Every year there are new challenges. Some can bring you more business opportunities, and others can boost your creativity and ideas to become successful in many fields. So in 2022, there will be a lot of changes, that is for sure, in the rapidly growing environment. But so far, we can agree that there will be these five tech trends. And they can certainly mark this year.

Metaverse

Metaverse is one of the most popular themes right now. It is a virtual world created by combining different technologies, including virtual and augmented reality.

While it doesn’t technically exist yet, companies like Facebook hope the metaverse will become a place where we go to meet, work, play, study and shop.

This ‘extended reality is predicted to be the next evolution of the internet and will blur the lines between physical and digital life. And that in the future can also mean that we will have jobs in the metaverse. For example, they might include personalized avatar creators or metaverse, research scientists.

Self-fertilizing crops

Fertilizer containing around 110 million tonnes of nitrogen is used in global crop production every year. This accounts for 1% to 2% of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

But plants like soy and beans – from the legume family that includes peas and lentils – use a “clever way” to produce their nitrogen – according to the Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2021 report, created by famous science magazine Scientific American the World Economic Forum.

Scientists now hope to “coax” other crops like corn and other cereals to self-fertilize.

3D-printed houses

Feeding materials like concrete, sand, and plastics into a massive 3D printer to print homes is a “relatively simple and low-cost construction method,” the Forum says.

But lack of infrastructure to transport materials has precluded the use of 3D printing for the remote and emerging regions where it could have the most impact.

This could change if more companies follow the lead of Italian 3D printing company WASP, which has demonstrated how to print housing components using local materials like clay soil.

Low-carbon shipping

Today, 2% or less of road transport fleets produce zero emissions. But, as a result of bulk shipping – both rail and seaborne – low-carbon solutions have emerged, says Bernard S. Meyerson, Chief Innovation Officer Emeritus at IBM and Vice-Chair of the Top 10 Emerging Technologies steering group.

These include a CO2-emission-free passenger train, the Coradia iLint, and the development of alternative shipping fuels like green ammonia, a carbon-free gas produced using renewable energy.

Cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrency is moving from the “fringes of finance to the mainstream,” according to Thomson Reuters Foundation, the global news and information services company.

El Salvador in Central America became the first country to make bitcoin – the original and most popular cryptocurrency – legal tender in September 2021.

Meanwhile, central banks in Sweden, Canada, the European Union, and the United Kingdom are among those considering their digital currencies.

Using vastly powerful computer systems to ‘mine’ for new crypto is terrible for the environment. But there are tech industry experts who believe that, with regulation, it will become a more sustainable legal tender of the future.

But in this open space of opportunity, one thing is sure. The future is now. And now is time to participate in these upcoming changes.