Top 5 Blockchain Projects To Follow

The blockchain world isn’t short on innovation by any means, but sometimes it's hard to pick out specific projects that are innovating and changing the digital world. So here are my picks for projects that you should be following for March 2021.

Theta Network

Theta Network is an up-and-coming blockchain network that focuses on creating a decentralized video platform. The platform can be seen as a response to popular streaming services like Twitch.tv and is already showcasing some powerful capabilities.

The platform will pay viewers in the native token, TFUEL, for watching videos and using their unused bandwidth to relay the content to other viewers. Theta has been gaining a lot of attention lately as they have quite a few big names, Google and Samsung for starters, running the network’s nodes. Community-run Guardian nodes improve the network’s security and provide rewards, paid out in the native THETA token, for those able to run them.

Currently, their 3.0 update to their mainnet is set to launch June 30th, after a two-month delay, but promises to bring new staking opportunities, setting up improved NFT support, and more exciting improvements.

Audius

Audius is a decentralized music and streaming platform created in response to other services such as Soundcloud. The platform aims to increase engagement and monetization for creators while offering listeners a higher quality service to consume content.

Content nodes are the backbone of the network and offer a decentralized method of storing and relaying the content to users. Discovery nodes index a variety of data and make it all easily accessible to anyone using the platform. These are community-run nodes and operators can choose to run either node or a combination of both.

The network boasts about 3.9 million unique users a month as of March and is set to soon include NFT support and VIP tiers for users holding the native AUDIO token. Decentralized applications are also able to be built on the network and offer even more functionality than what Audius has already created.

Decentraland

Decentraland is a decentralized virtual reality world built on the Ethereum blockchain. Parcels of LAND are purchased by users and represent actual space in the world which can then be built on and potentially monetized. Integration with any Ethereum compatible wallet ensures that each player is in full control of their tokens.

The concept behind LAND is that each parcel is an NFT and permanently owned by the user once purchased. If a user owns multiple parcels of LAND they can create larger plots of land called estates. Pretty much anything the user can think of can be built on their parcels, which opens the world up to all sorts of possibilities.

Recently the project has seen a boost from Atari announcing that they would create a casino in the world that will allow for players to spend and earn tokens playing skilled-based games heavily inspired by Atari classics.

Chiliz

Chiliz is a blockchain platform that powers Socios.com. Socios is a portal that allows sports fans, both traditional sports, and eSports, to be more involved in their teams, events, and leagues. There are a variety of ways fans can interact which includes purchasing tokens for their team which correlates to their voting weight. Fans can then vote on important decisions for the team, which allows fans to shape the path their team will be put on.

The token is currently available on both the Binance Smart Chain and the Ethereum Network, which offers a sense of security to both the teams and the fans through the use of smart contracts.

Currently, the platform has several partners from a handful of different sports but is currently primarily focused on football. The team is working on securing more partnerships and growing the network to further encompass more sports.

Basic Attention Token

Built on the Ethereum chain, the Basic Attention Token (BAT) is a token created for the digital advertising industry. It offers publishers and advertisers a way to reach the over 9 million daily users of the Brave browser, and users a way to get paid for their attention. The ads run through this platform allow advertisers to gain information on their ad’s effectiveness without compromising the safety and privacy of their users.

Unlike some of the others on this list, it isn’t a very interactive platform. But it does attempt to fix something that many users are bothered by, traditional advertising. Instead of bloating up webpages and using additional data, Brave simply shows non-intrusive notification-like ads for products relevant to the user. Any data kept from the advertising experience is kept solely on the device being used, rather than sent back to advertisers, to protect user privacy.

Currently, there have been several well-known names using the platform and reporting increased earnings versus traditional advertising. Outside of showing ads, the ecosystem currently allows for users to earn tokens from viewing them and tipping them to verified creators on the platform for well-made content.