In 2025 we’ll celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the Ethereum blockchain and the EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine). In this short period of time we’ve seen a flurry of experimentation, use cases, adoption, pullback, and resurgence, all part of a chaotic evolution that is rapidly approaching global adoption. As the EVM concludes its first decade in existence, trends that bubbled up in the past are re-emerging and finding renewed interest and traction.
Three trends driving the next wave of adoption are tokenized RWAs, wallet innovations, and web3 gaming advancements. All are being influenced by new, faster and cheaper Layer 2 (L2) chains where tokens and games can scale with ease. AI is playing a significant role, streamlining processes and providing content at a never-before-seen pace. Block explorers advancements are also a key factor in adoption. Data from RWAs and gaming platforms must be highly available and include all of the additional data points that come with these more advanced use cases. Block explorers provide this information in a transparent and accessible way.
Scaling factors play into the EVM future directions recently laid out by Vitalik Buterin in Possible Futures of the Ethereum Protocol. The Merge, with single slot finality, the Surge, moving towards a rollup-centric model with 100K+ tps, and the Splurge, where transaction fees are optimized and handled by paymasters, all speak to the future features that will enable mass adoption.
If the first 10 years in the Ethereum ecosystem were about ideas, experimentation, and iteration, the next 10 will cement a number of these ideas and blockchain products into our everyday digital lives.
Connecting the Real World to the Blockchain
There are many advantages to tokenizing assets onto the blockchain. Creating tokens that represent real world assets (RWAs) opens up possibilities for increased access, fractional ownership, easy transfer, and historical record keeping. You can eliminate middle men and directly transfer assets between parties while everything is transparently tracked on chain, catalogued, and displayed on the block explorer.
We’ve seen tokenized RWAs expand from traditional financial stores of value like precious metals and bonds into tangible assets like real estate, art, collectibles, and wine. Assets that were previously out of reach for many individuals can now be owned in small fractions, allowing people to diversify their portfolios and participate in new markets. Smart contracts manage the process, resulting in fewer opportunities for corruption and lower costs. Many RWAs are moving to optimized L2s where fees are further minimized, and specialized chains are leaning into new and different types of RWAs.
“Tokenize everything” is becoming a mantra for the next cycle of adoption. Personal assets (like cars, record players, blenders, and even your cat) can be tokenized then sold/gifted to others in both the physical and digital realm, providing an accurate and complete record of ownership. This can extend to insurance coverage, allowing for items to be easily insured and accurately tracked or reimbursed. Tokenized items can be loaned on-chain, giving users instant access to liquidity. Even personal data, like health or medical data, can be tokenized, with temporary paid access granted (with explicit permission) to researchers or companies designing new medicines.
The opportunities are nearly endless, and with scaling in place, cost, speed and available blockspace are no longer barriers to the new frontiers in RWA tokenization.
Wallets as the Gateway to Web3
Wallets connect users to the blockchain, providing the ability to approve transactions, move funds, and interact with contracts. While incremental changes and new wallets have improved the experience to date, up-and-coming wallet innovations will open up onchain interactions for everyone.
Account abstraction will bring programmability to wallets, allowing for customizable transaction rules, multi-sig security, account recoverability, and flexible gas tokens. These features will make wallets more useful and easier for new users to understand and interact with. New UIs and physical blockchain wallets (with NFC technology), along with greater stablecoin accessibility, will enable transactional experiences that consumers are already comfortable using (i.e. guest checkouts, tap-to-pay abilities etc).
New security and privacy-enhancements will further enhance wallet usability, allowing for private data and NFT storage, the option to keep some transactions private, and safety checks when interacting with applications to prevent malicious contract interaction. L2s are already scaling transactions and improving speed; further optimizations will make the blockchain transaction experience on-par with the credit card experience people expect.
These new features, along with interfaces that are consumer friendly and block explorers that show all onchain transactions, will make blockchain interactions with DeFi apps, games, and contracts as easy as making a credit card purchase on any website today.
Gaming as a Bridge Between Web2 and Web3
Gaming is a natural way to onboard the next generation of web3 users. Gamers are already savvy online – they are used to in-game purchases, digital products that enhance a game, and game mechanics that mimic similar blockchain experiences.
Constraints on speed, high transaction costs, and limits on data storage have created barriers to blockchain game adoption in the past, but these are quickly dissolving thanks to L2s and scaling. The next hurdles involve creating games that are truly engaging (rather than played only to earn crypto) and interfaces that seamlessly incorporate onchain activities into the gaming experience.
Games like Dark Forest point to one possible future where the wallet experience is embedded in the game, each action is a transaction on the chain, and in-game NFTs can be easily traded and ported across networks and even used in other games. In addition, a customized block explorer mirrors the look and feel of the game, so users can check transactions easily without feeling they’ve left the Dark Forest universe.
AI-driven content will remake the entire blockchain game design process, providing the ability to create new worlds in near-real-time and radically reducing development cycles. L2s devoted to gaming will help to further optimize the experience and provide a platform where web2 gamers can seamlessly onboard into a web3 world. Once there, they will see the advantages of true digital ownership, earned currency through superior gameplay, and community empowerment.
The Path to Mass Adoption of Blockchain Technology
The next wave of web3 innovation and usage is rapidly approaching. Thanks to the scaling efforts of Ethereum and L2s that provide increasing speed and cheaper transactions, new use cases will set blockchain on the course towards mass adoption.
Tokenized real-world assets, improved wallet functionality, and web3 gaming platforms are three use cases with the potential to onboard the masses. DeFi is still in its infancy, and RWAs can add huge amounts of liquidity and utility to the system. An improved wallet UX will provide safety and ease when interacting onchain. Games can bring blockchain to almost everyone. More than 1 billion people globally currently play on-line games – if even a fraction of those adopt web3 gaming platforms, a major influx of new users will get the chance to explore everything blockchain has to offer.
Scalability is the driver allowing blockchain to reach its potential. As the future scales, collaboration among blockchain teams, consistency in development tooling and block explorers, and a unified vision around the importance of decentralization, transparency, and trustlessness will help maintain blockchain’s promise to make the world a better place.
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