021 was undoubtedly the year when block chain and crypto assets progressed into the mainstream idea of financial markets apart from the usual fringe topic and emerging conversations. Blockchain technology has witnessed a significant boom in recent years. It is now widely adopted by financial institutions, market giants, and countries, and there is no sign of it slowing down any time soon. According to Deloitte’s 2021 Global blockchain development Survey, almost 76% of executives surveyed stated that they expect digital assets to be a solid alternative to fiat currencies in global finance in the next 5–10 years.
What is Blockchain Technology?
A blockchain is a distributed database that is shared among the nodes of a computer network. As a database, a blockchain stores information electronically in digital formats. A blockchain collects information together in groups, known as blocks that hold sets of information, forming a chain of data known as the blockchain. Blockchains are best known for their crucial role in cryptocurrency systems, such as bitcoin and Ethereum, and for maintaining a secure and decentralized record of transactions. The innovation with blockchain is that it guarantees the fidelity and security of data records and generates trust without any need of a trusted third party.
What’s in store for 2022?
With endless possibilities and development, blockchain technology made us one step closer to decentralization, transaction transparency, instant traceability, automation, and more. The rapid rise in the market capitalization of various cryptocurrencies shows there is still substantial ambiguity for the future. People also predicted that blockchain technology is going to be a powerful technology for modern society.
Crypto will gain legal status in many countries
Cryptocurrencies are the most debatable topic in any country. The truth is that the majority of the sector is still unregulated in most parts of the world. However, with the increase in the number of people dealing with them now, many countries have begun to make substantial progress in both the understanding and treatment of crypto assets by drafting crypto regulations.
Stablecoins will be Mainstream
Stablecoins are digital assets that are designed to maintain a stable value relative to a national currency or other reference assets. Stablecoins seem to be the most viable way in which non-expert and mass-market adoption of crypto will commence. According to the report from the US President’s Working Group, stablecoins utilization increased by 500% between October 2020 to October 2021 alone, and it does not seem like this pace of adoption will slow down. The upside and the main attraction of stablecoins is their stability that enables crypto to be used as a transactional medium versus a speculative investment.
Rise in the Crypto Payments
By stepping into blockchain-backed crypto payments by major organizations and payments giants such as PayPal, Visa, and MasterCard during 2021, we know that the transactional purposes using crypto seems to be a permanent one. From decentralized finance (DeFi) to NFTs, the technology for making crypto for secure payment has been proven to work time and again.
Indeed, crypto payments use stablecoins for transactions. The crypto payments have their own advantages like lightning fast payment, transparency, low transaction fee, and are highly secured. Stablecoins are unreasonably a stable way for any individual and institutions to get into the market and they play a vital role in advancing the blockchain sector
NFT’s might become boring
Usually, NFT’s are misunderstood by the mainstream marketplace in terms of how non-fungible tokens operate and are valued. The true valuation and use case of NFTs is often missed in the current conversations around NFTs and their skyrocketing prices.
NFTs, in the truest form, represent digital proof of ownership that is secured by an underlying blockchain. Since increasing amounts of information and data (at both the individual and institutional level) are stored in a virtual format, it makes sense that securing these records will become a priority moving forward. As we see the oscillating price of NFT’s, Blockchain-enabled ownership appears to be the future of NFTs for mainstream adoption.
Bitcoin will hit 100K
Crypto community and bitcoin analysts predicted that 2022 will be a year of bitcoin where the market cap can reach up to 100K. It should be noted that during 2021 the price of bitcoin touched some of its historical volatility, ranging from lows around $30,000 to an all-time-high of nearly $70,000. Rising inflation, the continued monetary easing around the world, and the proliferation of crypto all lead to an increase in the value of cryptocurrency.
Final words
Blockchain technology has tons of potential as it keeps on constantly expanding. The future of blockchain technology looks more delightful as it has already gone mainstream. No matter what the price fluctuation of specific tokens or coins is, it is clear that the understanding and acceptance of crypto are set to accelerate in the coming years and beyond.