Apple. Amazon. Google companies are the pillars of modern society. But there are Web3 protocols that can eat into their market share. In crypto, many projects use decentralization as a buzzword to make money. But they do not solve real-world problems.
There is always the advantage of being on the lookout for projects that genuinely improve existing web3 products via blockchain.
We look at tokens which are blockchain-based alternatives to their web2 counterparts.
1. Akash Network
Akash Network is a decentralized and open-source cloud computing marketplace built on Cosmos. Right now, the cloud computing space is dominated by Amazon and Google. The problem is that these solutions are high cost (Akash is ~80% cheaper than its Web2 counterparts).
Akash connects those who need computing resources with those who have computing resources. You can deploy dApps, games or websites on the Akash network. The token $AKT is needed for deploying dApps, participating in governance voting, and for staking to secure the network.
For perspective, if Akash captured just 1% of the space, it would be worth $10b (its market cap is currently $36m). Of course, that's a long shot - but the cloud computing space is also expected to double over the next six years.
Remember, in crypto, be on the look for asymmetric bets. These are trades where the upside is greater than the potential downside. Identify projects that can still offer huge returns even if they (partially) succeed in fulfilling their ultimate vision.
2. Arweave Team
Arweave Team is a decentralized protocol that uses its blockchain to store global information securely and permanently. Demand for data storage is growing at an estimated 58% per year. As such, web3 storage protocols will capture a significant upside from this trend.
Additionally, as technology advances and evolves rapidly, the need for storage will exponentially increase. Arweave differs from other storage models like AWS as you pay once to store data permanently instead of paying via a subscription model like AWS or Dropbox.
3. Filecoin
Filecoin is a decentralized peer-to-peer storage marketplace. Filecoin operates a marketplace that connects clients with storage miners on the network.
Filecoin is the incentivization layer for IPFS (interplanetary file system), an open-source, peer-to-peer decentralized system for storing and accessing files, data and applications.
Ahead of Arweave, it's the leading decentralized data storage solution in a rapidly growing global market. However, Unlike Arweave, $FIL data is not stored permanently and operates its model more similarly to Dropbox/AWS.
4. Render Network
Render Network is a peer-to-peer GPU marketplace, allowing users to contribute computational power to 3D rendering projects in exchange for earning crypto.
Render's technology can render movies, TV shows, games or the metaverse. Render also has many other major partnerships and has a fairly large moat being the only real player in the space.
5. Helium Network
Helium Network is a blockchain built to incentivize the creation of decentralized, public wireless networks to power IoT devices. It does so by powering a decentralized global network of almost a million "hotspots".
The Internet of Things is a collaborative network of connected devices which communicate with the cloud and other devices to power their capabilities.
Google Home, Amazon Echo, smart locks, camera systems, lights, smoke alarms etc., are all examples of IoT devices. Hotspot owners are paid $HNT rewards for providing coverage. Users of the network need $HNT to pay for coverage.
Closing Thoughts
It is good to avoid investing in any of these projects due to the current climate and view all of these as long-term propositions.
These projects are in their nascency, and I will approach them with a slow, measured DCA approach.
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