There is no doubt that there are many short-term gains that can be generated by meme-based or hype-based crypto tokens and assets. However, over the long run, as the saying goes, “Only the relevant survive.” As the market matures and blockchain and crypto technologies gain mainstream adoption, we are no longer looking for the next X100 growth token. Instead, the smart money is flowing into a broad range of segments that are delivering real value in the crypto space. This ideal is as true for the crypto and blockchain spaces today as it will be tomorrow, and investors will continue to back the projects and initiatives that will create real value and deliver tangible benefits.

Here are some of the larger crypto and blockchain segments that have the potential to deliver positive yield – even in bear markets.

NFTs and Gaming

NFTs and gaming have been clear winners from the blockchain revolution. With decentralized gaming platforms such as Decentraland, The Sandbox, Axie Infinity, and Gala, players can trade in-game items, create virtual worlds that they own, and earn by participating on these platforms and playing the games that they love. What we are seeing here is a slow yet steady transition from real-world experiences (think concerts, sporting events, and even e-gaming, which is typically only reserved for professional gamers) to virtual experiences where people from all over the world, irrespective of background or experience level, can attend events, compete for prizes, and enjoy entertainment in innovative and creative ways.

DeFi Protocols

Decentralized finance has also been a big winner in terms of investor attention, growth, and yield in the cryptocurrency space. There are many multi-billion dollar DeFi platforms such as PancakeSwap, Terra, Chainlink, Avalanche, Maker’s Dai product (a stablecoin project), Anchor (which has provided 20% returns), Loopring, and more that provide users with efficient, comprehensive, and user-friendly financial services. Some of these projects, such as Chainlink, use Oracles to bring real-world data to immutable blockchain ledgers, opening up a whole new world of opportunity, from betting and prediction markets to smart contract-powered agreements and investments. Others, such as PancakeSwap, create liquidity pools and support staking to help users generate income via commission from online trades.

Nodes-as-a-Service

As the name suggests, the Nodes-as-a-Service space is also enjoying significant growth in the current market. Despite all of its potential, blockchain technology has – and will, for the foreseeable future – face the uphill task of creating the physical network infrastructure needed to support decentralized applications and transactions. Regardless of how good an idea is, if it is too difficult to get the idea up and running, it will never gain mass adoption.

NaaS projects such as StrongBlock and Pocket combine NFTs, rewards, incentives, and the consensus protocols needed to overcome this issue. They support new decentralized applications that can quickly scale and provide the throughput – in a cost-effective manner – needed to support a wide user network.

Passive Income Projects with External Revenue Sources

Helium uses the blockchain to connect IoT devices and microchips to the internet. The project is building the world’s first decentralized Long-Fi network, a blockchain-based wireless internet infrastructure that uses radio technology. Doing this drastically reduces the power required to provide connectivity – a game-changer for far-flung, remote areas – as well as smart capabilities in machines and devices. It has a growing list of partners and supporters and has quickly gained mainstream attention since its launch in 2019.

Cirus is a rapidly maturing ecosystem focused on bringing the value of big data back to everyday users. It is enabling fair, robust, and secure data ownership, control, and monetization for the masses.

Their first product – the Cirus Browser Extension – is already live, available for anyone to install, and is enabling people to start earning from their data. What will follow is an entire suite of tools including a wallet, mobile apps, a dedicated desktop browser, and a smart Wi-Fi router which, together, will help maximize value generation for the user. Users can continue with their regular habits, behaviors and browsing patterns, and earn truly passive income.

This suite of tools will bring non-crypto users into the decentralized world, acting as a seamless onramp, and connecting them to Web3 services and applications such as other cryptocurrencies, DeFi and staking, while also being able to use their Cirus-generated income for real-world purchases through various offramps.

The Cirus business model is not tied to the performance of any specific crypto token or asset and instead relies on data monetization at the level of individual users. It features a user-friendly platform that is designed to be simple for both crypto-literate and non-crypto users to install and use. It promises to be the onramp of choice for people to adopt and interact with the online world.

As Web 3.0 continues to grow, and as metaverses and AI-powered apps become more commonplace and gain more regular use, the lines between the online and offline worlds will not only become increasingly blurred but the world – not just the real world but virtual worlds as well – will become increasingly quantified. With an explosion of data and richer, faster, more performant applications being built on the latest iteration of the internet, extracting value from this data will be a critical component of the success of users, apps, and platforms in the future – those that succeed irrespective of the state of the market or the performance of BTC, ETH, or other tokens.