, giving birth to the first federal crypto bank in the United States. Banks in many countries and regions including South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the United Kingdom, have been ready for entering the field of blockchain digital asset custody. The layout of crypto banking is mainly in the United States at present, followed by Europe, and other regions still need to catch up.
3. STO (Security Token Offering)
It is a brand new, friendlier and more legal ICO alternative that enables companies to sell their company’s shares in the form of tokenized assets. The legal compliance, programmability, time-saving and labor-saving, fast settlement, high liquidity, multiple applicability of STO, can be embedded in more business systems. STO also inherits the advantages of blockchain, using smart contracts to reduce the cost of asset issuance and improve the liquidity of assets.
4. Dex (Decentralized Exchange)
DeFi went through a rapid rise in 2020 with decentralized exchanges playing an important role in it. The core of its success lies in the automated e-commerce. This is not only an innovation in the DeFi field, but also a key direction for changes in the trading field.
5. New Stablecoins
The rapid issuance of USDT has enabled the cryptocurrency to be used in more transaction scenarios, and stablecoins have become the boundary between legal currency and digital assets more widely. The new stablecoins include several types, including USDT and USDC as staking stable currency models, as well as HUSD and DAI as the digital asset staking model.
6. Putting Assets on Chain
Here oracle machines and synthetic assets are essential. Oracle machines are the key to operating DeFi, providing the information required for the execution of smart contracts and transforming off-chain data into an accessible format. If the smart contract needs to know the value of the asset, these data will be provided by the oracle machine. Meanwhile, synthetic assets are relatively complicated, but it can be seen that the assets of providers whose underlying technology is given have been rising recently.
7. Digital Identity and Data Privacy
Data in the entire industry is gaining increasing importance. With the widespread use of health codes, we have entered the era of digital identity. However, this era may not be an era when privacy can be well protected; therefore, we need to do something. Blockchain and privacy computing will be a significant solution for privacy protection in the coming era.
8. Crypto Collectibles
Crypto collectibles, whether NFTs or crypto artworks, are already attracting attention. Tickets, in-game items, artworks, etc., have been widely distributed on NFT platforms, and the size of this market is also growing rapidly. Meanwhile, there are more and more cases of such issuance, including the portraits currently auctioned by Christie’s and the European Cup’s tickets issued through NFT, which is noteworthy.
9. New Infrastructure (New Public Chain)
The dispute over current public chain is no longer a simply technical competition. The fragmentation of ecology and the gap in scale are the huge gaps that are difficult to bridge between the front-runners and the latecomers. The relationship between technology and ecology is the question of whether chicken or egg comes first. Most of the new chains with better capacity expansion do not have the large-scale financial infrastructure of Ethereum, and at the same time lack a friendly and open platform that is able to develop more applications.
10. DAG Distributed Storage
As the amount of data generated has doubled year by year, the need for cheap, accessible, and unlicensed storage will also increase. Distributed storage will become the global focus in 2021. This is due to storage redundancy: blockchain is not suitable for storing large amounts of data, but DAG distributed storage can provide blockchain with a storage method that can be stored for a long time with low cost, good security, and strong privacy protection.
In the process of building a new community with a shared future for mankind, blockchain has undoubtedly become a bridge connecting global values. Blockchain is a new species that integrates four major innovations, based on technological innovation, driven by digital finance, organized by economic communities and oriented by values generated.
2021 is the era of Industrial Blockchain 2.0. Putting assets on chain, putting industry on chain, putting data on chain, technology integration, and digital currency applications from central banks will all open the door to a new world. It is our obligation to increase investment, embracing the brand new digital era.
