Blockchain development forecast in 2023 from BeFund experts: where to invest, what to know and what not to do?

Blockchain development forecast in 2023 from BeFund experts: where to invest, what to know and what not to do?

“What’s ahead of us?” — a question that interests absolutely everyone, and to which no one is able to give a comprehensive answer. However, it is quite possible to predict the development of blockchain and related technologies, at least for the coming year 2023. To do this, you need to have in-depth analytical data, have practical experience in modern development and use critical thinking. The task is not simple, if you act yourself. Therefore, the experienced team of BeFund, which has everything you need from the list above, spent a lot of time and prepared proven analytics and a reasonable forecast just for you. Note, however, that this cannot be taken as the only possible and correct prophecy — we at BeFund are professional developers, not soothsayers. A lot depends on the events that have even happened, as well as on you personally. And we work to make your choice and action as timely and profitable as possible.

Results of 2022

Any prediction is possible only on the basis of preliminary findings, otherwise it is just a work of fiction. Therefore, it is necessary to have a complete picture of the gains and losses of the current year in order to try to look into the next. And a lot of unusual events happened: some can safely be called fatal, but others are promising and fundamental. Therefore, first of all, we highlighted the main trends of the passing year, which are worth special attention and understanding.

“Crypto winter”

Cryptocurrencies have brought blockchain technology worldwide recognition, so their impact on the overall development of the IT segment is enormous. And it is not only a matter of reputation: most financial transactions in blockchain projects take place precisely with the use of cryptocurrencies or other digital assets. Unfortunately, 2022 will be remembered by cryptocurrency owners as the harshest crypto winter in history, or at least its beginning. Although the collapse of the market has already happened several years ago, the scale of this year’s fall is simply amazing.

So, the capitalization of the cryptocurrency industry for the current year has decreased by almost $2 trillion. The value of Bitcoin has fallen by almost 70% from its all-time high, although the BTC Dominance Index has remained unchanged since January at ~40% market share. The exchange rates of other popular currencies also went down, which strengthened the position of another part of altcoins, which previously received less attention.

Among the negative consequences, we have, of course, the loss of profits and investments — this is clear and does not need explanation. However, the crypto-winter also has its advantages: firstly, the situation is not new and corresponds to a reduced copy of 2018, so the right lessons will allow you to return and multiply what was lost. Unfortunately, despite different opinions, the bottom has not yet been reached, so it is too early to do them. Second, the crisis exposed unsustainable players in the crypto industry with weak tokennomics and ruthlessly put them out of business. And that’s another story.

“Bear Hunt”

The big surprise of 2022 for many was the collapse of seemingly powerful companies, including the FTX exchange, its associated trading company Alameda Research, the Three Arrows Capital fund, the Terra ecosystem, and many others. All of them had problems with liquidity and simply could not withstand a long bearish trend for trading. The all-powerful Binance is in no hurry to save the situation, which means it is definitely beneficial to Changpeng Zhao.

The situation became a spark that started a big fire that is still going on. One of the important reasons is the imperfect regulation of the cryptocurrency market, which is both a positive and a negative point. On the one hand, control over decentralized projects is nonsense, because the use of distributed lists is designed to counteract centralization. On the other hand, it makes it possible to carry out opaque schemes and, in fact, make money out of thin air for those who know how to do it. But, as we can see, time puts everything in its place.

At the end of 2022, other, not so large, but influential market players, such as Grayscale Investments, have liquidity problems. None of them can prove their ability, which means that in the future we may witness further falls and billion-dollar losses. Especially against the background of further subsidence of the cryptocurrency market.

Changes in work methods

The autumn of the past year has deprived an insane number of miners around the world of their earnings and turned various farms into a useless accumulation of video cards and expensive chips. Ethereum, the world’s second-largest blockchain by capitalization, took perhaps the most important step in its seven-year history — it changed its transaction confirmation algorithms, which drastically reduced the cost of maintaining its work.

According to estimates, the previous proof-of-work method required as much electricity as the whole of Belgium. The transition to proof-of-stake has reduced these costs by more than 1,000 times and requires more expensive hardware. Many other blockchains work in a similar way, but Ethereum is the largest and most influential. That is why the change of methods is important not only for saving resources, which is actually not even the main thing in this situation. In addition, it sets a new trend for other systems that still remain on Proof-of-work. Proof-of-stake opens up completely new opportunities for Ethereum, so there should be no doubt that we will soon receive new proposals from Vitalik Buterin and his team.

