Blockchain Technology: The Dawn of Mainstream Use Cases

According to CoinDesk, the mainstream use of blockchain technology, which has been a topic of debate among crypto skeptics and believers for years, may be on the verge of a significant shift. Despite the deployment of thousands of decentralized applications, mainstream use cases have been limited. However, recent developments suggest this could soon change. Drawing an analogy to the Big Bang theory, the article suggests that the crypto world is at a similar point of singularity. Over the past year, developers have provided fast and inexpensive blockspace to builders, paving the way for a potential explosion of mainstream use cases. Significant progress has been made by major players in the crypto space. Ethereum (ETH), for instance, deployed its Dencun upgrade in March, reducing transaction costs for users of layer-2 blockchains to less than $0.01. Solana (SOL) has largely resolved the downtime issues that plagued it until last year, leading to a substantial increase in economic value on the protocol. In addition to the progress made by established players, new entrants have been emerging rapidly. New layer-1 blockchains such as Sui, Sei, and Aptos (APT) have launched in the past 18 months, promising unprecedented levels of throughput. This trend is expected to continue, with more new and innovative blockchains expected to enter the market throughout 2024 and beyond. The article suggests that the crypto infrastructure has improved to the point where application developers no longer need to focus on infrastructure limitations, but can instead concentrate on what they can achieve. This shift has been facilitated by the availability of multiple blockchains that can operate reliably at scale and at low cost. Recent developments have seen the emergence of novel ideas for decentralized social media and social finance, DePIN networks that utilize high throughput blockchain solutions to enable real-world utilities, and AI-adjacent tools such as decentralized compute networks and AI agent platforms. The article concludes by suggesting that the market will ultimately decide which solutions work best once they can be tested at scale. This could result in scaled applications running on modular solutions reverting back to Ethereum, or perhaps Solana, Monad, Aptos, or Sui becoming the preferred blockchain of the masses.