Technological progress is going at a hellish pace. In the head tend to distance the large firms in the sector. In the hunting squad they dispute a getaway, but from one year to the next there are few novelties that are detected. The digital tsunami that threatens to devastate the companies that happen to rise to the wave of the transformation will have it very crude to survive.
So in the heat of the tide you can catch some trends that are well worth following. Those that have gained most impact for a while and that will become more relevant as of next year are focused, at their base, on triggering the models of Artificial Intelligence, the unpretentious support of robotics, the beginning of the explosion of the era baptized as "Internet of Things" or the constant pedaling of "blockchain" services.
The advance of the blockchain
Advances in the last months of the blockchain - an unchanging list of transaction records that is replicated in multiple entities - make it one of the trends to follow in the year to come. Originally it had been adapted as the basis of Bitcoin and was used in other cryptocurrencies, but its use could write the technological history of the next decade.
It is expected that in 2018 applications based on the blockchain will be developed for the following 10 items:
Banking Services - Payments and mercantile services, exchange of currencies and international transactions, including remittances.
Financial Services - Platforms for loans, digital wallets, peer-to-peer payments, asset management, insurance of all kinds
Capital raising - Platforms for Crowdfunding and issuance of ICOs
Intelligent Contracts - Self-executable and complemented by machine learning.
Different Management - Identity, Security, Certifications and Credentials, mainly through the use of Ethereum.
Government Applications - Votes and referendums, legislation, elimination of bureaucracy, smart cities and access to government electronic services.