By Pzai, Foresight News
With the maturity of blockchain technology and the improvement of the compliance environment, 2024 has become a key turning point in the crypto field both at the market level and at the application level, marking the technology's transition from early financial innovation to widespread commercial application.
Globally, the development of the crypto field is showing a trend of diversification and deepening. It has not only made important breakthroughs in the financial field, but also demonstrated great potential in multiple application-level fields. This year, we have witnessed the innovation and evolution of blockchain technology in asset and financial derivatives trading, as well as the crypto field's entry into the social, AI and even traditional Internet fields from asset and application innovation.
With Trump's rise to power and the influx of global capital, the cryptocurrency sector is pursuing its dawn in different ways and stepping into grander horizons. This article provides a brief review of the progress of mass adoption in the cryptocurrency sector in 2024.
Polymarket: The 'Arena' of All Things
This year's intense U.S. elections have brought a spring breeze to the cryptocurrency sector and have truly brought the prediction market Polymarket to the center stage of the world. As a prediction market, the outcomes of various events are displayed in real-time on Polymarket as probabilities of yes or no, with real transactions reflecting the market's game.
For this election, it even played the role of a 'prophet,' with its feedback on polling distributions being closer to actual election results than traditional media polls. Its success is not only reflected in its accurate predictions of election outcomes but also importantly demonstrates how decentralized prediction markets can become an efficient information aggregation tool.
On this platform, users can place bets on the outcomes of various events without permission, and these betting behaviors themselves reflect the collective expectations of participants regarding the occurrence of future events. As more people participate in such a market, the price mechanism can better reflect the likelihood of events occurring, providing a more comprehensive and timely data point than a single source. The platform's ease of use and flexibility quickly attracted a large number of new users, especially among the younger generation and technology enthusiasts. According to reports, the platform once ranked second in Apple's free app charts, just behind another prediction market app, Kalshi, indicating a high level of user engagement.
As a concept favored by Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin, prediction markets have grown from a niche experimental project for blockchain technology geeks into an influential public decision-making reference tool. As more people begin to recognize the value of such platforms, Polymarket is expected to continue to expand its influence and explore more diversified application scenarios, such as financial derivatives and policy assessments. In this 'arena', the competition of viewpoints brings a different perspective on viewing the world.
Farcaster and Onchain Summer: Active Attempts in SocialFi
The Base ecosystem, as a 'evergreen tree' and main 'engine' of the Ethereum system, has garnered much attention since its launch. With the backing of Coinbase's ecological support and user base, along with the strong community atmosphere sparked by Jesse Pollak and others, it laid the foundation for the explosion of the Base ecosystem. It is precisely because of the thriving ecological atmosphere that it has created a fertile ground for the mass adoption of Web3.
Last year, the Friend.tech of the Base ecosystem once led the frenzy of SocialFi, with numerous KOLs and users interacting within the protocol, bringing significant profits to many users. However, due to issues with its token economy and a slowdown in user growth, Friend.tech gradually lost market focus. In contrast, the decentralized social protocol Farcaster successfully attracted a large number of users' attention and support by building a more open, inclusive, and vibrant community ecosystem. Since opening registration last October, Farcaster has successfully become a social protocol with an average of 40,000 monthly active users, already achieving a certain scale effect.
Compared to other applications, Farcaster's uniqueness lies in the fact that it is not just a single social application, but more so plays the role of a protocol layer, allowing users complete control over their data and social graphs, freely migrating between different applications. Various developers can also create diverse frontend applications and services based on various APIs and frameworks. For instance, Warpcast, as a primary client, provides a user experience similar to Twitter.
Additionally, frameworks like Farcaster Frames allow users to directly interact with on-chain applications and perform various operations through a single Cast frontend, such as gaming, NFT minting, and article subscription services, creating more opportunities for users to engage in on-chain applications. Its unique community culture has also spawned community projects like DEGEN, HIGHER, gradually building community attention through a token reward mechanism while enhancing the influence of the Base chain itself.
