Posted on

Not A New Year For Crypto: 5 Crypto Trends You Should Watch Out For In 2022

Crypto took over headlines in 2021. From NFTs to the metaverse, there was no slow news day. Cryptocurrencies’ rapid growth presents an investment opportunity, not only for average individuals, but also for large corporations.

Digital assets are on the rise as a result of technical advancements. More countries around the world are attempting to implement decentralized technology as payment options. You must know which cryptocurrency trends will be relevant in 2022 in order to achieve profitable investments in this market.

 Crypto Trends To Watch
1. NFT are not going anywhere:

In the year 2021, Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) were the hottest topic in the blockchain world. Artwork such as Beeple’s The First 5000 Days fetched astronomical prices, bringing the concept of unique digital tokens stored on blockchains firmly into the public mind. It’s also well established in the music industry, with bands like as Kings of Leon, Shawn Mendes, and Grimes all releasing NFTs

The metaverse rocketed into public consciousness in Q4 2021 with Facebook, Microsoft, Baidu, Huawei buying into the hype. The metaverse is based on NFTs and ownership tokenization, which can link the physical and digital worlds.

NFT Sales by category. Source: CryptoSlam

NFT platforms such as OpenSea, games such as Axie Infinity, and artworks such as CryptoPunks now have their own team of traders, creators, and service providers. In 2021, the number of unique NFT wallets increased by over 1000 percent, a trend that is expected to continue into the new year.

2. Play-to-earn games are in great demand:

Axie Infinity, Splinterlands, Decentralands and The Sandbox are examples of play-to-earn games that are steadily introducing crypto into the public and increasing access to DeFi and NFT. According to the findings from a Coinlist’s poll, the interface between DeFi and gaming will continue to gain momentum in 2022, and game-oriented platforms like as Flow and Immutable X will become more important. A new generation of gamers will be able to own in-game assets and exchange them on secondary marketplaces thanks to the blockchain. As a result, these ecosystems are projected to witness significant advancements in the coming year and to be widely appreciated.

Play-to-earn users and transaction volume growth over the last few months. Source: DappRadar

We may see gaming businesses enter the crypto industry via mergers and acquisitions next year. Ubisoft, a AAA gaming business, has officially revealed that in-game products would be tokenized as NFTs on the Tezos network.

Related article | Metaverse versus GameFi: A New Blockchain War?

3. Smart Contract adoption expected to explode:

From NFT ownership to smart-contracts, the Ethereum network is used for a wide range of applications. Due to the rapid proliferation and adoption of Ethereum-based projects, Ethereum network transactions grew dramatically in 2021. (like NFTs). We expect smart contract networks like Ethereum and Solana to continue to grow in transaction size and value in the future, as the network of players and use cases expand.

Source: Messari, VanEck.
4. Bitcoin and altcoins to realize huge potential prices:

Price forecasting is notoriously tough, especially when it comes to Bitcoin and other digital assets.

In the current debate, targets in excess of $100,000 are rather frequent, but they are usually estimated to be at least several years away. Given recent price volatility, such a target may appear to be a stretch, but the trend toward wider use and integration supports this prediction.

BTC/USD rallying close to $50k. Source: TradingView

Given the strong macro tailwinds and growing inflation, it’s impossible to see a future where bitcoin falls out of favor while the rest of crypto rises. Despite the fact that bitcoin’s market share has dropped from 70% to 41% this year, Ethereum remains the sole true competitor. However, given the rising competition Ethereum faces from other L1s, it’s unlikely to see a flippening happening in 2022.

El Salvador became the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender in September 2021. It’s expected that has more countries adopt Bitcoin, the value will stabilize into a rally.

5. Crypto Regulation on steroids:

If 2021 was the year of talking about cryptocurrency regulation, then 2022 is likely to be the year of action. Because, if nothing else, 2021 has demonstrated that cryptocurrency isn’t going away anytime soon, which has made a number of regulators sit up and take note.

While some nations may maintain a restrictive stance on cryptocurrency, commentators believe that the overall trend will be toward greater acceptance of cryptocurrency, even if it means implementing some precautions. As regulators have a better understanding of the space, more crypto bans are less likely.

National cryptocurrencies, in which central banks develop their own currency that they can control rather than adopting existing decentralized ones, will also expand in 2022.