But there is a rather controversial thing that overshadows this event. The issue is the difficult relations of cryptocurrencies with the governments of various countries, and most importantly, with the United States. Many powerful crypto exchanges keep their assets in Ethereum, so they don’t need trouble with the United States leadership.

Centralized opponents

Meanwhile, the confrontation between the governments of world states and international organizations is entering a new stage. Somewhere the conditions are improving, for example regarding the legalization of blockchain in general and cryptocurrencies in particular, and somewhere – the opposite. On December 14, 2022, a scheduled meeting of the Fed took place, which can be called historic in the context of recent history. Here they mentioned a decrease in inflation by more than 2%, but the reason for this was several previous interest rate increases of 70 basis points each. The maximum rate increase for 2023 is possible up to 5.25%, but Fed Chairman Jerome Paul said that he does not know what will actually happen to the US economy next year. And this has a direct impact on everything related to crypto-currencies, since the USA has the largest concentration of assets. The Fed’s next meeting is on February 1st, so everyone will be looking forward to some favorable readings.

The rapid development of blockchain technologies and the International Monetary Fund, which estimated the capitalization of all projects at $2.5 trillion, are worrying. The organization is already convinced that this significantly affects financial relations in the world, which means it needs intervention and regulation.

However, in general, the implementation of blockchain in various manifestations around the world is growing rapidly. And although the governments of various countries are looking for leverage, the trend is leaning towards facilitation rather than opposition. It produces different results everywhere, but they too show positive changes, regardless of economic conditions. For example, Ukraine, which has been in a state of armed conflict with the Russian Federation since February 2022, at the same time adopted laws on the legalization of digital assets and already by the end of the year is among the leading countries in the use of cryptocurrencies.

According to BeFund experts, these were the main events of the past year, which will depend on the development of blockchain in the future. And if it seemed to you that the current situation is more depressing than promising, we invite you to the next section, where we will consider investment options and development directions.

Promising directions of blockchain 2023

If you’re wondering whether it’s worth investing in blockchain projects in general, the only possible answer here is yes, you should. In addition, not only in everything that is provided with software, but also in the hardware part that ensures its operation. Blockchain belongs to the high-tech market, which has been promising since the very beginning of this concept and will remain so throughout its existence. Choosing a specific project, platform, blockchain or system is another matter. Global advice from BeFund: do not make investment decisions without a personal study of each individual issue, and when choosing, consider the project’s ability to systematize. And now let’s get down to business.

Coins and altcoins

As developers, we should not be giving financial advice. But precisely because we are developers with many years of experience in blockchain projects using cryptocurrency, we can do it from our own point of view. Even with the long-term decline in the exchange rate, there is no reason to stop investing in Bitcoin and Ethereum. It should not be forgotten that each of these individual projects is an example of solid values and a symbol of reliability. At the time of writing, cryptocurrency rates are falling, but this will not always be the case: stock market crashes occurred in both 2015 and 2019, which were inevitably followed by upswings.

The main thing is to competently form your own cryptocurrency portfolio and not focus solely on one of them. In addition to the well-known coins that everyone has heard of, the market is replenished with new ICOs and the existing currencies are changing noticeably. We have prepared a selection of 5 altcoins with excellent indicators for a long-term investment until 2025:

Metacade (MCADE)

A platform from the GameFi world that has every reason to fly to the moon. We will talk about the gaming industry later, and there is also a lot of interesting stuff there. The Metacade project team is working on the development of Play-to-Earn and aims to seize the leadership of the largest digital arcade Web-3. And for this, they have all the possibilities: a capable team, fresh ideas, and most importantly, the interest of investors. Currently, 1,400,000,000 tokens are in the ICO stage, which is 70% of the total. Owners of MCADE tokens will be able to participate in the development of the entire project through voting and offer their own ideas and alpha testing of new games. Currently, the value of one coin is about $0.008, and in the perspective of 2025, it should rise to $6-$8, that is, soar 750-1000 times. Altcoin is interesting, first of all, for innovative ideas that really have all the prospects to enrich the world of cryptogames with new effective solutions. The creators of Metacade intend to eventually transform into a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), and all this gives altcoin the first place in the ranking of the best to buy.

