What is this post about?

Bitcoin brought to light the power of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. I wanted to share some other projects to show the world that blockchain technology is a viable solution to real world problems. I had a look into some of the projects that are disrupting industries like advertising, communication, energy, finance, gambling, video games, privacy, and social media - here’s what I found:

Advertising

Personal data is gathered and sold to third parties, but the money never makes it to the user whose data has generated the value for the company using it.

• Basic Attention Token (BAT)

  BAT is a product of Firefox co-founder Brendan Eich, raising over $20million in less than a minute during the ICO craze of 2017. BAT is a feature of the Brave browser, enabling users to be rewarded in $BAT for their attention. As of March 2020, Brave has amassed an impressive 4 million daily active users.

• DAD (DAD)

  DAD, short for Decentralized Advertising, is making advertising data more transparent without infringing on users’ privacy. DAD uses the Lightning Network to facilitate high frequency microtransactions.

Communication

Edward Snowden (among others) revealed the extent of surveillance technology collecting civilian communication data and expressed the need for a safe, secure and surveillance free method for individuals and businesses to communicate over the internet.

• Status (SNT)

  Status is an Ethereum based encrypted messaging app, web3 browser and $ETH/$SNT wallet. Status was one of the most funded ICOs in 2017 and have achieved +10k downloads on Android phones. Recently, Status upgraded their communication protocol to allow 10x more users, however this only raised their limit to 10k simultaneous users.

• Orchid (OXT)

  The Orchid network is an incentivized bandwidth proxying protocol for a decentralized VPN that allows users to buy bandwidth from a global pool of service providers using $OXT.

Privacy

With the shift away from physical cash and the move towards online payments, user privacy is at risk. Digitalization often means more surveillance, privacy is more important than ever.

• Monero (XMR)

  With Monero you can spend safely, knowing that others cannot see your balances or track your transaction activity - by default. Using a combination of ring signatures, ringCT and stealth addresses, Monero provides all the benefits of an open-source and decentralized cryptocurrency, without any privacy concessions.

• Loki Network (LOKI)

  Loki is a Monero fork modified to facilitate instant anonymous transactions and communication. The Loki Network consists of Lokinet, an onion routing protocol similar to Tor, and Session, a cross-platform end-to-end encrypted messaging application with anonymous registration that has been downloaded +100k times. Both applications use Loki’s masternode network to anonymously route data.

Energy

Energy markets are inefficient and act in the interest of the middlemen, not the generator or consumer. With the continual transition to cleaner energy, the energy sector is looking to leverage new and existing technologies.

• Power Ledger (POWR)

  Power Ledger has developed a world-first blockchain enabled energy trading platform to make energy markets more efficient. Currently used in Australia, Thailand, India, Japan and the United States, The Power Ledger platform enables the trade of electricity in real time with all transactions recorded on the blockchain.

• WePower (WPR)

  WePower marketplace connects companies directly with green energy generators so that all companies, no matter the size, can make a tangible environmental impact whilst buying green energy at competitive rates with full transparency.

Financial Sector

The financial system is out of date and in serious need of an update. Traditional banking only runs during business hours and cross border payments are exceptionally slow, inefficient and costly. As we continue transitioning to a more digital world, money is making the same change.

• Synthetix (SNX)

  Synthetix is a decentralized synthetic asset issuance protocol that enables minting of synthetic assets when $SNX tokens are locked in the contract. Assets are assigned exchange rates via price feeds supplied by an oracle and can be traded on the Synthetix Exchange DApp.

• COTI (COTI)

  COTI’s DAG-based protocol combines infrastructure, services and application layers to create a holistic payments solution which is modular and fully customizable. At the core lies the Trustchain, which assigns trust scores using machine learning to increase transaction speeds and reduce transaction costs.

Gambling

Gambling usually takes place in a physical or virtual casino, where the house always wins. Blockchain based gambling platforms will provide more transparency on how odds are formed, fees are charged and how payouts are scheduled.

• WINk (WIN)

  WINk was the first DApp launched on Tron and boasts the largest library of casino games on the blockchain. WINk’s platform provides a set of tools and resources for developers that allow them to easily create unique gaming DApps. The scaling solutions implemented in WINk’s games have completely eliminated transaction costs.

• Casino Coin (CSC)

  CasinoCoin is an open source, peer-to-peer, cryptocurrency specifically designed for the regulated online gambling industry. CasinoCoin uses a modified version of the Ripple code, optimised to work within the regulated gaming industry, but also with an eye to work within the banking system long term.

IoT

With the introduction of IoT technology, the amount of data points being collected need to be managed and secured to avoid massive data breaches and leaks. The use of Blockchain technology can increase transparency and virtual incorruptibility.

• Walton Chain (WTC)

  Waltonchain combines RFID, Blockchain and IoT technologies to help business merchants monitor their production, logistics, warehousing and retail aspects of the supply chain. This ensures all data is authentic and reliable and increases transparency and reduces human error - which would have been useful for their infamous Twitter giveaway...

• IoTeX (IOTX)

  Backed by a global team of research scientists and engineers, IoTeX combines blockchain, secure hardware, and data services innovations to empower intelligent IoT networks and machine economies; an ecosystem where information and value can be exchanged by physical and virtual participants on a global scale.

Video Games

The video game industry is an ever evolving space which often adopted technological advancements before many others. The use of Blockchain is being explored for things such as in-game Microtransactions and digital collectables.

• Enjin Coin (ENJ)

  Enjin is an ERC20 token built on the Ethereum network which aims to allow the gaming industry to create and manage their own virtual goods. Game developers could create their own in-game digital assets for their gaming community to use which would all be backed by the parent coin, $ENJ. Enjin soard to popularity on announcement of their partnership with Samsung.

• Decentraland (MANA)

  Decentraland is a fully decentralized and open market where you can discover, buy, sell, and manage parcels of virtual land. Using Decentraland’s editor, you can design your own pieces of land in the virtual world. Decentraland’s world is built around MANA, an ERC20 token used for trading goods and services provided by users.

Social

Typical social platforms are run by centralized companies and depending on their jurisdiction, they may not be able to serve certain people. Censorship resistance is critical to allow for freedom of speech.

• Steem (STEEM)

  Steemit is a blockchain-based blogging and social media website, which rewards its users with $STEEM for publishing and curating content. All text content is stored on the Blockchain for eternity, although images still require a hosting platform such as Imgur.

• Hive (HIVE)

  Hive, a new fork of Steem, recently launched in an attempt to limit exchanges from using customer holdings to participate in governance attacks, as witnessed on the Steem blockchain earlier this year. This comes with a move towards providing a remedy for distribution issues and reliance on a central entity for code and infrastructure.

Looking forward

There are literally thousands of projects out there, these are just some of the projects I've found to be doing interesting things. If I’ve missed something super important, let me know. I might look into blockchain projects next that have the most current active user bases if you guys like these kinds of posts.