Original title: 7 Big Ideas for 2025 (and more trends to watch)
Original author: a16z crypto
Original translation: Ismay, BlockBeats
Abstract: This article will explore seven core trends in cryptocurrencies, covering stablecoins, app stores, decentralized governance and more. These trends will not only drive industry development, but also provide new perspectives for future technological innovation and applications.
The following is the original content:
Some trends we're watching
a16z released a comprehensive list of "big ideas" for the coming year based on its partners' observations in areas such as AI, American vitality, life sciences/health, cryptocurrency, enterprise services, fintech, gaming, and infrastructure, aiming to inspire technology builders.
Here are some important ideas shared by members of the cryptocurrency team; for more exciting content, please read the full article.
For insights into 2025's policy, regulatory, and other aspects, please refer to the article published in November.
1. Enterprises will increasingly accept stablecoin payments
In the past year, stablecoins have found their product-market fit — this is not surprising, as stablecoins are currently the lowest-cost way to send dollars, enabling rapid global payments. Additionally, stablecoins provide entrepreneurs with a more convenient platform to develop new payment products: no intermediaries, no minimum balance requirements, or exclusive SDKs. However, large enterprises have yet to realize the substantial cost savings and new profit opportunities that switching to these payment channels can bring.
While we have already seen some businesses show interest in stablecoins (and early applications in peer-to-peer payments), I anticipate a wave of larger experimentation in 2025. Small/medium enterprises (like restaurants, cafes, and convenience stores) with strong brand influence, loyal customer bases, and facing high payment costs may lead the way in switching from credit cards to stablecoin payments. These businesses do not benefit from the fraud protection of credit cards (especially for face-to-face transactions), and the high transaction fees significantly impact their profits (a 30-cent fee per cup of coffee is substantial for profit loss).
We should also expect larger enterprises to start adopting stablecoins. If stablecoins can accelerate the evolution of banking history, then enterprises will attempt to disintermediate payment service providers — directly adding 2% to their bottom line. Furthermore, companies will begin looking for new solutions to address issues currently solved by credit card companies, such as fraud protection and identity verification.
——Sam Broner (X Platform @sambroner | Farcaster Platform @sambroner)
2. Countries Explore On-Chain Government Bonds
Bringing government bonds on-chain will create a government-backed digital asset with interest, while avoiding the regulatory privacy issues brought by Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). Such products can provide a new source of collateral demand for lending and derivatives protocols in DeFi (Decentralized Finance), thus adding more stability and credibility to these ecosystems.
As governments worldwide supporting innovation further explore the advantages and efficiencies of public, permissionless, and immutable blockchain this year, some countries may pilot the issuance of on-chain government bonds. For example, the UK has already explored digital securities through its sandbox project established by its financial regulator, the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority); the UK Treasury has also expressed intentions to issue digital bonds.
In the United States, due to the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) planning to require the clearing of government bonds through traditional cumbersome and costly infrastructure next year, more discussions are expected on how blockchain can enhance the transparency, efficiency, and participation of bond trading.
——Brian Quintenz (X Platform @brianquintenz | Farcaster Platform @brianq)
3. 'DUNA' Will Become a New Industry Standard for the US Blockchain Network
In 2024, Wyoming passed a new law officially recognizing DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) as legal entities. DUNA (Decentralized Unincorporated Nonprofit Association) is specifically designed to support decentralized governance of blockchain networks and is currently the only viable legal framework for projects in the US. By incorporating DUNA into decentralized legal entity structures, crypto projects and other decentralized communities can give legal status to their DAOs — thereby facilitating broader economic activities while protecting token holders from legal liabilities and adequately addressing tax and compliance needs.
DAOs, as communities governing open blockchain network affairs, are crucial tools to ensure the network remains open, fair, and avoids unreasonable value extraction. DUNA can unleash the potential of DAOs, and multiple projects are already pushing for its implementation. As the US further supports and accelerates the development of its crypto ecosystem in 2025, I expect DUNA to become the industry standard for US crypto projects. Additionally, other states may follow suit with similar structures (Wyoming has led this trend; they were also the first state to adopt the now widely used LLC) — especially as other decentralized applications (such as physical infrastructure/energy grids) emerge outside the crypto realm.
——Miles Jennings (X Platform @milesjennings | Farcaster Platform @milesjennings)
4. Developers Will Reuse More Rather Than Reinvent Infrastructure
In the past year, teams have been continuously 'reinventing the wheel' in the blockchain technology stack — for example, developing yet another set of custom validator sets, consensus protocol implementations, execution engines, programming languages, and RPC APIs. These attempts may improve certain specific functionalities slightly, but often underperform in broader or foundational functionalities. Take programming languages specifically designed for SNARKs as an example: ideally, this language could help top developers build better-performing SNARKs, but in practice, it might lag behind general-purpose programming languages in terms of compiler optimization, development tools, online learning resources, and AI programming support (at least for now), potentially leading to poor SNARK performance.
