See Tech Trends for 2022: Vegetable Meat, Web 3.0 and the ‘Big Tech’ Battle

The world of technology offers many promises for 2022: Waymo (Google) will continue to test its driverless vehicles in several cities across the United States, and Facebook —now Meta— will move forward in building the metaverse, a parallel universe of virtual reality.

Here’s a selection of how technology could change the way you live in the coming year.

vegetable meat

Alternatives to meat have become commonplace in many US households, thanks in part to vegetable products from Beyond Meat and Impossible Food, which attempt to reproduce the texture and flavor of beef and pork.

As these products improve and their prices fall, demand increases due to environmental concerns: raising animals for food is responsible for 14.5% of greenhouse gas emissions, linked to human activity, according to UN data .

The global vegetable meat market is expected to reach $35 billion (BRL 199 billion) in 2027, up from $13.5 billion (BRL 76.7 billion) in 2020, thanks in part , to expansion beyond the United States, according to a report by Research and Markets.

“The year 2022 will be a turning point for foods made from plant-based proteins,” said David Bchiri, president of the American consultancy Fabernovel. “The products are good and are mature. They will become something common”.

web decentralization

The first phase of the Internet saw the creation of websites and blogs, which allowed the emergence of companies such as Yahoo!, eBay and Amazon.

Then came the so-called Web 2.0, characterized by social networks and user-generated content on platforms like Facebook and YouTube.

These platforms “get money (from advertising) and control it,” summarized Benedict Evans, an independent analyst specializing in Silicon Valley.

In the event of reaching Web 3.0, “users, creators and developers would have stakes and vote… Maybe they’ll choose to change” the platform in the same way a co-op works, Evans said in a podcast.

A revolutionary advance of this kind would be possible thanks to blockchain technology, in which computer programs run on networks of thousands or millions of computers.

Until now, the blockchain has allowed the emergence of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and, more recently, unique digital objects such as drawings or animations called NFT (non-fungible token).

“We talk a lot about decentralized finance, but I think in 2022 we’re going to see more localized use cases that will come into everyday life,” Bchiri said.

As highly volatile digital money like bitcoin reached record highs in 2021, all kinds of people got into the game, including versions released in Miami and New York.

Miami has raised more than $20 million through its cryptocurrency, created in collaboration with CityCoins, an open-source protocol designed specifically for municipalities seeking alternative ways to raise funds. New York launched a similar adventure in early November.

But these technologies have a significant environmental impact, given the massive electricity needs of computer networks and data centers, the links in the block chain.

Ransomware everywhere

The record for ransomware attacks and leaks in 2021 is likely to extend to 2022.

Cyber ​​extortion invades the victim’s network, encrypts their data and, to decrypt it, demands a ransom that is normally paid in cryptocurrencies.

Several factors fuel the trend, including the rise of cryptocurrencies, victims’ willingness to pay, and authorities’ difficulties in catching the perpetrators.

Cybersecurity company SonicWall wrote in late October: “With 495 million ransomware attacks reported by the company so far this year, 2021 will be the most costly and dangerous year on record.”

“When I think of 2022, the most important thing to me and my colleagues remains ransomware. It’s just too profitable,” wrote Sandra Joyce, executive vice president and head of global intelligence at cybersecurity firm Mandiant.

Regulation of ‘Big Tech’?

It’s hard to say whether 2022 will be the year that big tech companies will be affected by new rules, but a series of regulatory and legal threats, launched in 2021, will spark major battles.

The US Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust suit against Facebook poses a genuine threat to the social networking giant, although a court has once dismissed the case.

It is possible that new actions and a federal investigation will occur, perhaps even new laws will be passed, due to the compromising leaks of documents that reveal that Facebook executives knew their platforms could do harm.

Some critics say the company’s biggest boost to the metaverse project tries to shift focus after years of criticism.

Apple, for its part, managed to save itself 2021 when a US federal court ruled that Epic Games, maker of Fornite, failed to demonstrate that the creator of the iPhone had an illegal monopoly, although it ordered the apple company to loosen the Control over your app store, the App Store. Both parties appealed.

New regulations may come first in the European Union, as the bloc pushes new regulations, such as the Digital Services Act, which would create much stricter oversight over harmful or illegal content on platforms like Facebook.