Future Trends of Blockchain Technology in the Year 2022

At the end of 2021, the global Blockchain technology market size stood at USD 5.92 billion and is estimated to reach USD 10.02 billion in 2022. North America dominated the global Blockchain technology space in 2021 with a 37.95% market share. Similarly, the financial services segment dominated the market in 2021 and accounted for over 38.0% global revenue share. Today some of the key players in the Blockchain technology market include IBM Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, Linux Foundation, R3, BTL Group, Chain Inc., Deloitte, Circle Internet Financial Limited, Global Arena Holding, Inc. (GAHI), Post-Trade Distributed Ledger, Ripple, and Eric Industries. It won't be wrong to say that eight of the world's ten largest companies are building various products incorporating Blockchain.

To reimpose the importance of how Blockchain adoption will further spread its wings in the various industries worldwide, the survey from Grandview Research suggests we expect to witness a CAGR of 85.9% from 2022 to 2030 to reach USD 1431.54 billion by 2030. Blockchain was one of the top disruptive technologies in 2021, and as it enters 2022 with much anticipation, what will be some of the trends that would drive this growth? Let us find out.

Trends for Blockchain Technology in 2022

Cryptocurrencies

Blockchain technology became most popular with Bitcoin or Ethereum, a cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency is a digital asset that can be exchanged on a Blockchain network. It is a subset of digital currency and is not issued by government entities. We can assume cryptocurrency as tokens issued by private entities or groups used to pay for items sold by those operating in the Blockchain network. When people buy, exchange, or spend cryptocurrency, the transactions are recorded on a Blockchain. The more people use cryptocurrency, the more widespread Blockchain will become soon. As recently as May 2021, CoinMarketCap, a market research website, listed 4,993 distinct publicly traded cryptocurrencies.

Soon we will see cryptocurrencies being adopted and trending for:

• Retail Payments

• As a hedge against inflation

• An alternative to gold

• Decentralized finance or DeFi

• Governments creating their digital currencies

Cross-border Payments

Cross-border transactions are growing significantly, and they are anticipated to be around $39 trillion by 2022. The majority of this growth owes its roots to global trade improvements, borderless e-commerce, cross-border B2C payments, and web-centered businesses.

Cross-border payments are one of the critical trends dictating the future of Blockchain technology as it uses encrypted distributed ledgers that provide entrusted real-time verification of transactions without intermediaries such as correspondent banks. Moreover, the verification is not dependent on third parties, and some banks in Japan, Korea have already started using this technology for their payment transactions. The cross-border payments experience for treasurers, their beneficiaries, and their customers are drastically changing with the adoption of Blockchain technology.

Smart Contracts

Smart contracts are seen as a compelling application of Blockchain technology. These contracts are computer programs stored on a Blockchain that oversees all aspects of an agreement and runs when predetermined conditions are met. They are entirely self-executing and self-enforcing without any involvement of an intermediary or a time loss. Once the action is executed, the Blockchain is updated; it cannot be changed and can only be seen by the people who have permission. They can also be automated in a workflow, triggering the following action when conditions are met. These tools provide a more secure, automated alternative to traditional contract law; moreover, it's faster and cheaper than conventional methods. The potential applications of smart contracts are nearly limitless and could extend to any field of business in which contract law would typically apply.

Some real-life examples of usage of smart contracts are:

• Safeguarding & Supply Chain of Medicines

• Simplifying International Trade

• Flight delayed Insurance payments

• Voting mechanisms

• Token-based smart contracts for crowdfunding

Identity Management

Identity security has been the most significant concern since the 2000s. The applications for Blockchain and identity management are widespread. For example, Blockchain could maintain voter information and ensure the electoral process's proper functioning. It can also aid in securely and efficiently transferring user data across platforms and systems. The technology is also instrumental in maintaining and protecting real estate ownership, titles, and more.

Moreover, all of us have the obligation of managing multiple online profiles and passwords while managing passports, licenses, insurance, or government documents, and the avenues for an online theft of these identities are endless. The independent verification processes of Blockchain technology promise high security for these identities and facilitate self-sovereign identity.

Individuals can use their self-sovereign ID to verify their identity, completely negating the need for passwords and giving them control of administering one's identity back to the individual. However, this life-changing innovation is still evolving, and experts are still gathering the details of what it would mean to have a self-sovereign ID.

Manufacturing and Distribution of Vaccines and Medicines

We have saved one of the most important ones for the last. We all know how the year 2020-21 was all about fighting a global pandemic and healing from its impact. In 2022 the management of vaccines and medicines for the pandemic would still be a priority.

Many agree that the concerns of manufacturing and selling fake vaccines are growing and have been a severe problem in managing a global pandemic. The future of Blockchain technology could be very prominent in verifying the authenticity of vaccine shipments and help in tracing the distribution of vaccines to confirm their delivery at the chosen locations. Moreover, Blockchain will also play a significant role in ensuring the consistent storage of vaccine batches at the right temperature.

One of the viral examples of this trend is how IBM has conducted a pilot project while capitalizing on Blockchain technology for COVID management in 2022. The leader has successfully developed a system that allows coordination among different agencies and healthcare authorities accountable for vaccine distribution. The system uses Blockchain for integrating the documentation of vaccination rates and efficiencies from other platforms and tools used by healthcare authorities and agencies.

Moreover, Blockchain can be leveraged to identify a vaccine batch that causes unexpectedly high side effects compared to others. Soon, we will see many such cases that will mainly focus on manufacturing, distributing, and tracking vaccines in 2022.

It is evident that many of the Blockchain trends in 2022 would highlight their probable use cases relating to the pandemic or its effects. Likewise, it would be no surprise that Blockchain technology's benefits attract more businesses and organizations worldwide to invest more into it.

Soon, this technology will make a long-lasting impact on our day-to-day lives and will be hard to ignore. We believe we should talk about a few more significant and exciting Blockchain technology trends that will top the charts in 2022, and our next blog in the Blockchain series will cover those for you. Stay tuned!

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