If you have not been living under a rock, you would have definitely heard about the Bitcoin and some other cryptocurrencies. And if you are a little tech savvy too, you might have also heard about the blockchain technology. If you want to know why Bitcoin was invented, read this.

But this post is neither about bitcoin nor blockchain.

This post is about the projects which are being silently developed, away from all the noise. These projects, many still in their beta stage, are using blockchain to change how Facebook, Uber, Amazon function.

Here is my list of top 5 projects that are challenging the internet giants, meanwhile also trying to find a way to reward the users interacting on the platform.

SteemIt vs Facebook

SteemIt : Decentralised Social Network and Blogging Platform

We spend hours posting your selfies, sharing videos liking your friends’ posts on Facebook each day. User, like us, are the backbone of Facebook as a result of which Mark Zuckerberg is now worth 73 Billion USD. But isn’t it unfair that we are not compensated/rewarded for our activity on this platform. This is what gave rise to SteemIt.

Steemit is decentralized social networking platform that rewards every user activity(includes posting, liking and commenting) by STEEM Coins (You can check it’s price here). The website works in such a way that the best posts get to the top and all the bullshit is filtered out. This platform solves the major problem of monetization for content writers and bloggers.

People making money on their posts

You earn money even if you comment.
You can understand more by reading the FAQ on their website.

Golem vs AWS
Golem : World Supercomputer
Rendering 3D images or solving complex Machine Learning problems is tough. For this reason, companies and individuals rent out the computing power of AWS. Every Major internet company you know out there is, in one way or another, using AWS. And, no wonder, they charge a good amount of fees for their services. And due to this heavy dependence on AWS, any mis-happenings with their servers can get a major part of internet to a halt.

Golem is shifting this by creating a decentralised network of computers which together can act as a supercomputer with computing power much more than that of AWS.

A normal user uses only 30–40% of the processing power and rest gets wasted. With the help of Golem, normal users will be able to rent out their computer power in return of GOLEM coins(check out the price here).

So the next time you are tagging your friends in memes, you can rent out your CPU and earn $$$.

SIA is another project working on decentralised cloud storage. Check it out here.

La’Zooz vs Uber
La’Zooz : Collaborative transportation
If you have ever thought about about registering you car for Uber, you would know that Uber takes a commission of more than 15% on every ride that that driver take. This is a very high cost that every driver has to pay for using the platform.

La’zooz solves the problem of connecting the drivers and passengers through the blockchain technology. They are creating a Real-Time Ride-Sharing service. With RTRS, users share only the costs of a ride a driver is taking anyway in their direction. RTRS is thus a “non-commercial” service with minimal ride rates and maximum efficiency.

Read more about the app here and here.

The whole world and the media is currently totally obsessed with Bitcoin presently. It’s been called the a bubble similar to the Dot Com bubble. But don’t forget that companies like Google, Amazon and eBay emerged out of the bubble.
Similarly, in the coming years, many blockchain projects will go bust but a few will survive to change the technological landscape. Get ready for the future!