XPR

Ripple Labs’ proprietary asset, created as a global reserve for financial institutions. It is interesting that the cryptocurrency saw the light of day in 2012: three years after the launch of Bitcoin and three years before Ethereum on its own decentralized blockchain with a unique technology designed to serve centralized banking systems. The main goal of the developers was to provide the possibility of inexpensive transfer of funds around the world in the form of fiat currency. In fact, they have succeeded because it costs banks much less to service cross-border payments through XPR than any other way. Currently, exactly half of all possible tokens have been issued, which is 50,000,000,000 at $0.44 each. In a two-year perspective, the value should increase 10 times, which makes the asset also quite attractive for investment. The general trend among central banks of different countries in the search for CBDC for international transfers, among which XPR ranks first, adds to the optimism. It is only bittersweet that the creators of the currency from Ripple Labs have entered into partnership agreements with financial institutions such as Santander, The Bank of England and JP Morgan.

The Graph (GRT)

A native decentralized protocol token for creating dApps on the Ethereum blockchain. It is a completely decentralized service that plays an important role in the Ethereum ecosystem, making it dependent on the general rate of ETH. The advantages of The Graph are open source, complete data protection from the Ethereum blockchain, and the ability to provide access to APIs in the database. The total supply of GTR is 10,000,000,000 tokens and 69% of them have already been issued. The rest will become available at regular intervals over the next 10 years. The Graph provides users with advanced tools to develop their own decentralized applications: as their number and the number of developers increase, the value of the altcoin should increase significantly. Even now, against the background of the “cryptowinter”, GRT is confidently recovering its value and approaching the all-time high of $2.34. The investment attractiveness of the token lies in the constant development of the Ethereum blockchain: the stronger it becomes, the more expensive GRT will become.

BNB (BNB)

Is it worth investing in the official token of the largest centralized crypto exchange? This was a rhetorical question, at least as long as Binance maintains this status and, moreover, constantly strengthens it. BNB runs on the native Binance Smart Chain blockchain and has the same features as the original Ethereum Proof-of-Work protocol. The total number of tokens is 200 million, but every quarter a certain number of them are burned to reduce the number of all coins to half. This automatically adds value to the remaining tokens in circulation. BNB is used to transact CEX itself and support the Pancake Swap decentralized exchange. After the fall of FTX, BNB has no solid competitors left and this, together with the deflationary offer, gives the token the opportunity to increase in price by 10 times within two years. Currently, one coin is worth $2,800, so the investment can be quite profitable.

We would like to add that the development of projects on Binance Smart Chain, requests for which from BeFund clients increased rapidly in 2022, is practically no different from the implementation of solutions on Ethereum. However, there is more benefit for project owners in further supporting the projects in terms of lower gas commission.

Splintershards (SPS)

Another project from the world of virtual games, based on non-fungible tokens, completes the list from BeFund. The popular card game Splinterlands already has more than 1 billion PvP matches between players. The native SPS token is used to manage the platform and allows owners to influence the development of the game by voting for future updates. 87% of the more than 100 million tokens at $1.63 each have already been distributed. The game started in July 2021, so the analysis of its development and capitalization unambiguously hints: a powerful breakthrough jump is being prepared, which will immediately increase the value of SPS several times. Therefore, investing in SPS Alcoin looks too attractive to take advantage of right now.

To prepare this small rating, we chose from 200 different altcoins, but it should be understood that their offer is now much larger. BeFund experts chose the best of the best in their own opinion, but the choice should always be up to the potential investor. And if cryptocurrencies and tokens still do not inspire confidence in you or you just want to invest in other areas of blockchain development, let’s look at the rest of the good opportunities.

NFT

After an unprecedented surge in 2021, the emotions surrounding NFTs have somewhat subsided, so this year the volume of trading has noticeably decreased against the background of the previous high of $23 billion. However, experts are optimistic: it’s not that the supply has decreased, it’s that the demand has become more mature. Now more attention is paid to the real aesthetic value, originality and in general the possibilities opened by the purchased token. After all, NFT is not only pictures from a collection, and it is now that society has begun to understand the very essence of this phenomenon.

It’s simple: NFT is a non-fungible token that is best suited to prove ownership or ownership of almost anything. In this way, you can tokenize not only works of art, but also, say, your own car, real estate, and many other quite real things. Now consumers are ready to accept such opportunities, so there should be many times more promising projects with NFT. However, already familiar collections will not disappear, so it is absolutely impossible to ignore them. We will give a hint: you should choose the author of the images more carefully, since the cost of collections from public figures must necessarily be higher.

