In the blockchain world, it is impossible to stop innovation. Day after day new projects emerges with ideas that promise to change the future of the industry and the way people interact with blockchain technology.
Not all projects that arise are indeed successful, as many end up lacking adequate structure, presenting non-productive business models, or even because the market is not mature enough to receive the idea.
However, this is not a problem for thousands of developers and executives around the world, who seek to create blockchain-based solutions and do not hesitate to materialize their ideas.
In this article, we have compiled some of the most promising projects in the current blockchain landscape.
Innovative Solutions vs Insistent Issues
In the blockchain world, some issues became even more insistent as the industry gained a huge volume of users and non-stop transactions. If there was a list of the most insistent issues that plague the development of the blockchain industry, it would certainly include:
- Lack of scalability and interoperability
- Difficult integration between projects
- Technical complexities
- Lack of liquidity
- Low processing speed
What to do, then? The best approach is to stand up to the challenge and create feasible solutions to address each of these issues in the present moment.
Interesting read: New Generation of Blockchain Financial Products Demonstrate the Market’s Maturity
Persistence
Persistence is a platform that utilizes DeFi functionalities and properties to power debt marketplaces entities to deliver much-needed surplus capital to entities that need it.
The rise of decentralized finance changed the way people deal with capital around the world, which directly affects the supply and demand of financial resources.
Through blockchain and smart-contract technology, it is easier to move capital around different countries in a trustless and permissionless manner. Persistence wants to empower both lenders and borrowers with optimal capital movement.
Plus, the project employs asset tokenization strategically, which means to tokenize real-world assets (letters of credit, invoices, bills of lading) utilizing NFTs.
Once an asset has been tokenized into an NFT, lenders/borrowers are free to trade or use it as collateral rapidly and transparently, moving it worldwide in a borderless mechanism.
Polkadex
Polkadot is providing the gateway for scalable cross-chain solutions in the DEX niche. One of them is Polkadex, which is a fully decentralized platform where users can experience high-frequency trading with high liquidity and rapid transaction speed.
The platform relies on two distinct ways to ensure a constant liquidity influx- the Polkadot Parachain and the Snowfork Ethereum Bridge.
According to the project’s team, they believe that AMMs (Automated Market Makers) can help order book-based DEXes to combine fast execution, high processing speed, trading bot support, and on-chain marketing bots, which is an exclusive feature of the platform.
Recently, Polkadex released its testnet version 2.0. The mainnet launch is expected to take place between the first and second quarter of 2021, followed by a public ICO.
HydraDX
The platform is a cross-chain liquidity protocol that aims to provide next-level transaction settlement and interoperability.
Some of the biggest blockchains in the industry are constantly suffering from network clogging and high fees, so HydraDX wants to provide a way around this issue. Built as a Polkadot parachain, HydraDX has the purpose of enabling seamless programmable value exchange.
The interoperability between Polkadot and Ethereum blockchains enables HydraDX to provide a thriving ecosystem where users have access to shared liquidity pools, token swap solutions, and incentives given to users, liquidity providers, and validators (native token HDX).
Currently, the platform is still in the pre-launch stage, as the mainnet launch is expected to take place after the second quarter of 2021.
Finxflo
The hardship to integrate different projects in the blockchain industry is reflected by several issues users experience when trading digital assets, such as having to possess multiple accounts, going to multiple KYC processes and wallets to finalize a single transaction.
Plus, there is a price disparity across different exchanges, which does not permit users to have a guarantee of the best price.
Finxflo aims to be the world’s first hybrid liquid aggregator by utilizing a protocol aggregation engine that reunites the best rates and prices from all supported protocols.
The platform wants to reunite the best of both CeFi and DeFi protocols to deliver a secure and efficient environment for seamless crypto trading, liquidity mining, and staking with insured custodial storage of funds.
Through the exchange aggregation engine, leading exchanges from all over the world will be reunited within a single dashboard, where users can always get the best bid in the market.
Plus, the platform wants to facilitate the onboarding process, offering a seamless manner involving only one account, one wallet, and one KYC procedure to permit users to access multiple exchanges without the need to manage multiple accounts.
The project is headquartered in Singapore and is regulated by the Monetary Authority Singapore (MAS).
Crypto-based Options Are on the Rise
Options are financial derivatives that permit but do not obligate buyers to buy/ sell an underlying asset at a specified price within a set period.
With the expansion of the derivatives niche within the crypto industry, many projects are building ideas to fill the gaps that still exist in the field.
Charm Finance
Based on a radical and unique mechanism, Charm is a platform that promises to deliver the most efficient manner to create liquidity for options markets.
The project’s mechanism is based on a deep mathematical property commonly found in prediction markets and now applied to option markets.
Consequently, it allows the protocol to create liquidity for options markets without relying on liquidity providers by using a self-sustaining option AMM.
Going in the opposite direction most AMM-based markets would go, Charm relies neither on option writers nor on quotation pricing formulas. Instead, they offer an unlimited supply of options with prices entirely driven by supply-and-demand.
Despite all these sound ideas, only time will tell if the protocol will reach success, as it is still in the earliest stages of development. Consequently, users are not recommended to put in any amount of value they cannot risk losing.
The platform has decided to materialize the idea bit-by-bit, deploying new option markets gradually and gathering the community feedback to make adjustments.
