As policies in various countries gradually improve and traditional financial institutions continue to enter, digital assets are transitioning from an experimental stage to a new era of scaling and mainstream application. On October 15, the 'New Trends in Digital Asset Development Forum 2024' hosted by Bloomberg was successfully held, with in-depth discussions on cutting-edge technologies, market trends, and future development directions in the digital asset field.
In the opening speech of the event, Zhan Yaohua, Head of Bloomberg China Corporate and Commodities, warmly welcomed the attendees and briefly introduced Bloomberg's other professional services besides its news business. He also demonstrated Bloomberg's powerful financial data services to the audience.
Subsequently, Wei Changzheng, Chief Researcher at AntChain OpenLabs, brought practical insights to the audience. In his keynote speech ('Accelerating' into the Web3 Age of Exploration), he chose Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) technology as a starting point, sharing content from its development background, technical concepts, nature and composition, to the iterative development of ZKP, application scenarios, and the ZKP technology system under AntChain's hybrid architecture.
In the final segment of the event, a roundtable discussion, Du Yu, Deputy General Manager of Wanxiang Blockchain, Jade, COO of Tomo Wallet, Wayne, Co-Founder of MEET48, Yvette, Investment Director of Xterio, Nemo, Investment Director of Web3.com Ventures, and Tongtong Bee, Co-founder of PANews & PANONY, who served as moderator, discussed and exchanged views on the topic ('Where is the large-scale application of Web3? Exploring multiple fields of crypto assets').
Guests from different tracks and roles within the industry shared their views on the current state of the crypto industry, the prospects for large-scale applications, the combination of AI and Web3, and the Memecoin craze.
"Terms like 'the first year of large-scale application' and 'the eve' have been used for many years, but I don't think we've reached that level yet," said Du Yu, Deputy General Manager of Wanxiang Blockchain. He believes that the past inability to achieve large-scale application was mainly constrained by the development level of infrastructure. With technological advancements, user experience issues are gradually being resolved, and the path to large-scale application has actually just begun. However, he also pointed out that many good trends and signals have emerged, and the industry's focus is starting to shift from infrastructure construction to application development.
Xterio Investment Director Yvette is more optimistic: "Compared to the last cycle, some game products have already achieved a large-scale introduction of new users. Taking the pixel-style simulation game Pixels as an example, she believes that some products similar to Pixels in this cycle have attracted millions of monthly active users, surpassing the peak of the previous cycle's leading product Axie. It’s just that the market's attention has been more dispersed by new narratives like DePIN, AI, and RWA, so the development of niche products hasn't received full attention.
In recent years, artificial intelligence has almost become a topic that all fintech practitioners inevitably mention, and its combination with Web3 technology is also one of the industry's focal points. Nemo, Investment Director of Web3.com Ventures, believes that individuals and industries are in different dimensions and need to be analyzed from both long-term and short-term perspectives. He stated that, in the short term, both AI and Web3 are actually in a bubble cycle, but this does not mean it is unfavorable for everyone; different positions will yield different perspectives. For entrepreneurs, their development funds will be more abundant, and the cost of trial and error will decrease. "So in the long term, I am relatively optimistic," Nemo added, emphasizing that the core issue is whether so-called data decentralization can truly be implemented.
In the current lack of vitality and growth points in the crypto industry, various Memecoins have become hits, always accompanied by various criticisms and concerns when they go viral. Tomo Wallet COO Jade believes that Memecoins are a window for Web2 users to see Web3; their wealth effect, underlying culture, and addictive attributes may attract many young Web2 users.
Wayne, Co-Founder of MEET48, stated that the explosive popularity of Memecoins indeed reflects many existing issues in the industry, but its emotional value attributes cannot be ignored. Especially in the context where the distribution methods of so-called value coins often attract community criticism, the value orientation triggered by the emotions of Memecoins can somewhat avoid related problems.
