DeFi, NFTs and Ethereum – What’s Ahead in 2022?
Many agree that 2021 was an incredible year for crypto. Much of the year’s growth is due to events including the progression of the DeFi sector, a massive first wave of adoption for NFTs, and the continued addition of BTC, ETH, and DOT to balance sheets for institutional investors. As we turn our attention to the new year, there are many reasons to be excited for crypto in 2022. We can expect many more brands to show interest or become fully involved in crypto, more focus from regulators, an increase in mainstream adoption of technologies like NFTs, and even major improvements from leading chains like Ethereum.
DeFi may continue to see an increase in growth as more users become comfortable with accessing it, and more projects and platforms streamline the user experience by granting access to more assets in more places. DeFi platforms will also see an increase in assets offered as more chains begin building layer 2 solutions and as multi-chain opportunities emerge. DeFi’s user base should see continued growth as education and apetite for NFTs this year. We can also expect more immersive NFT opportunities to help bridge the gap between the physical and digital world with things like NFT ticketing, coupons, and other emerging use-cases. All of this will add more value and attention to NFTs incrwareness continue to reach more users in crypto and beyond.
NFTs will likely see an even bigger year in 2022 compared to the incredible $24.9 billion volume they experienced in 2021. As more brands begin to experiment and build in the space, the opportunities and value that NFTs will bring are many. All of this momentum with the continued increase in interest from brands and consumers in existing industries like gaming, and also new innovative use-cases such as fashion, will fuel even more apeasing their use and value.
Talent wars in blockchain are likely to continue and increase for 2022 as well. I believe this has unexpected value and potential for the growth of the industry. While many organizations will struggle and possibly even fail if they cannot source enough talent, many other projects will succeed in not only fostering talent but sourcing it from outside of our industry – which increases the overall talent pool and accelerates innovation for the industry. Additionally, many blockchain employees already are or become actively engaged users of blockchain, helping to grow and educate the industry to reach more users within their own social circles.
Finally, Ethereum 2.0 will go through a massive transformation as it approaches the very exciting “merge” event sometime in June 2022. This critical step will usher in a new era for Ethereum on its path to Proof-of-Stake. When the “merge” occurs, the current Proof-of-Work chain will join with the Proof-of-Stake chain. This merging will create a new version of Ethereum as one full network capable of supporting further advances in DeFi and blockchain technology. For example, Ethereum’s sharding functionality is expected to greatly increase transaction speed for the network, with some predicting an increase to 100k transactions per second or more.
With so much on the horizon for 2022, it will be an exciting year for blockchain. Some projects to look forward to this year include Polkadot’s launch of XCM (which will offer real use through parachains like Parallel Finance), the implementation of the next phase of Ethereum, many major crypto events including Consensus coming back to the physical world, and the continued meteoric rise of NFTs. It is an extremely thrilling time to be a part of blockchain and to experience so many opportunities in one industry.
