Five Crypto Projects Set to Shake up 2021https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2021-01-28/five-crypto-projects-set-shake-2021If 2018 and 2019 were the crypto winter, then 2020 was the year that the sun came out, and 2021 is looking set to be a scorcher. With Bitcoin, Ether, and all major alts undergoing epic bull runs, DeFi continuing to attract massive investment, and old stalwarts like NFTs and enterprise blockchain making a comeback, there’s plenty to look forward to this year.
However, in case you’re on the lookout for some specific projects, here’s a shortlist of some hot picks worth watching over the next few months.
1. GoodDollarAccording to the World Bank, there are 1.7 billion people globally without access to the banking system – around one-third of the adult population. Fintech is often touted as the solution to this challenge, but so far, it hasn’t been able to bridge the gap so far despite broader adoption.
GoodDollar launched in 2020 to reverse this trend, using blockchain and cryptocurrencies to promote and foster financial inclusion. It offers users a daily digital basic income paid in the native GoodDollar currency (G$), and has already seen a significant takeup of 48,000 users in over 180 countries claiming a total of 40 million G$ tokens. People are already using their tokens to buy and sell products, digital services, and build entrepreneurial side-projects.
GoodDollar utilizes a digital income network which leverages DeFi protocols to generate yield, which is converted to G$ and distributed as UBI. The general idea is that GoodDollar acts as a financial onboarding tool to the larger digital asset classes such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, and the broader financial system.
This year, GoodDollar plans to expand its payment network, increasing the utility and hence the takeup of G$ with the ultimate goal of increasing financial inclusion.
2. Safex Amazon may be the undisputed king of e-commerce, but it’s not without its problems. Merchants on the platform get a particularly raw deal. Amazon isn’t only a marketplace – it sells many of its own products, along with controlling the algorithm, so vendors are left in a position where they just can’t compete.
Furthermore, with only a small number of e-commerce platforms on the market, fees are often exorbitantly high.
Buyers don’t fare much better, losing out on seeing items they might want to buy versus those that Amazon wants to sell.
Safex now offers a blockchain-enabled alternative. Sellers can list their products on the Safex marketplace for just a fraction of what they’d pay on the centralized platforms. Funds appear instantly in their accounts, thanks to payments in crypto. Safex operates its own privacy-focused blockchain featuring a dual-token system. Holders of the Safex Token (SFT) are entitled to a share of 5% of revenues from the platform, while Safex Cash (SFX) is the medium of exchange on the marketplace.
Safex recently launched its platform after five years in development. Revenue distribution will begin in 2021.
3. Matic NetworkEven after the fanfare about the Ethereum 2.0 beacon chain launching in December, it’s evident that Ethereum scalability is still at least another year or two away. In the meantime, even Vitalik Buterin himself is vocal about the fact that Ethereum will depend on layer two networks to ensure app developers and users don’t suffer from slow transaction times and high fees.
This is where platforms like Matic Network come in. Developed using Ethereum’s Plasma off-chain scaling technology, Matic can scale to 65,000 transactions per second. Furthermore, it offers far lower transaction fees and an enhanced user experience compared with Ethereum, thanks to a developer toolkit.
Matic received early backing from Binance and Coinbase Ventures. It launched on mainnet in June 2020, and in November, it was the first network outside Ethereum to launch native Chainlink oracle feeds. It’s worth noting that even when Ethereum 2.0 finally launches in its full form, layer two platforms like Matic will be critical to preventing overload of the new chain. Therefore, expect to see more high-throughput apps in use cases such as gaming and DeFi migrate to Matic over 2021.
4. Orion ProtocolDespite significant investment in DeFi in 2020, liquidity remains a problem almost across the board. Even as the total value locked has soared above $22 billion, the top five applications account for around two-thirds of the total liquidity in DeFi.
Orion Protocol aims to overcome this issue by aggregating the liquidity of the entire crypto markets – centralized and decentralized – into its decentralized platform. Combining both makes it the first of its kind to do so. Along with addressing the challenge of fragmented liquidity, Orion Protocol also shoots down another issue. Newcomers to cryptocurrency have a bewildering array of choices regarding where to trade, with little help understanding the differences between platforms. Having a single, unified platform makes it far easier.
Governing the protocol is a proprietary staking mechanism called Delegated Proof of Broker, which fulfills every function via a decentralized brokerage with the native ORN token at its core.
Orion Protocol launched its first product, the Orion Terminal, in December 2020. It’s currently undergoing closed testing with a group of brokers but is open for new users to sign up for the public launch in early 2021.
5. AavegotchiNon-fungible tokens are gearing up to become one of the hottest trends in crypto this year. Aavegotchi is combining the concept of NFTs with DeFi, offering some intriguing possibilities for future innovation.
Like Cryptokitties, Aavegotchi allows users to create their own NFTs, in this case, represented as a pixelated ghost avatar rather than a cat. Users can game with them – for example, by battling with other players or upgrading them with wearables and weaponry. However, the DeFi spin is that each Aavegotchi also represents DeFi collateral, staked and earning yield on the Aave app. To create an Aavegotchi, users have to stake specific aTokens generated from Aave.
Aavegotchi was due to launch on Ethereum in the first days of 2021. However, due to spiraling congestion and sky-high transaction fees, the team pulled the launch at the last minute. Now, the development team has confirmed via Twitter that the app will launch on Matic Network imminently.
