The recent drop in cryptocurrency prices might be discouraging to some traders, but those who follow the underlying technology of the blockchain are more excited than ever as new and more practical use cases are being developed.
Digital Currency is Only One Use for Blockchain
For many, the first experience with blockchain technology is trying out a crypto faucet, participating in an airdrop, or investing in cryptocurrency through an ICO or a digital exchange.
However, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are only the first use case for blockchain technology. There are many more in development, with applications in sectors as varied as health care, artificial intelligence, travel, auto sales, waste management, and crowdfunding.
While there is still a long way to go before we are all using blockchain regularly in our daily lives, there are some already existing applications that bring us closer to this goal.
Below are some ways you can use blockchain right now in your everyday life.
The Brave Browser
Brave is a blockchain-powered web browser. In September 2018, Brave exceeded 10 million downloads from the Google Play Store. Currently, four million people use Brave each month and it has 26,000 content publishers.
Brave is appealing because it protects the data privacy of users. It prevents the unauthorized collection of personal information and stops unwanted ads from using up data and processing power. The company estimates the average mobile user pays as much as $23 a month in data charges to download ads and trackers. Brave blocks ads and trackers, so users don’t pay for them. Brave is also faster than other web browsers because it blocks these resource consuming intrusions.
Brave has its a native cryptocurrency, the Basic Attention Token (BAT). This means readers of Brave content can also reward publishers while they are browsing with BAT tokens, thus monetizing content for creators, not advertisers. Soon users will be able to opt-in to view adverts in return for rewards paid in the BAT cryptocurrency.
PundiX
PundiX is a blockchain startup that aims to use cryptocurrency to create a global cashless payment system. Its blockchain-enabled Point-of-Sale (XPoS) devices let shops, cafes and convenience stores sell cryptocurrency and accept cryptocurrency payments for goods and services. All a merchant has to do it have an XPoS in their store. The device works with a simple mobile wallet (XWallet) that customers use to make payments in physical stores. It has a simple interface for buying and selling BTC, ETH, XEM, and QTUM. It also has a check-out menu to execute purchases with cryptocurrencies. With every transaction, the XPoS prints a receipt for the customer and tracks orders and inventory for the store owner.
PundiX delivered its first 500 units in late June 2018 to participating businesses located in Hong Kong. Pundi is now accepting orders from merchants wishing to install their XPoS system and plans to deliver 100,000–700,000 XPoS devices to at least 12 different countries over the next three years.
The PundiX devices interact with two blockchains — Ethereum and NEM (XEM). Nem was chosen because it is popular with Asian financial institutions, and its technology enables nearly instantaneous payments. The PundiX project builds on the success of Pundi-Pundi, which is already a popular (non-blockchain-based) cashless payment app in Indonesia that uses smartphones to make instant payments in retail and restaurant outlets.
MetaMask
At this stage, to take advantage of blockchain technology you need to use decentralized applications (dApps). Dapps bridge blockchain and conventional technology allowing them to interact. Most dApps are built on the Ethereum blockchain. Though other blockchains like EOS and TRON are also seeing increasing dApp development. Given the uneven development of blockchain technology, its likely that dApps will grow in popularity in the short-term.
MetaMask is a browser add-on that lets users access Ethereum-based dApps. It has an integrated wallet too, so dApp token transactions can be done seamlessly. The wallet can track balances across multiple applications and platforms, integrate with hardware (“cold”) wallets, and help secure token transfers. A mobile version of MetaMask is planned for release in 2019.
CryptoKitties
CryptoKitties was one of the first dApp entertainment platforms to go mainstream. It is an interactive cat-breeding game where cats (“cryptokitties”) can be created and traded. Amazingly, some rarer cryptokitties have sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Soon, Cryptokitties users will be able to import CryptoKitties NFTS into the dApp to fight in mortal combat style matches to win kittiefight tokens & ETH.
In total, the CryptoKitties dApp has executed 3.2 million blockchain-based transactions. It has been so popular it put pressure on the Ethereum blockchain to improve its speed and scalability to keep up with transaction volume. However, the popularity of CryptoKitties has waned in recent months. Down from a high of nearly 10,000 daily users, it now has around 3,000.
CryptoKitties creator Dappper Labs (based in Vancouver) recently raised $15 million from Venrock, Google Ventures, and Samsung Next, to fund its latest expansion. The big name backers reflect the growth potential of CryptoKitties. Dapper Labs is working with top entertainment brands to increase blockchain’s mainstream usage.
Huntercoin
Huntercoin is one of the first blockchain-based games. It is an RPG that launched in September 2013. The game runs on the Namecoin blockchain. Players collect the game’s own currency (HUC) by finding coins in the virtual universe of the game and bringing them to one of several ‘banks,’ which transfer them to the players’ crypto-wallets. Players can also engage in conflict and combat over resources and territory. The game is still popular among cryptocurrency enthusiasts today.
EOS Knights
EOS Knights is a role-playing game based on the EOS blockchain that launched in September 2018. Despite being new, EOS Knights is already the fourth most used dApp globally and has nearly 5,000 users a month. Players can collect and create items to make their knights stronger or to trade on a marketplace powered by the EOS token. Whether EOS Knights ultimately succeeds or not, there is no doubt a blockchain-based game with mainstream appeal will be developed soon.
Conclusion
Blockchain technology is racing ahead of cryptocurrencies in the quest for mainstream use. While Bitcoin might have been what first brought blockchain into the public eye, it seems like decentralized, blockchain-based applications are going to outgrow that use case. Thus, while it might not be the case that we will all be using cryptocurrencies in the next few years, chances are we will all be using blockchain-based applications.