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In recent years, blockchain development service has seen an amazing evolutionary phase. From a technological point of view, it can be said that this innovative technology has set new borders. But still, it is in its early stage. Comparative to others, this technology has a lot of potential to provide numerous solutions to existing industries.

Today, I will be discussing in detail about 7 blockchain technology trends that you should look at in 2019. These trends will help you determine what to expect from blockchain in the upcoming year.

Blockchain Trends in 2019

1. Blockchain As a Service (BaaS)

There is no doubt that blockchain is one of the revolutionary technologies of the 21st century.  

After looking at its potential, so many startups and enterprises shifted to blockchain development and now trying to create their own blockchain solution.

However, it is not always worth to develop, maintain and manage your blockchain solution. This is where Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) comes into play. BaaS allows users across the world to create blockchain based apps and smart contracts. Also, it permits you to use blockchain features. And the best thing about BaaS is that you don’t require any setup, manage or blockchain based infrastructure.

Big IT giants like Amazon and Microsoft provide this service. It seems that use of BaaS will increase in 2019. It will help companies to use the blockchain technology without investing in the beginning.

2.  Hybrid Blockchains

There are different types of blockchain in the market. And it seems that Hybrid blockchain can be one of the best trends to look in 2019. Hybrid blockchain offers the best characteristics and functionality of both public as well as private blockchain.

For instance, governmental entities cannot go entirely decentralized as they need to have some sort of command. Hence, they cannot use public blockchains. Also, they cannot use private blockchain in some of the services they offer. The reason behind it may be that they need to interact with the people in those specific services.

In all such cases, hybrid blockchains seem to be perfect. It offers a customizable solution that offers transparency, integrity, and security.

Hybrid IoT, banking, supply chain, and enterprise services are among some of the use cases of hybrid blockchain.

3. Federated Blockchain

Federated Blockchain is a private blockchain with additional customization. And it is assumed to be the perfect solution for many specific use cases. In 2019, it is expected to see some rise in the usage of federated blockchain. The reason is that it provides a more customizable look to the private blockchains.

Federated blockchains are quite similar to private blockchains. They are private blockchains with simple modifications. More than one authorities control such blockchains. Also, they can pre-select the nodes. After this, the chosen group of nodes makes sure that the block is validated for processing transactions.

Federated blockchain use cases are insurance claims, financial services, and supply chain management. IBM has used federated blockchain for food traceability.

4. Ricardian contracts

Smart contracts are quite popular nowadays. These are supposed to be the core of the automated dApps. However, these are limited. Hence, Ricardian contracts come into play. Ricardian contracts open the path to a valid contract which can be cryptographically verified and signed. 

While smart contracts cannot be read, Ricardian contracts can be read as it uses human-readable text. In this way, it offers a unique solution that can be understood by humans as well as computers without the need of any mediator or service,

5. Interoperability between Blockchains

With the passage of time, we see different blockchain network. This results in the new blockchains that offer dissimilar speeds, network processing, and use-cases. Blockchain interoperability has the sole objective of improving information sharing between diverse networks or blockchain systems.

These kinds of cross chain services enhance blockchain interoperability and make it more practical for day to day usage. For instance, you can send information from EOS to Ethereum blockchain.

In the upcoming year 2019, we will see a big enhancement in the technology that allows blockchain interoperability. Some vendors are already in the work of enhancing blockchain interoperability with the help of cross chain technology. There are some examples such as BlockNet, Aion, and WanChain.

6. Stable Coins

Stable coins can also see a rise in 2019. Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are the products of blockchain technology. This technology is more than just cryptocurrencies. But the thing is that cryptocurrencies are not constant. There value keep changing. Here, the role of stable coins come into existence.

Stable coins have unvarying prices. These are not affected by the market condition. Also, stable coins maintain stability all the time. You must have heard about Tether. It is one of the popular coins available in the market.

A large number of stable coins are fiat-backed. Some stable coins are commodity backed or cryptocurrency backed. However, as nothing is perfect, stable coins also have some disadvantages. Stable coins operate on a centralized system as well as a set of rules. There may be trust problems as they are centralized.

7. Security Tokens

ICOs were quite popular in 2017-2018. ICOs are the unregulated method of pulling up money from the market. It is seen that around 48% of ICOs are scams that result in the loss of trust among investors.

These tokens are provided through Security Token Offering and are properly regulated. It protects investors rights and redefines the entire procedure with the help of which companies or startups can raise fund.

Market statistics of the year 2017 shows that each ICO raised around 12.7 million USD on average. Hence, we can expect a shift from ICO to STO in the year 2019.

Conclusion

The year 2019 will come with amazing ideas when we talk about innovative blockchain technology. Impact of blockchain on different verticals has not gone unnoticed and blockchain developers are in great demand.. And that is the reason why we expect more growth of blockchain technology in 2019.

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