The cryptocurrency ICO sector is home to a lot of innovative ideas. Bringing those ideas to market will require a fair amount of money, though. So far, the year 2017 has been pretty positive for specific ICO project types. In fact, there is only one industry which really stands out, although significant efforts are taking place in other areas as well. Below are the top 10 most popular ICO project “types” for 2017 to date.
10. Mining
Some people may have expected more ICOs to revolve around cryptocurrency mining. GigaWatt is perhaps the best example of such a project, although there are very few others. Throughout the year 2017, mining-related ICOs raised US$20.21 million in funding. This is not a bad effort by any means.
9. Identity & Reputation
One main use case for blockchain technology is how it can improve identify registration and verification. Combining blockchain with such processes is not easy, though. A few ICO projects raised money for this specific purpose, resulting in US$33 million being collected this year so far. Whether or not efforts such as Humaniq will pay off remains to be determined.
8. Commerce & Advertising
Many people would like to see more ICO efforts focusing on new ways to provide advertising solutions. Additionally, more competition in the commerce sector would go a long way. ICOs focusing on these markets have raised US$49.98 million throughout 2017 so far. This will be a very interesting industry to keep an eye on when these efforts start showing results.
7. Gambling & Betting
Cryptocurrency and gambling have always been two peas in a pod. The advantages that bitcoin and altcoins provide in this regard cannot be denied. It is not surprising to see a few ICO projects focusing their attention on the gambling industry this year. Just over US$69 million has been raised so far. More competition is always a good thing; that is for sure.
6. Gaming & VR
The connections between VR, gaming, and cryptocurrency still need to be fleshed out better. However, there is certainly a bright future ahead if the ICO projects of 2017 can deliver on their initial promises. With US$92.475 million raised so far, there should be some tangible results in the not-so-distant future. Only time will tell what is in store for this sector, though.
5. Finance
Cryptocurrency and the blockchain can make current financial models obsolete in a decade or so. With more financial companies focusing their attention on this market, good things will happen eventually. Considering US$146.68 million was raised through cryptocurrency ICOs this year, we should see some serious attempts to shake up the financial sector over the next few years.
4. Payments
When financial innovation occurs, most people expect to see new ways of paying for goods and services. Cryptocurrency is quite revolutionary in this regard, but spending it remains problematic. Thanks to ICOs for new cryptocurrency debit cards (among other things), that should become less of an issue. Another US$183.37 million in ICO funding for such projects will hopefully herald some big changes in the near future.
3. Trading & Investing
This particular industry has always been a big part of cryptocurrency in general. Thanks to ICOs, investors can now help create the trading and investing platforms of the future. No one will be surprised that these ICOs attracted over US$22 million in funding throughout this year alone. It is unclear how these concepts will affect the overall industry, though.
2. Data Storage
Over the past two or three years, we have seen a few companies focus their attention on decentralized storage solutions. With the birth of cryptocurrency ICOs, that market has become slightly more competitive. Companies have raised US$286.22 million in 2017 so far to stake their claim in the world of data storage. Whether or not they can succeed remains to be seen.
1. Infrastructure
This is a very vast space. Most ICO projects focus on building up new and improved infrastructures for various industries. With 44.1% of all ICO money flowing into infrastructure-based projects, the future looks pretty bright. Almost US$1 billion was contributed to such projects, which is a pretty significant amount. Building these new infrastructures will not be easy, and projects will need every cent of the money raised to accomplish their goals.
