Original title: (5 narratives to watch in 2025.)
Author: nairolf
Translation: Deep Tide TechFlow
I won't waste time writing a lengthy introduction – 2024 is indeed an exciting year. Let's get straight to the point and see what changes I'm most looking forward to in 2025:
Alternative Virtual Machines (altVMs)
2024 will be a year for alternative virtual machines (Alternative Virtual Machines, altVMs) to shine.
@fuel_network has successfully launched its mainnet.
@cartesiproject continues to make steady progress, while MoveVM has gained more applications driven by @Aptos, @SuiNetwork, and @movementlabsxyz.
2025 may become a breakthrough year for these alternative virtual machines, sparking the next wave of on-chain applications.
It is worth mentioning that the hybrid execution model of @fluentxyz will play a key role in this field. It integrates EVM, SVM, and Wasm into a single execution environment, providing developers with the most comprehensive and flexible app-building options. Even more exciting is that this design is scalable, meaning that any virtual machine can potentially be added to this system in the future. Perhaps it will become the 'ultimate solution' in the field of virtual machines.
Chain Abstraction
Chain abstraction made significant progress in 2024. It evolved from a preliminary concept: to create an experience for users that makes them feel like they're using a single chain, even though hundreds of chains are working together behind the scenes.
Users no longer need to frequently switch wallets, manage multiple gas tokens, or – the most troublesome – bridge across chains.
The UniversalX solution launched by @ParticleNtwrk allows trading of any on-chain tokens through a unified interface, offering an experience similar to Binance, but fully on-chain. The maturity of this technology will give rise to many new products, and importantly, many existing projects will also begin to adopt these solutions.
This trend showcases the deep cooperation between projects, such as the collaborative achievements of @EverclearOrg, @SOCKETProtocol, and @NEARProtocol, as well as @sedaprotocol and @routescan_io.
The focus of 2025 will be on how to get more users to access and use these innovative solutions.
L1 Public Chain
If there are no new L1 public chains born in a year, it would certainly lack a lot of fun. In 2024, Sui and Aptos are undoubtedly the star projects in this field.
So what about 2025? We will welcome more exciting new projects.
@monad_xyz, @berachain, and @HyperliquidX may become the 'golden triangle' driving industry development.
Among them, Hyperliquid's HyperEVM is particularly noteworthy. As Hyperliquid's popularity continues to rise, how its ecosystem connects deeply with exchanges themselves will be an important point of interest.
RaaS (Rollup-as-a-Service)
RaaS may be one of the least discussed areas currently. Why is that? Perhaps because it seems like a 'boring business.' However, many seemingly uninteresting business models often hold the most value in hindsight.
Rollups and L2 are hot topics in the crypto circle (CT) in 2024, and this trend will not fade in the short term.
As @inkonchain and @AbstractChain are set to launch relevant services in the coming months, discussions about these technologies will continue. But one thing is clear: there will be an increasing number of L2 chains born in the future.
Whether general-purpose or specialized chains, the data speaks for itself. Rollup-as-a-Service platforms like @Calderaxyz have already supported the deployment of about 100 new chains this year and have provided rich integration and customization options from day one.
In addition, @conduitxyz and @alt_layer are adopting similar models. The market demand for RaaS providers is becoming increasingly undeniable.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
According to statistics from @_kaitoai, AI's attention this year has exceeded 40%, reaching unprecedented levels.
But my intuition tells me that this is just the beginning. The Eliza project from @ai16zdao has become one of the most popular open-source projects on GitHub in the past few months. Could it become a bridge for attracting new developers into the crypto space? Time will tell, but it certainly has the potential to be an interesting 'entry point.'
We have already seen preliminary results of AI in the real world, such as the @aixbt_agent developed by @virtuals_io. This agent continues to attract attention in the crypto circle while providing quite accurate information.
Will the future revolve around 'interpreting the thinking of AI agents'? There is currently no conclusion, but it can be anticipated that in 2025, there will be an increasing number of AI agents taking on tasks once handled by humans.
Other noteworthy projects
@pendle_fi continues to achieve exponential growth and is now regarded as one of the 'veteran' projects in DeFi. In 2025, will its total locked value (TVL) exceed $10 billion? Worth looking forward to.
@_kaitoai is pioneering a new field of information finance (InfoFi). What will it look like in the future? The answer should be revealed next year.
@Polymer_Labs will become a strong competitor in the field of cross-chain interoperability, and I believe interoperability will be one of the important topics in 2025.
@OndoFinance is driving large traditional institutions into the blockchain space. Real-world assets (RWA) and asset tokenization have become trends, but have yet to fully break through bottlenecks. Will 2025 see a turning point due to a more friendly regulatory environment?
@nillionnetwork's mainnet is scheduled to go live in February next year. Against the backdrop of increasing attention to privacy issues, this project could have a significant impact. What's even more exciting is that it is expected to lead a new wave of on-chain applications.
See you in 2025.