Another important point is the large-scale legalization of NFTs, which is happening all over the world. In fact, this has been one of the main stumbling blocks why non-fungible tokens have been so slow to integrate into all areas of our lives. Now that legal risks for investments are becoming less and less, investing in NFT projects will become easier and safer.

In 2023, we expect the development of projects aimed specifically at data verification, not purchase and sale. For example, the Soulbound Tokens system is already checking information about various personalities and their achievements based on NFT analysis. Projects for processing documents can also be considered promising: permanent, for example, diplomas, rights or certificates, as well as variable – travel documents, concert tickets, etc. Now, many global companies are implementing NFT in their marketing activities, which means that the demand for developers in this area, who will have the skills and abilities to carry out similar projects, will increase.

Also note that each NFT is illiquid, a common feature of all these tokens. That is, in order to sell it profitably, you yourself need to find a buyer who is ready to pay.

Play-to-Earn games

Practice shows that the game industry is one of the most stable, progressive and promising in all of IT and the global blockchain in particular. Economic crisis, pandemic or war – people find time to play and are ready to spend their own savings to replace the emotions that the gameplay gives. Therefore, we consider GameFi to be one of the most promising and safe areas for investment. The existence of Play-to-Earn is not only a direct confirmation of these assumptions, but also a great opportunity to make a profit.

Play-to-Earn games involve receiving rewards in tokens for tasks completed by the player. The calculation can take place both in certain general tokens and native tokens specific only to each of the specific games. This currency can be spent to improve gameplay, in-game trading, or to convert and withdraw real money.

Among the genres of Play-to-Earn games, you can find all the popular ones: action, strategy, RPG and others. So potentially every gamer can combine the pleasant with the useful: both play in their favorite genre and receive a real reward for their own efforts. NFT principles are widely used here, as many games have the ability to create or customize unique objects, each of which will have a different value. But at the same time, there are also ordinary tokens that are awarded to each player, depending on his achievements.

Among the most popular games in 2022 were Axie Infinity, Gods Unchained, The Sandbox, Sorare and others. Gaining popularity Guild of Guardians, which will appeal to fans of Skyrim-like games, Gold Fever, the previously mentioned Splinterlands, Alien Worlds and others. There are actually several ways to earn on Play-to-Earn. To invest in such projects, you don’t have to like virtual games or even play them – the main thing is to follow the course of game tokens, the expansion of the game community and the innovations that will be implemented for them.

Metaverses

The global pandemic of Covid-19 became a catalyst for the demand for Metaverses and accelerated the pace of its development several times. The year 2023 can become a truly breakthrough for virtual universes and significantly reduce the boundaries with the real world. Projects that allow creating the most accurate digital copies of real objects are now considered promising. For example, it is possible to digitize the real production premises of a factory with all premises, communications and equipment. At the same time, part of the staff may work remotely and participate in the processes as digital copies. This requires significant amounts of data.

That is why the development of Metaverses is impossible without blockchain for a number of reasons:

  •     The data must be publicly available for use by the many components of the Metaverse software;
  •     Information must be reliably protected from leaks and unauthorized modification;
  •     Data that is temporarily not used, but cannot be lost, needs reliable archiving.

All critical conditions for development are completely provided by blockchain technology, which means that it is economically impractical to look for alternative solutions. In addition, participants of Metaverses need means for interaction with each other, in particular economic means. So it is clear that cryptocurrency, which is also inextricably linked to the blockchain, will be used for the calculation. But while no worthy Metaverse exists at all, BeFund experts do not advise actively investing in their development — the prediction about the success or failure of projects from Meta, Microsoft or Disney simply cannot be justified. We hope that in the coming year, all of us will finally have visual material and the possibility of practical verification of assumptions.

Internet of Things

Every day, more and more intelligent things appear around us: we may not even notice them, but the objects closely monitor each of us and actively communicate with each other. Only as of the end of 2020, there were more than 50 billion such gadgets, and according to the forecast, by 2030, their number will increase 10 times. The biggest problem today remains the connection between objects: its speed, volume and security. It is this factor that slows down the development of IoT and leaves the prejudiced attitude of a large number of users.

As of today, the architecture of most networks that smart devices connect to remains centralized. That is, there is a certain cloud hub that provides services to lower structures, stores and processes data received from them. Since there are so many items, it is extremely difficult to guarantee the security of the entire system. And this problem will only grow with each subsequent connection. Therefore, decentralization is a global step that can completely change the situation for the better. The use of blockchain solves the following problems:

  • Security: Distributed list entries are an extremely difficult target for hackers, making it virtually impossible to hack the system;
  • Data reliability: IoT includes information from billions of different sensors, and no software can control each of them. Therefore, the search for optimal reliable information, say by the consensus method, will allow to increase the level of reliability;
  • Privacy: Any centralized system requires user authorization, which can violate privacy boundaries. Blockchain does not require this and allows anonymity.