Therefore, I expect more teams in 2025 to leverage existing achievements and reuse ready-made blockchain infrastructure components — from consensus protocols and existing staking capital to proof systems. This approach will not only help developers save considerable time and effort but also allow them to focus on creating the unique value of their products or services.
Today, the infrastructure required to develop mass-market Web3 products and services is largely in place. Like in other industries, the teams that succeed will be those that can effectively leverage complex supply chains, rather than those that scoff at 'non-self-developed' technology.
——Joachim Neu (X Platform @jneu_net)
5. The Crypto Industry Welcomes Exclusive App Stores and Content Discovery Channels
When crypto applications are blocked by centralized platforms like Apple's App Store or Google Play, their top user acquisition channels become limited. However, we are now seeing some emerging app stores and marketplaces providing distribution and content discovery capabilities without going through strict reviews. For example, Worldcoin's World App marketplace — which not only stores verification information but also provides access to 'mini-apps' — brought hundreds of thousands of users to multiple applications within just a few days. Another example is the zero-fee dApp Store exclusive to Solana phone users. These cases also suggest that not only software but hardware (like phones or verification devices) could become a key advantage for crypto app stores, just as Apple devices once drove the early application ecosystem's development.
At the same time, there are other stores containing thousands of decentralized applications and Web3 development tools (such as Alchemy), as well as blockchains acting as game publishers and distribution platforms (like Ronin). But this is not entirely an entertainment ecosystem: if a product already has established distribution channels (like messaging apps), migrating it to the chain is not easy (with exceptions like Telegram/TON network). The same goes for applications that have significant distribution advantages in the Web2 ecosystem. However, perhaps we will see more such migrations happening in 2025.
——Maggie Hsu (X Platform @meigga | Farcaster Platform @maggiehsu)
6. From Holders to Users: The Shift of Crypto Users
In 2024, significant political progress was made in the crypto space, with many key policymakers and politicians expressing positive views. At the same time, crypto as a financial movement continues to evolve (for example, Bitcoin and Ethereum ETPs have broadened investor participation). In 2025, crypto is expected to further develop as a movement of computational technology. But where will the next user base come from?
I believe it's time to reactivate those currently 'passive' cryptocurrency holders and convert them into more active users. Currently, only 5-10% of cryptocurrency holders are actively using crypto technology. We can bring the 617 million people who already hold crypto assets onto the chain, especially as blockchain infrastructure continues to improve and user transaction fees decrease. This means new applications will gradually emerge for existing and new users. At the same time, some early applications we have already seen — covering areas such as stablecoins, DeFi, NFTs, gaming, social, DePIN, DAOs, and prediction markets — are starting to become more acceptable to mainstream users as the community increasingly focuses on user experience and other optimizations.
——Daren Matsuoka (X Platform @darenmatsuoka | Farcaster Platform)
7. 'Hiding Technical Details' Aids the Birth of Killer Apps for Web3
The technical advantages of the blockchain industry make it unique but also hinder mainstream user acceptance to some extent. For creators and fans, blockchain technology brings new possibilities for connectivity, ownership, and monetization... However, the industry jargon (such as 'NFTs', 'zkRollups', etc.) and complex designs have become a hurdle for those who could benefit the most. I have deeply experienced this in countless conversations with executives from media, music, and fashion about Web3.
The mass adoption of many consumer technologies has followed a similar path: technology comes first, followed by a hallmark company or designer abstracting the complexity, leading to breakthrough applications. Think back to the development of email — the SMTP protocol is hidden behind the 'send' button; or credit cards, where most users today do not care about the payment rails behind them. Similarly, the music revolution brought by Spotify was not achieved by showcasing file formats, but by delivering playlists directly to users' fingertips. As Nassim Taleb said: 'Over-engineering leads to fragility, while simplicity is scalable.'
Therefore, I believe that in 2025, our industry will adopt the concept of 'hiding technical details'. The best decentralized applications have already begun to focus on more intuitive interface designs, making operations as simple as tapping a screen or swiping a card. In 2025, we will see more companies dedicated to concise design and clear communication; successful products need no explanation; they directly solve problems.
——Chris Lyons (X Platform @chrislyons | Farcaster Platform)
6 Major Trends in Decentralized Governance in 2025
2025 will be an exciting year for decentralized governance. Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) are continuously breaking new ground in exploring new models for shared governance among anonymous token holders. Investment management companies are working hard to persuade clients to participate more frequently in online shareholder voting. Meanwhile, AI companies are beginning to utilize citizen assemblies to set standards for Large Language Models (LLMs). These efforts will encourage various decentralized governance experiments to unfold simultaneously, including:
1. Websites to Help Voters Delegate Voting
2. AI-Assisted Delegation Mechanisms
3. AI as an Agent
4. Smarter Participation Incentive Mechanisms
5. More Efficient Funding Support for Public Goods
6. More Experiments in Lottery Governance
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