2018 wasn't a good year for the HODLers and for investors in general. We have been in a bear market for a long time and things don't look like they will change any time soon. That didn't stop some amazing projects from emerging and bringing new hope for the crypto market in general. That is why I decided to give these great projects some exposure and inform you about their goals and the work they have done so far.

Let's start with Crycash

As a gamer and crypto enthusiast, this is the project I wanted to see become a reality for most of my life. Ever since "early access" and "alpha" releases of games became a norm it really pissed me off but it was a jackpot for the developers. They found this form of gaming very convenient because they are selling an unfinished product for a full price and getting free testing from the players. In other words, you were paying to become a beta or alpha tester. I remember the time when this was a legit job and people got paid for it... Crycash should change that.

The basic idea for this coin is to reward players for completing in-game quests. Of course, they are just a platform. If a game developer wants to give these rewards to their player base they will need to integrate Crycash into their game. Some may ask why whould anyone want to give money back to the players? Here are a few examples:

Game has a declining player base

Game needs alpha testers

Game had a bad launch and wants to increase the number of players

The possibilities are endless here. It only takes one big game to start a trend that can't be reversed. Knowing that this project is backed by Cryteck gives me even more hope that Crycash will have a bright future in gaming.

If you want to know more, visit their website and try out their mobile app called Plink. The app is amazing if you are gaming with your friends so be sure to give it a try.

Now that we have gaming out of the way, let's move on to the internet. More specifically, let's talk about BAT

If you don't see all the flaws the internet of today has then you aren't looking closely enough. Our basic idea of the internet was to have a space where we can communicate and share ideas freely with anyone we want. What did we get? We got a space where we can share our information and ideas freely but with our browsers and means of communication tracking our every word so they could serve ads to us. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. In general, we as simple users got exploited in every way possible. We got bombarded with ads, our data is always stored somewhere and sold to the highest bidder and we have no control over that. The worst thing is that we got none of their profits as well. These are some of the wrongs BAT is trying to correct.

To be a part of this "new internet" community should start by downloading the Brave Browser. It looks a lot like Opera and has a ton of functions you will love. Their basic idea is to give back some of the profits that are made by your clicks directly to you. The most recent example of that is "brave ads".

If you are unfamiliar with the project be sure to check it out.

With all the flaws the internet has there is one big corner of it that is exploiting users as hard as possible. Social Media

Now this is a topic that can keep me going for hours. Social media has turned people into zombies and free labor if you look at it very closely. Instagram is one example where you have an army of workers categorizing content using hashtags. Yes, you are the workers, they don't actually have people working on that. By categorizing your content, that you also share for free, you give this platform valuable insight on your interests, your favorite food, your favorite movies... the list goes on. Let's put that on a scale and see what both parties get.

Instagram gets :

Free user insights

Free content along with free content categorization

Free user data that can be used by advertisers for their convenience

Users get :

A platform where they can share their images (Imgur does a better job)

Likes and comments?

A very inconvenient way to communicate with their friends

In monetary value, this would be Millions of dollars vs $0 in favor of Instagram.

The same thing can be applied to Facebook and all other social media platforms. This is where Steemit and a lot of similar projects come in.

Steemit gives you almost all the possibilities every other social media platform gives you but with one big difference - you are rewarded for curating and sharing new content. Based on the quality and value of your content you are rewarded accordingly. For now, this doesn't work as intended but the future of Steemit looks bright. The community is growing and we are all sharing new ideas on how to make this platform as good as it can be.

Image by @denisgo

Some similar projects to check out:

Last but not least, let's talk about the consumers on the internet. Your moms and aunts that spend thousands of dollars on products with fake reviews and fake advertising.

As I mentioned before, I work in marketing and that is my main source of income right now. Ever since I started exploring that part of the internet I have been annoyed by all the fake reviews that you can find all over the web. Most of them are written on Amazon by people that didn't even purchase the product. This has become a common thing on every e-commerce website and there is no simple way to prevent this. This is where Review Network aims to step in.

This is another promising project I have discovered this year. Their main goal is to create a platform where sellers and consumers will come together. Sellers will ask for feedback for their products and the consumers (review writers) will rate their product and explain why it is good or bad. After a few other users validate this review and confirm that it is not fake it will get stored on the blockchain and will stay there forever while the person who wrote the review gets rewarded for their work with tokens. Goodbye to fake and free reviews for good? Only if the platform requires ID verification. If they exclude that as a mandatory rule for joining the community they will get flooded with "fake review agencies" I already mentioned. People will create tons of fake accounts and validate each other's reviews and that would delegitimize the whole point of this platform.

The project is still in development and should have an ICO in September so be sure to follow them on social media for further updates.

Looking back at all of these projects I mentioned really gives me hope that crypto will indeed make the internet a better place for all of us. No more free work, no more fake advertisement, and no more user exploitation. It is time that we take the internet back from the corporations and slowly reshape it into one big decentralized community that is based on two simple rules - freedom and privacy.

If you enjoyed reading this article be sure to upvote and resteem. If you are coming from other social media platforms consider joining our great community.

Steemit users, be sure to check out my @reviewme page and create your own.