As national policies gradually improve and traditional financial institutions continue to enter, digital assets are transitioning from an experimental stage to a new era of scale and mainstream application. On October 15, the (New Trends in Digital Asset Development Forum 2024) hosted by Bloomberg was successfully held. This forum held in-depth discussions around cutting-edge technologies, market trends, and future development directions in the digital asset field.
In the opening speech of the event, Zhang Yaohua, Head of Bloomberg China Corporate and Commodities, warmly welcomed the attendees and briefly introduced Bloomberg's other professional services beyond news. He also showcased Bloomberg's powerful financial data services to the audience.
Subsequently, AntChain OpenLabs Chief Researcher Wei Changzheng brought valuable insights to the audience. In his keynote speech ('Accelerating' into the Web3 Age of Exploration), he selected zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) technology as the entry point, sharing content from development background, technical concepts, properties and components, to the iterative development of ZKP, application scenarios, and the ZKP technology system under AntChain's hybrid architecture.
In the final roundtable discussion of the event, 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 PANews & PANONY Co-founder Tongtong Bee, who served as the host, discussed and exchanged ideas on the theme ('Where is the large-scale application of Web3? The multi-field exploration of crypto assets').
Guests from different sectors and roles in the industry expressed their views on the current state of the crypto industry, the prospects for large-scale applications, the combination of AI and Web3, and the meme token craze.
"Terms like the first year of large-scale application, eve, etc., have been used for many years, but I think we haven't reached that level yet," said Du Yu, Deputy General Manager of Wanxiang Blockchain. He believes that the inability to achieve large-scale applications in the past was mainly restricted by the level of infrastructure development. With technological advancements, user experience issues are gradually being resolved, and the path to large-scale applications is just beginning. However, he also pointed out that many good trends and signals have already emerged, and the industry's focus has begun 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. Yvette uses the pixel-style simulation management game Pixels as an example, believing that during this cycle, some products similar to Pixels have already attracted millions of monthly active users, surpassing the peak of the previous cycle's leading product Axie. It's just that market attention has been more diverted by new narratives like DePIN, AI, and RWA, so the development of niche products hasn't been fully recognized.
In recent years, artificial intelligence has almost become a topic that all fintech practitioners inevitably mention, and its combination with Web3 technology is also a key focus of the industry. Nemo, Investment Director at Web3.com Ventures, believes that individuals and industries exist 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 have different perspectives. For entrepreneurs, funding for development will be more abundant, and the cost of trial and error will be lower. "So in the long term, I am relatively optimistic," Nemo added, emphasizing that the core lies in whether the so-called data decentralization can truly be realized.
In the current lack of vitality and growth points in the crypto industry, various Memecoins have become hits, often accompanied by criticism and concerns when they go viral. Tomo Wallet COO Jade believes that Memecoins serve as a window for Web2 users to see Web3; their wealth effect, underlying culture, and addictive properties may attract many young Web2 users.
MEET48 Co-Founder Wayne stated that the explosive popularity of Memecoins indeed reflects many existing problems in the industry, but their emotional value cannot be ignored. Especially in the context where the distribution methods of so-called value coins often face community criticism, the value orientation triggered by Memecoins to some extent can avoid related issues.