With more and more well-known figures (such as Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin) joining, Farcaster has formed a vibrant and continuously growing community environment. For users, the new on-chain social paradigm merges the ease of traditional social applications with the flexibility of on-chain economic systems, and with the development of applications like AI Agents, it provides users with more convenient interactions.
Meanwhile, the global online hackathon event Onchain Summer held on the Base chain also became a highlight of the first half of the year, aiming to attract developers, artists, brands, and creators to participate in on-chain activities through a series of incentives. This event not only attracted more than 7,500 developers who submitted over 1,250 projects but also showcased the broad application possibilities of Web3 technology in various fields such as payments, business, and creator tools. An interesting fact is that now you can use USDC to buy your coffee at 49 cafes worldwide (even without miner fees on Coinbase Wallet).
AI Agent: A New Paradigm in the Cyber World
AI Agents, as an important component of the human cyber future, are emerging as a new form of economic entity. This not only changes the face of technology but also profoundly impacts the way humans interact within the new system. As AI gradually integrates into daily life with increasingly human-like characteristics, cryptocurrencies exist as the economic layer and protocol interaction layer for Agents.
Imagine a future where we can symbiotically coexist with AI, and the token economy becomes the key medium of interaction. For example, in the Base chain, AI Agents are seamlessly embedded in the ecosystem of decentralized applications (DApps), reshaping cryptocurrency rules through activities on these platforms.
Virtual Protocol is a protocol built on the Base chain, aimed at constructing an ownership layer for AI Agents in the gaming and entertainment sectors and promoting the development of agents through tokenization channels. The highlight of this protocol is that it is not just a simple token issuance platform but aims to create a self-sustaining and continuously appreciating economic system.
The first AI Agent Aethernet created by HIGHER community member Martin within Farcaster issued NFTs on Zora and received significant creator incentives. As a bridge between human creativity and digital possibilities, Aethernet not only actively participates in on-chain activities but also promotes economic behavior in social relationships, bringing valuable positive emotions.
With the improvement of AI Agents infrastructure and as more and more developers begin to pay attention to the unique role AI can play in the cryptocurrency economic system, AI is expected to truly achieve synchronization with the real world, sensing the real temperature of water and continually iterating toward AGI in reality. Consequently, the strong feedback from the cryptocurrency world to the real world will soon arrive.
DeSci: Changing Scientific Research through Decentralization
In the field of scientific research, DeSci (Decentralized Science) is an emerging concept gaining increasing attention. It refers to the use of Web3 technology and distributed ledgers to build secure, durable, and transparent research record systems. In this way, scientists can better protect intellectual property, promote open collaboration, and ensure the authenticity and traceability of research results. According to crypto institution Spartan's predictions, DeSci will gain more attention in 2024 and become a powerful use case for blockchain. This is because DeSci not only addresses the data silo problem present in traditional research processes but also provides new possibilities for global knowledge sharing.
The representative Molecule DAO has provided substantial support for dozens of biopharmaceutical projects, and most of these projects have reached the stage of patent monetization or Series A financing. Under this concept, it has also spawned niche researcher platforms such as BIO Protocol, VitaDAO (focused on funding researchers related to longevity), and PsyDAO (for research and development of psychoactive substances).
Specifically, DeSci tracks the progress of each research project through the autonomous nature of DAOs, including experimental design, data analysis, and all stages until final publication. This not only helps improve the transparency of the entire research process but also effectively prevents academic misconduct.
At the same time, leveraging the smart contract mechanism, researchers can issue fundraising and collaboration processes without permission, thus simplifying the collaboration processes between institutions. More importantly, DeSci platforms typically adopt token economic models to incentivize participants to contribute high-quality content and services, thereby forming a self-sustaining and continuously expanding ecosystem. This also proves DeSci itself as a reflection of sustainability in the cryptocurrency field, providing ample soil for scientific advancement.