It should also be remembered that the use of blockchain technology can reduce all possible costs associated with maintaining the functioning of networks many times over. In this way, development for IoT is gradually coming to the forefront of promising projects, and if you have ideas, you need to start implementing them or investing in startups. After all, the niche is still extremely wide, but it is rapidly being filled by those who saw the goose that lays the golden eggs on the Internet of Things. For example, the German system Slock.it offers users control of smart locks. Based on Ethereum smart contracts, the system allows users to jointly own certain things: rent an apartment together, use a shared car, take turns riding an electric scooter, etc. This year, the project received $2 million in investment to create a global application for sharing around the world.

Blockchain-related areas

In addition to specific names, projects or types of application of blockchain technological achievements, we want to consider those areas of human activity where blockchain will definitely expand its expansion in 2023. So if you have no desire to purposefully invest in coins, but are engaged in one of the promising types of business, the implementation of blockchain will allow you to get more benefits, reduce risks and get a positive image in front of potential customers.

Ecomining

Let’s start with the technological process that is most relevant to the world of blockchain — actually supporting the effectiveness of the cryptographic processes of various blockchains. Compared to its former popularity, mining is clearly on the decline and is not able to provide enthusiasts with previous profits. In the realm of Bitcoin, competition has probably reached its maximum potential and the network is fully equipped with the necessary resources. As we mentioned above, Ethereum has completely changed the costly methods of confirming transactions. But there are enough other blockchains in the world that gladly offer rewards to anyone who wants to join the process.

Therefore, ecomining is no longer about customers, but about the approach to business. In 2021, the trend towards green energy only intensified and directly affected the work of miners. It is becoming more and more popular to use alternative sources of electricity to power their equipment. One of the world’s most famous ecological cryptofarms in Pennsylvania uses coal dust as a source of energy – a waste of the mining industry, which is potentially dangerous for people and the environment. In this way, the purification of nature adds pleasant dividends from the operation of mining equipment.

Investments in green energy are promising almost all over the world. Technologies that extract electricity from the Earth’s renewable resources are simply countless. Therefore, if you want to invest in energy, why not get involved in mining? Or vice versa: if you want power, why not use an alternative source of clean energy for this?

Fintech

The development of DeFi is currently ahead of the pace of other industries and there is every reason for this: it is financial institutions that always lose the most money on various commissions and payments to intermediaries. Blockchain technology allows you to avoid such costs and reduce the cost of financial transactions from 20% to 80%. In 2023, much attention will be focused on:

  •     International money transfers;
  •     Payment systems;
  •     P2P (Peer-to-Peer) lending;
  •     Accounting and auditing;
  •     Control of transactions and identification of risks regarding possible transactions.

All this makes it possible to make short-term and long-term investments in almost any direction of the development of the financial sector. However, according to the specifics, if you want to benefit from this direction, it is desirable to have financial knowledge in order to correctly assess the feasibility of each of the possible projects.

Medicine

Perhaps the best industry not only for investment, but also for general use. Personal health is the most valuable asset of every individual. Accordingly, everything related to health will be in the sphere of increased attention not only of individuals, but also of legislation. Blockchain has everything necessary to operate people’s personal data and at the same time guarantee their preservation and protection. Therefore, medical platforms will only grow in demand and monetization.

In 2022 alone, the BeFund team implemented more than 10 projects related to medicine. Therefore, we can say with confidence that this is simply an immense field of opportunities and prospects, which is currently at the stage of takeoff.

Results

While some are looking forward to the beginning of 2023, others on the verge of a nervous breakdown are waiting for the end of 2022. As you can see, it was not quite a favorable period for obtaining real profits. But the year demonstrated the real potential of blockchain, cleared the competitive field and laid the vectors for further development.

In any case, for the right investments, effective developments or networking, everyone needs a reliable and experienced partner. BeFund is open to questions, suggestions and orders, and we will be happy to help you realize every blockchain-related idea. So we will be glad to meet in 2023!

Don't delay!

If you have any questions or comments about our research, write it in the contact form or contact the authors of the article in other ways. BeFund is always ready to help you earn more using blockchain.