PowerTrade
Considering Bitcoin’s influence both in terms of value and popularity, Bitcoin-based options are being offered on an increasing scale. Following the trend, PowerTrade wants to level up the Bitcoin options trading by offering an all-mobile trading platform.
Their goal is to provide an intuitive and user-friendly tool where users can easily manage their BTC options portfolio, with market assessments, risk management, and exposure to profitable opportunities.
PowerTrade wants to eliminate any burden that could preclude someone from investing in BTC options by delivering a simple, rapid, and result-oriented mobile investment platform.
Recently, the project managed to raise almost $5million via token sales in a funding round led by industry-leading firms such as Pantera Capital and others.
Plus, the idea is backed by important figures in the industry, including Synthetix founder Kain Warwick, Kyber’s Loi Luu, and CoinGecko’s Bobby Ong. The project is expected to be launched in the first quarter of 2021.
Solving Real-World Issues with Blockchain-based Innovation
Despite the popularity of blockchain technology, its applications are still not close enough to the daily lives of most people worldwide.
In this sense, many projects believe that creating blockchain-based solutions to solve real-world issues will help to get more and more people outside of the “crypto bubble” to adopt it in their day-by-day activities.
Maps.me
Maps.me is a powerful everyday mobile app that integrates DeFi functionalities. Maps.me 1.0 has a solid 9-year history as the leading mobile application for cross-border navigation and offline maps.
Powered by the native MAPS token, Maps 2.0 will allow users to navigate with online and offline maps, exploring various destinations worldwide while booking hotels and finding the best spots.
Plus, the MAPS token will be the backbone of Maps’ ecosystem, fully governing the platform’s net revenues. With a circulating supply of 75 million tokens, MAPS will offer several benefits to committed holders, including next-level app benefits and lower fees.
Businesses who commit to MAPS will also receive their fair share of benefits, such as having highlighted location on the map and better position in user searches.
The 2.0 version of Maps.me will also introduce an exclusive wallet provided by Solana blockchain. Users will be able to spend cryptocurrencies instantly and safely. Plus, they will be allowed to exchange foreign currency and earn interest on their funds.
Unfortunately, USA residents are not permitted to participate in MAPS sales. The Maps.me native token is available on Bitmax, FTX, Gate.io, Uniswap, and SushiSwap.
Vauld
Vauld is a platform that aims to offer a full banking experience solely based on blockchain. Their goal is to provide a solution that would not need government acceptance and mass adoption to disrupt the traditional banking sector.
The problem with most decentralized banking-like platforms is that users are still not experiencing the same level of ease to store value, earn passive income on savings, spend or exchange money as they would experience in TradFi services.
Nonetheless, Vauld wants to solve this issue by creating an all-in-one banking platform where users can easily:
- Store their cryptocurrency in a ledger-trusted vault
- Earn interest or borrow funds without necessarily liquidating their cryptocurrency
- Spend their money as they please (either via debit or credit card)
- Exchange cryptocurrencies for other digital assets or fiat currency
Vauld’s app is currently available for iOS and Android, but most features are still in the pre-launch stage.
Armor
Volatility and risk are factors inherently associated with cryptocurrency. Armor is a platform structured as a decentralized brokerage to provide crypto-asset coverage across various protocols, including:
Armor employs a unique insurance system underwritten by Nexus Mutual combined with permissionless access, minimized costs, and increased flexibility.
Users simply have to pay what they owe, as the platform offers flexible parameters in terms of amount and duration of coverage. Currently, the only supported currency for coverage is ETH, but options will hopefully increase as the platform matures.
Armor V2 initial product is expected to be launched on mainnet in the first quarter of 2021.
Combining DeFi and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs)
Expected to become 2021’s biggest trend in the blockchain industry, NFTs are simply a hit. Endeavors like CryptoKitties, CryptoPunks, Axie Infinity, Sorare, and Gods Unchained proved that NFTs are not a hype train, but a powerful gateway to DeFi’s mass adoption.
Dego Finance
Dego is a decentralized platform self-described as an “NFT + DeFi Fusion Reactor”. The project provides a DeFi ecosystem in which users can interact with different functionalities such as staking, governance, NFTs, and much more.
They aim to provide a “stand-alone but open” ecosystem to allow users to follow all the lifecycle of an NFT token, including a token’s mining, auction, and trading. Plus, they aim to act as a cross-chain Layer 2 infrastructure to blockchain projects involving NFT applications.
The platform’s native token DEGO works as its governance and equity token and can only be minted through liquidity mining. DEGO holders receive a share of the platform’s dividends and participate in the community by proposing solutions and voting decisions.
Dego’s UI has an 80’s Lego-like approach, featuring an old Windows desktop with distinct icons representing different purposes (e.g., governance, stake, NFT market, etc.).
Closing Words
The future of the blockchain industry lies in providing feasible solutions in the present to ensure high-speed transaction processing, lower fees, interoperability, regulatory security, and next-level user experience. However, the task is not as easy as it may sound.
It is not uncanny to see many blockchain-based platforms come and go. While some projects manage to stay sustainable in the digital asset market, others simply cannot stand the pressure and fade away with all their “great plans to change the world”.
Consequently, it is difficult to predict how a platform will perform in a real business environment. Hopefully, most of these innovative projects will thrive and provide gateways for blockchain’s increasing popularity and mass adoption.