TON Mini Programs: A New Attempt to Lower Barriers to Entry
If we can find the greatest focal point in the intersection of communication between the cryptocurrency and traditional fields, then Telegram (TON) is most likely to become this focal point. Imagine being able to access both on-chain and off-chain services through a variety of convenient front-ends and Bot operations within one application. By the end of May 2024, the monthly active users (MAU) of Telegram Mini Apps had reached 400 million, increasing to 500 million in July, with over half of Telegram users actively engaging in the cryptocurrency space.
This year, the explosion of countless mini-programs has brought many people a dawn of reaching countless users from social platforms, while in terms of user usage, some applications are also cutting in from different ecological niches. TADA from Singapore is a typical example, showcasing how to utilize existing communication platform functions to achieve seamless connections between online communication and offline services.
As a ride-hailing service platform, TADA not only offers competitive pricing advantages but, more importantly, successfully simplifies the payment process, allowing users to complete transactions directly within Telegram using various cryptocurrencies. This innovation not only revolutionizes traditional travel models but also provides a successful example for the actual landing of Web3 application scenarios. For the industry, TADA's case shows that when the right technology and business model are combined, it can effectively promote more people to accept and use DeFi services.
Notcoin is a simple airdrop mini-program based on Telegram, which has rapidly gained popularity since its launch in early 2024. The game attracts millions of players through a simple mechanism while introducing a token economic model that encourages users to participate and earn rewards through airdrops and other means. Over time, some users have begun to explore deeper functionalities within TON, such as investing in DeFi products or participating in other forms of on-chain activities. The success of Notcoin proves that through fun and instant feedback mechanisms, new users can effectively be guided into the complex world of cryptocurrency. In terms of customer acquisition strategies, TON has also successfully achieved a closed loop of 'click to earn traffic - token airdrop - user conversion to DeFi applications' through its mini-programs.
RWA: The 'Integration' of On-Chain and Off-Chain
The interoperability of on-chain and off-chain assets has been one of the major 'pain points' explored by many projects over multiple cycles. In a loosening regulatory environment, the future of RWA (Real World Assets) is unfolding before us. According to Bitwise, the total amount of RWA assets in the global market has exceeded $12.5 billion, including most private credit and government bond-related derivatives.
For on-chain users, the accessibility of off-chain asset yields is gradually becoming an important part of the entire economic system. When Sky transitioned from DAI to USDS, it was already prepared in the RWA field (the introduction of Spark's RWA provided some experience for Sky), finding considerable off-chain yield opportunities for the cryptocurrency sector.
Meanwhile, stablecoins focusing on RWA yields, such as Usual and Anzen, have also recently launched their TGE, reflecting the market's robust enthusiasm for RWA yield opportunities. Among them, Usual integrates the liquidity of platforms like Hashnote with the liquidity of general stablecoins, providing flexible yields for holders through the USD0 and Bond model, while Anzen Finance offers diversified yield sources through private credit asset pools as collateral.
Recently, the MiCA bill passed in Europe has accelerated the progress of regional stablecoins and cryptocurrency custody compliance. Trump's rise to power has also provided imaginative space for the on-chain issuance of off-chain assets. With the accelerated promotion of cryptocurrency compliance in various regions, as major capital like BlackRock and Citigroup gradually enters the RWA track, it is believed that the RWA track will soon provide diverse choices for cryptocurrency users.
Conclusion
In 2024, the cryptocurrency field welcomes a flourishing scene of a hundred flowers blooming. This year is not only a crucial moment for technological advancement but also an important turning point for countless projects in the cryptocurrency field transitioning from concept to reality. With the increasing maturity of blockchain technology and the gradual improvement of the regulatory environment, we are witnessing widespread acceptance and deep development of cryptocurrencies and their related applications globally.
In a time when a hundred flowers bloom, it is even more necessary to set sail and hoist the sails. We hope that in the near future, we can see many people owning cryptocurrency wallets and participating in different economic activities on-chain, even coexisting peacefully with AI in a cyber society, building harmonious interpersonal relationships.
