I follow a lot of Crypto projects, but as an exercise for myself I thought, what if I looked through them all and figured out which ones may have a breakout year in 2022, or at least an interesting year. Here are my top 6 projects I find interesting and why…
Helium – HNT – Helium is its own blockchain that seeks to create an incentive system to run and maintain a full wireless data infrastructure. They currently have 400,000+ nodes spread all over the world providing coverage to basically all major and minor cities (in North America, and to a lesser extent the rest of the world). They are looking to add 5g roaming services making the network even more valuable and useful. The last few years have been very good for this project, but given the massive amount of infrastructure in place for this project (and so much more coming) and its actual real world usefulness, I think there is room for this project to become an even bigger deal. I wouldn’t be surprised if it cracked the top 20 tokens at some point in the next year or two.
Internet Computer – ICP – This is a layer one blockchain that used to go under the name Dfinity. This was one of the biggest anticipated projects for a long time, then it launched, and now you could hear the crickets from the market. It has dropped more than 90% of debut value, but I think there may be some potential here. The project is still running, offers a different architecture and take on the blockchain space. All it takes is a couple of small wins and some renewed attention and it could have a resurgence.
Arweave – AR – is a project that offers permanent storage using its own blockchain incentives. This is called by some an “application specific blockchain”, and is best used in conjunction with other chains to create a truly decentralized web experience. There are many projects utilizing Arweave for its unique value proposition of permanent storage. Just think how useful this is for the ongoing NFT craze. I think this will be one of the projects that slowly grows in prominence in the background over the coming year or two.
BanklessDAO – BANK – is a Distributed Autonomous Organization (DAO) who’s vision is to bring one billion people into the web 3 ecosystem and further the cause of becoming a bankless society. This DAO was created with an airdrop of tokens to those involved in the Bankless Podcast and newsletter. It has been a wonderous thing to watch this living creature of an organization grow and become something very interesting. Its amazing to see 100’s of people working together to further a brand. The DAO has multiple revenue opportunities and plans, and I think will someday become a major force in crypto media.
Tokemak – TOKE – is a protocol designed to make providing liquidity for tokens easier. This made the list because of the shear number of times that I’ve heard it mentioned by other projects for its usefulness.
Polygon – MATIC – is a set of layer two protocols for Ethereum. I’ve heard it said, that “its not the perfect solution, but it works and it keeps improving and growing.” The team is dedicated to creating a working layer two on top of Ethereum, continuously incorporating the latest technologies. This token has done very well over the last year, but if it continues to create a useful layer two on Ethereum, there is a lot of value to capture there.
I own all of these projects to a small extent because I think they are interesting and have potential, but always do your own work and decide for yourself.
It will be fun to see how this post ages…. maybe I can do a post mortem at the end of the year.