When Bitcoin became all the rage last fall and broke into the mainstream, many people either stopped there or maybe bought some Ethereum or Litecoin. However, for those who are devout crypto enthusiasts and have studied the countless amount of blockchain projects in the space, it’s clear that this technology has ushered in a distinct wave of the previously untapped marketplaces and goes beyond disrupting the financial sector. In this piece, we’ll walk you through a handful of the most prominent and novel use cases and marketplaces; you can find some of these in the graphic below.
AI
Besides the buzzword “blockchain,” another term that rivals its trendy status is “A.I.” What happens when A.I meets blockchain? A buzzword explosion of innovation and future potentials! All jokes aside, there are a plethora of legitimate projects doing some highly novel things in this realm, and in terms of A.I and blockchain, SingularityNET leads the way. Spearheaded by the mastermind behind everyone’s favorite robot, Sophia, SingularityNET is creating a decentralized A.I marketplace, where “companies and individuals alike will be able to buy and sell data and AI algorithms at scale.” Another interesting project in the A.I space is Numerai, who is creating an A.I and blockchain powered hedge fund.
Digital Asset Sharing/Rental
Everyone loves making a little bit of side cash, and millennials certainly love the side hustle. Well, what about earning some passive income from simply renting your spare computing power? A handful of blockchain companies, such as Storj, Sia, and Filecoin, are each tapping into the decentralized cloud computing realm in varying ways to unlock value in sectors that were previously untapped. Want to get paid to share your internet connection? Open Garden has got you covered. It isn’t hard to imagine a scenario several years from now when anyone can easily earn passive income in ways they never conceived of before, due to the progress of blockchain projects currently operating under the radar.
Influencer Marketplace
It’s 2018, so you’re more than likely familiar with the concept of a social media influencer – someone who dishes out “influential” content to a rather wide digital audience, and is typically sponsored by a brand (or brands) in their relevant niche. PATRON is looking to lead the way in being a blockchain powered influencer marketplace, aiming to provide a seamless way for brands to connect with relevant influencers, and infusing the space with a level of transparency that is currently missing.
Music
While streaming giants such as Spotify and Apple Music have dominated the way we consume and discover music for years, you can bet that there are a handful of music-related blockchain projects that are taking a novel approach to the way we engage with music. For example, Vezt is creating the first music rights marketplace, allowing fans to purchase fractions of the royalty rights to songs they love and earn revenue as they grow in popularity. Current consolidates all the major music streaming services into their app and allows you to passively earn crypto by listening to music. SingularDTV has created a crypto-powered music ecosystem that allows artists to tokenize anything, and create unique experiences for their fans to follow along with.
While this list is by no means all-encompassing, you can see how many unique and novel approaches to tackling existing marketplaces have popped up within the larger blockchain sector. It’ll be exciting to see these projects grow and evolve over the coming years, as they begin to make their presence known.
