January marked Bitcoin’s 13th birthday, the world’s most well-known cryptocurrency, which kickstarted the decentralised revolution now underway across the globe.
As Bitcoin enters adolescence, so too is the emerging technology of blockchain. Since the latter was separated from cryptocurrency in 2014, its potential has only continued to grow.
Both crypto and blockchain have begun to enter the mainstream, from El Salvador making Bitcoin legal tender alongside the US dollar in September last year to non-fungible tokens (NFTs) gripping the world’s attention all through 2021.
Just what has spurred crypto’s mainstream recognition, and with blockchain having cemented its place in our digital future, what can we expect to see as we take stock of how far it has come in 13 years?
Far from cheugy
With the use of its abbreviation rising by more than 11,000 per cent in 2021, “NFT” was named the Collins dictionary’s 2021 word of the year, edging out competition from the likes of “crypto” to Generation Z-coined term “cheugy”. This speaks to the meteoric rise in awareness of two of blockchain’s most prevalent use cases.
You wouldn’t need to look any further than pop culture and the creative industries to see that NFTs indeed capture the zeitgeist of today.
From avatar-style NFT profile photos like Bored Ape Yacht Club taking over Twitter to the social media giant rolling out a feature to verify users’ ownership of their NFT profile photos, it’s evident that NFTs are here to stay.
Even the art world, notorious for being opaque and elitist, is beginning to embrace the digital token. Today’s underlying blockchain technology represents greater transparency and a levelled playing field for exposure and monetisation.
Also Read: Why Bitcoin is set to boom in a post-COVID-19 era
On our shores just last month, Singapore Art Week welcomed its first NFT art exhibition hosted by TZ APAC, which featured over 15 prominent digital artists from the continent.
Elsewhere in the region, the NFT scene is quickly gaining momentum. Artists are rising to prominence, from Art Moments Jakarta hosting the nation’s first NFT art competition to Art Fair Philippines launching educational initiatives for art creators and collectors.
The sheer potential of Asia’s emerging markets, coupled with their immense appetite for technology, are clear reasons for that.
Ramping up on sustainability
Nevertheless, concerns around the effects of blockchain on the environment have been mounting. This has largely been shaped by legacy networks such as Bitcoin and Ethereum that continue to use Proof-of-Work (PoW) as their preferred consensus method.
Here, miners on the network need to expend computational energy to solve complex mathematical problems to validate transactions. This process consumes an enormous amount of energy; it’s even been estimated that a whopping 300 million new trees would have to be planted to offset Bitcoin’s carbon footprint.
The solution? Proof-of-Stake (PoS) is an energy-efficient alternative that involves validating transactions based on one’s ‘stake’ in the network. Owners essentially offer their coins as collateral and are then randomly selected by the network to mine the coins.
In other words, without miners everywhere having to compete to solve mathematical puzzles, the computational power the PoS consensus mechanism requires is drastically lower than that of PoW.
Bitcoin consumes approximately 141.10 TWh annually; that’s enough to power Sweden for a year! In contrast, at 0.001 TWh, the energy consumption of PoS blockchain Tezos is equivalent to the footprint of a mere 17 people.
Also Read: Is Bitcoin the safest currency in times of rising global tensions?
Ethereum, recognising the pressing need for energy efficiency, is also beginning to transition to PoS. As the blockchain behind the second-most popular cryptocurrency after Bitcoin and many decentralised applications and NFTs are built, the industry leader’s upgrades point to the growing popularity of PoS within the blockchain space as it matures.
The Asian Age
With that said, the crypto space is ever-evolving, and looking at how its evolution has panned out in Asia as compared to the West, out of which conversations have tended to dominate in the mainstream thus far, would also shed light on the many directions of growth that crypto can take.
Boasting young, digitally-native populations and a burgeoning middle class, there is no wonder why countries from the region have topped Chainanalysis’ 2021 Global Crypto Adoption Index, with emerging markets like Vietnam, India and the Philippines making it to the list.
Interestingly, crypto adoption in the region can be said to be largely driven by necessity and/or utility. During lockdown last year, people in the Philippines turned to play-to-earn NFT game Axie Infinity as a source of income, while many from emerging markets have turned to crypto to send and receive remittances across borders, according to the same Chainalysis study on crypto adoption.
Moreover, NFTs are used in highly localised contexts, from Kpop NFTs in South Korea to marketplaces explicitly built for the Bollywood film industry in India. There have been clear attempts to address the myriad cultural differences across the region.
For mainstream adoption to soar, creators and enterprises alike will certainly do well to localise crypto offerings in the notoriously fragmented market of Asia.
The exponential growth that the crypto ecosystem is experiencing in Asia, along with the developments the industry has seen since Bitcoin’s emergence 13 years ago, are certainly cause for celebration as we enter a new year.
As we look ahead, we can expect to see boundless iterations of novel use cases and blockchain continuing to shape our world in a multitude of innovative ways.
–
Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic.
Join our e27 Telegram group, FB community, or like the e27 Facebook page
Image Credit: ismagilov
The post 13 years on since the birth of Bitcoin, it’s now blockchain’s time to shine appeared first on e27.