Stablecoins will be regulated in various parts of the world, with the United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom in particular working on stablecoin regulation. The Regulation on Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) in the EU will follow the same path as the UK.

Related article | Looking Ahead: What Should EU Regulations for Cryptocurrency Sector Look Like?

Featured image from Pixabay, charts from DappRadar, Messari, and TradingView

Posted on

EOS Community Revolts Against Brock Pierce’s Block.One, Won’t Pay 67M EOS

EOS and Block.One are back on the news. Is this one positive or negative, though? The EOS Network Foundation, a community-led organization, voted to decouple from Block.One. The ENF alleges that Block.One is no longer working for the benefit of the network. The company that created EOS will not get the 67M EOS that they had coming distributed over the next seven years. Even though the infamous Brock Pierce resigned from the company years ago, this will also affect his finances.

Related Reading | Peter Thiel and Bitmain Invest in Block.one to Support EOS Ecosystem

In The Present, What Does Brock Pierce Have To Do With Block.One?

This might’ve been the last straw. Just last month, Block.one announced that they were selling 45M EOS at a discount to one of Brock Pierce’s ventures.

“Today we are pleased to announce that we have agreed to transfer 45 million EOS tokens to Helios.

Led by Brock Pierce, Helios takes aim at serving the EOS community through several high ambitions, including creating an EOS Venture Capital fund, facilitating the creation of institutional-grade EOS financial products, supporting the creation of infrastructure, tooling and documentation for developers, and organizing community events around education, networking, and use case development.”

A pseudonymous Twitter user that broke the news, analyzed it as follows:

8.The #EOS community worked as one big DAO

A excellent example of democracy through voting and DpoS

The community is now well organized and in possession of hundreds of millions

Watch out for #EOS with the foundation and @EosNFoundation taking the lead

— PrrplFrog (@PrrplFrog) December 8, 2021

He says that “Block.One went in to a deal to sell their vested EOS tokens for a discount to their previous associate Brock Pierce!” And that, to stop this behavior, “The EOS community worked as one big DAO. An excellent example of democracy through voting and DpoS.” Even though the ENF is not a DAO, this might be a good example of how Decentralized Autonomous Organizations should work. However, should a decentralized protocol be so easy to control? Should the EOS Network Foundation be able to roll back a smart contract just like that?

In any case, according to The Block, the company is not yet in control of the 45M EOS they promised Brock Pierce. “Eight million of the tokens were already vested and controlled by Block.one while 37 million are still vesting (meaning they haven’t been released by the network yet).” Is this transaction what the EOS Network Foundation wants to block? 

EOS price chart on Coinbase | Source: EOS/USD on TradingView.com
What Did The EOS Network Foundation Want?

The ENF was negotiating with Block.One. According to The Block, their goal was to “get hold of the EOS network’s intellectual property.” However, one of Block.One’s side projects, an exchange called Bullish, owns the IP. And Block.One “wouldn’t publicly commit to getting the intellectual property back.” What did the company do instead? They announced this:

“In addition to the recently announced Helios transaction, today we are pleased to announce our intentions to offer the following grants of vesting tokens that are intended to be given over time, and subject to our token availability:

  • EOS Network Foundation – 30m EOS

  • Pomelo – 1m EOS

  • EdenOS – 1m EOS”

Related Reading | Cardano CEO Shares “Too Big Too Fast” Insight on EOS CTO Departure

How did the EOS Network Foundation react? They wanted the IP, not tokens. So, they created this proposal, which was approved. The ENF director, Yves La Rose, took to Twitter to declare victory.

“Through a super majority consensus, the EOS network has taken its future in its own hands. This begins a new era for EOS and highlights the power of the blockchain to enable a community to stand up against corporate interests that don’t align with theirs.”

Through a super majority consensus, the EOS network has taken its future in its own hands. This begins a new era for #EOS and highlights the power of the blockchain to enable a community to stand up against corporate interests that don’t align with theirs. https://t.co/8l62MBG67C

— Yves La Rose (@EosNFoundation) December 8, 2021

The community spoke. They will roll back the contract and block the 67M EOS that Block.One had coming. Where does that put them regarding the EOS network’s intellectual property? Does the ENF have any chance of getting that IP now?

Featured Image by Valentin Salja on Unsplash | Charts by TradingView