Top 5 Blockchain Applications for Businesses in 2022
As enterprises move from PoCs & experiments to commercial applications, sharing the top 5 application trends.
Over the past few years, enterprise blockchains have gone from being just an exciting technology with some potential, to a technology that has started to provide immense value to enterprises. These enterprises have moved from POCs, pilots & experiments to using Blockchain in at least some of the internal use cases & processes. Some have even deployed it for commercial use cases.
Based on what I feel could be the key areas to watch, I am sharing the top 5 application trends. Since this area is highly dynamic, this list might look outdated after a couple of months. It is also a non-exhaustive list.
1) Metaverse
An integration of the physical & virtual worlds
With the social media giant Facebook, rebranding itself as 'Meta', it has taken a huge & calculative bet. We will see a lot more innovation & commercialization of use-cases around metaverse. While virtual games & worlds existed earlier, in the coming times, we could see the businesses offering integrated experiences between the physical & virtual worlds, driving commerce & other monetization streams. The ability to maintain private identities, the privacy of avatar actions, and the ability to make and receive payments, among others will be the key drivers for metaverse applications on Blockchains.
2) NFTs
Driving customer engagement
NFTs are assets on Blockchain which are rare & unique - which drives attractiveness for the buyer. They record publicly verifiable ownerships of physical & digital assets on Blockchain. In this and the next year, we could see a shift of NFTs being used just as an exclusive limited-edition asset to be integrated tightly with business processes like rights management. I could find a useful example - VeeFriends are NFTs issued by Gary Vaynerchuck with built in benefits, just like a digital pass.
3) DeFi & DAO
DeFi or Decentralized Finance has gained traction with many Blockchains now supporting faster throughputs & cheaper transactions. Globally, in 2022, we could see businesses identifying the risks & working out mitigation strategies around it with the regulators to make the initiator traceable - full transparency & anonymity being the biggest challenges for businesses & governments. We are also seeing DAOs or Decentralized Autonomous Organizations, emerging as governance mechanisms. DAOs may also open up the way for regulators to be part of the disclosure and transparency solutions that are put in place. Enterprise and DLT blockchain can likely be the vehicles for that collaboration.
4) Industry Collaborations on Supply Chain & Finance
As more & more businesses have started using Blockchains for internal processes, they will look to connect this with the external ecosystems as well. This would bring interoperability & cross-platform capabilities into the light. These sort of integrations will solve some key problems for the businesses - data reconciliation & business data privacy. I see that this kind of an effort will most likely start from supply chain and financial use cases.
5) Tokenization
Tokenization of business assets & processes will help businesses solve problems across multiple areas. An asset will become a token on the Blockchain and then can help tackle fraud and counterfeiting (for luxury goods or other use cases), reduce counterparty risks, improve settlement efficiencies, reduce reconciliation, and improve overall liquidity. One such example is from Goldman Sachs.
It’s important to note that these trends are also interconnected. Visionary enterprises will look to explore how enterprise blockchain technology will interlink with the innovations on the public blockchain. As ecosystems expand, interoperability needs will begin to strongly exert themselves in order to meet evolving customer expectations. The benefits of blockchain technology are just too great to ignore for future business and tech innovation.
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