Let’s have a look at the blockchain future! In this article, we will explore the top blockchain trends of 2020.

Different types of blockchain compared. Image source: Medium

Trend #1: Federated Blockchain

Federated (or permissioned) blockchain stands for a private blockchain network. Unlike a classic blockchain system, FB is only available to members. You can become a member if other participants recommend you or vote for you. The control over a permissioned blockchain belongs to several authorized nodes.



Though not fully decentralized, federated blockchain is perfect for companies who often interact with each other and seek to create a convenient, fast and secure environment for it. The main use-cases are Finance, Healthcare, Supply Chain, Insurance.

Tether (USDT), a USD-pegged stablecoin is currently one of the market leaders. Image source: CoinMarketCap

Trend #2: Stablecoins

Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies whose value is tied to a well-established fiat currency or another traditional asset. You may see it as a digital version of the dollar or euro, but with benefits.

2020 may become the year of stablecoins, the demand for which is growing rapidly. There are two main reasons for it. First, banks have been investing in blockchain solutions and working on their own digital coins over the last couple of years. Second, crypto investors rely on stablecoins in times of high volatility. It helps them preserve the value of their savings.



Blockchain-As-a-Service: users rely on a BaaS service provide for building and maintenance of their networks.

Trend #3: Blockchain-As-a-Service (BaaS)

Under the BaaS model, a company uses a third-party cloud service to create, set up and maintain its own blockchain apps. This trend is getting big as many businesses want to apply blockchain solutions but lack resources to build, configure and operate them. So, they use a BaaS operator who does all these things for a fee.

The model promotes blockchain integration into the business sector. The main players in this field are Amazon, Microsoft and R3.

The mains benefit of blockchain for social media is that users recover control over their content.

Trend #4: Blockchain For Social Media

Everyone has heard of Libra, a permissioned Facebook coin that was last year’s hype. It’s just one of many possible use-cases.

Decentralized solutions for social media is one of the biggest blockchain trends of 2020. The technology is able to solve the biggest problems of the sector. First of all, it can prevent things like Facebook – Cambridge Analytica data scandal. Second, blockchain solutions can make the info we publish harder to trace or duplicate. Also, it could help authors protect their ownership rights. Now, all the content we publish, as well as our personal data are in the hands of the platform owners. Considering that the estimated number of social media users is close to 3 billion, the impact of these CEOs may be huge. Decentralized tools can get power back to people.

Ricardian contracts: the basic principles of work and main benefits. Image source: 101blockchains

Trend #5: Ricardian Contracts

You may see Ricardian contracts as a hybrid of traditional and smart contracts. The parties make a legal agreement, specifying all the terms and conditions. Then, this human agreement gets converted into a machine-readable format.



What are the benefits? On one hand, Ricardian contracts can be hashed, cryptographically signed and added to a block. So, they are tamper-proof and secure. On the other hand, RCs are available in a human-readable (and understandable) format. Note that though Ricardian contracts are sometimes called ‘the future of smart contracts’ the terms are not interchangeable.

Interoperability in blockchain: main chain as a link between many side chains. Image source: BlockGeeks

Trend #6: Interoperability

Interoperability refers to ability to share data across different blockchains. When various systems talk to each other, you can send something to a user of another blockchain and they will be able to properly read and understand it. Or, you can send these people your in-house tokens and automatically convert them into the cryptocurrency the recipients use.



Right now, each blockchain network operates independently, as a separate ecosystem. It holds back the technology adoption. Today, the projects working to unite the distributed ledgers into something bigger attract a lot of attention. Some of the leaders to follow are PolkaDot, Ark, Wanchain.

Hybrid blockchains: the private network generates hash and sends it to the public network. Image source: XinFin

Trend #7: Hybrid Blockchains

Hybrid blockchain is a combination of a private and public blockchain. As always, the aim is to take the best of both models, that is freedom and controlled access. First, transactions are added to the private blockchain and then the members decide what information can be made public. The membership is not available to everyone, like in a public system. For it, you need to get approval of prior participants.

Ideally, a hybrid blockchain is both flexible and secure. These features make it a perfect ecosystem for a companies and their main stakeholders.

Top 7 Blockchains Trends Of 2020: Final Thoughts

These were the top 7 blockchain trends of 2020. Though the year has begun not as we expected, we believe that the technology will be on the rise. After all, there are many ways how it can fix the shattered world.