By Joe, Foresight News
Is it possible for Blast to become the next blockchain product to achieve mass adoption? Or is it just a flash in the pan that will go downhill after the airdrop?
On June 26, 2024, Blast issued an airdrop and listed tokens on exchanges such as Coinbase and Upbit, but has not yet been listed on Binance and OKX. As of July 1, Blast's market value was approximately US$380 million, second only to Arbitrum ($2.6 billion), OP ($2 billion), Starknet ($900 million), and ZK ($650 million) in the same track; TVL reached US$1.45 billion, second only to Arbitrum ($2.8 billion) and Base ($1.57 billion).
As the "youngest" Ethereum L2, Blast has ranked among the top five in the track in just half a year, with remarkable performance in terms of TVL and number of users. The founder Pacman, born in 1999, is a Web3 serial entrepreneur. At the age of 22, he founded Blur, the world's largest NFT exchange (with a market share of 65%), and then founded Blast. The two tracks chosen by Pacman are the most promising tracks in the crypto industry in the last two cycles, which also makes users look forward to Blast.
However, while collecting a lot of data, Blast has also been plagued by controversy. From the beginning, it was questioned whether it was L2 (not decentralized enough, Web2 product strategy), to the dilution of points during the airdrop period to "cut off big users", the airdrop time was delayed from May to June, and then to users' doubts about Blast's final airdrop income. Blast may have endured the most controversy among all Ethereum L2s.
So, after all the controversy, what kind of L2 is Blast? Why is it so controversial, yet still able to attract enough traffic and TVL data? Does it have a chance to stand out among the many Ethereum L2s and be the first to break into new user circles? Or is it a flash in the pan, and after the airdrop event, it will run out of tricks and no longer have new means of attracting new users? (This article starts from the advantages and strengths shown by Blast and explores its innovative side. This does not mean that it agrees with the above-mentioned controversial aspects of Blast)
Pacman, Founder of Blast
"Catfish Professional"
Pacman is only 25 years old, but he has a great influence on the technology and ecology of the current cryptocurrency industry. Looking at the entire Crypto industry, after Vitalik, Pacman has certain potential for bringing sustained and significant changes to the industry at such a young age. This comes from the two companies he founded: Blur and Blast.
These two companies have become the "catfish" in the "NFT" and "Ethereum L2" industry tracks respectively, and are stirring up changes in the entire industry ecosystem at an extremely fast speed.
Taking the NFT industry as an example, OpenSea, founded in 2017, was once the leader in the NFT market. However, more than a year after its establishment in March 2022, Blur successfully surpassed OpenSea and became the leader in the NFT track by launching a series of trading tools and functions to attract more professional and high-frequency traders.
In the Ethereum L2 track, Pacman also seems to want to replicate this success. In half a year, Blast has become the leader in this track. The latest data from Defillama (as of July 1) shows:
In terms of TVL, Blast reached $1.45 billion, ranking in the top three in the same track, second only to Arbitrum ($2.8 billion) and Base ($1.57 billion);
In terms of Ethereum ecosystem protocol usage, Blast Bridge ranks second, surpassing Base and OP, and second only to Arbitrum Bridge;
In terms of market capitalization, Blast reached $380 million, ranking in the top five in the same track, second only to Arbitrum ($2.6 billion), OP ($2 billion), Starknet ($900 million), and ZK ($650 million);
In the field of stablecoins, the stablecoin USDB launched by Blast has a market value of 390 million US dollars, ranking 11th among all stablecoins;
In the native DEX track, Blast ranks third. Comparing the 24-hour trading volume, Blast's Thruster (US$55 million) is second only to Base's Aero (US$120 million) and Arbitrum's Camelot (US$64 million).
In summary, Blast has performed well in terms of overall TVL, stablecoins, NFT, DEX, etc. It has already competed with Arbitrum and Base, becoming one of the three most promising ecosystems, and in many aspects, it has left other L2s behind. It is worth mentioning that the Meme in the Blast ecosystem also performed well. For example, Andy in the Blast ecosystem has reached 28 million US dollars, and is expected to surpass Pacmoon and become the largest Meme in its ecosystem.
As a "catfish" in the industry, Blur has become the leader in NFT after more than a year of development. Blast has experienced about half a year of growth and is trying to gain a foothold in the top three of Ethereum L2, which has also brought pressure to many L2s. After Blast, some L2 projects also chose to use the points system to issue airdrops, which of course once again caused controversy in the community.
Can Blast become the next mass adoption product?
Those who are bearish on Blast have different ideas, while those who are bullish on Blast have roughly the same ideas.
A practitioner pointed out: Pacman is good at systematic innovation and always finds the pain points of users. Blur's success is largely due to Pacman's discovery of the needs of professional and high-frequency users and the creation of a series of customized trading tools and functions to attract them to trade on its platform. Blast hopes to create an image of an APP Store in the blockchain industry and become the entrance for all users to enter the blockchain world.
All L2s hope to become the entry point for users to enter the blockchain world. The advantage of Blast is that in terms of product experience, the products in the Blast ecosystem generally have the characteristics of "simple and easy to use".
In terms of DEX, the Thruster product experience is smooth, and the conversion between tokens in the Blast ecosystem is convenient;
In terms of social networking, Fantasy has a beautiful interface and is showing signs of becoming a hit. It attempts to prove the blockchain data value of each account through indicators such as Twitter activity and the number of followers.
In terms of games, YOLO GAMES performed relatively well, with new mini-games constantly appearing and signs of small hits, attracting 6.7 million independent users in two weeks;
In terms of the points system, L2's points airdrop system (Points+Gold) was created. Now Scroll and Linea have also begun to experiment with the points system.
In terms of NFT, Blur, the largest NFT exchange, found a real demand entry point (professional and high-frequency NFT players) and surpassed OpenSea during the bear market.
It should be pointed out that any DApp can add itself to the official website list of Blast, which means that Blast officials will not guarantee the safety of users' funds when experiencing these applications. During the airdrop period, there were multiple cases of user assets being stolen from the Blast ecosystem project, and this may continue in the future. This has also become a problem that Blast needs to face if it wants to further break through existing users.
Blast and Base are the current star L2 projects. Their common points are: strong recognition of advantages, strong innovation and ability to make things happen, and constantly breaking through the circle to try to reach new users. However, there are also many differences between the two.
One of the major recognitions of Base is that Base has a very good pedigree. It is an on-chain team directly incubated by Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States. As the dominance and influence of the United States and Wall Street on the crypto world rapidly increases, Base naturally bears this part of the assets. Especially in meme, Base has become the next Solana, and has also become the L2 with the most frequent and largest meme transactions. Base has been on the road to breaking the circle. From August 2023, the social application Friend Tech became popular and generated $710,000 in protocol revenue a day; to February 2024, the social protocol Farcaster broke the circle on a large scale and became the number one protocol in Web3 social; and from March 2024 to the present, the on-chain meme transactions have been active. Base has been attracting new users and new transactions to its ecosystem visibly.
One of the major recognitions of Blast is that there are many distinctive "core products" in the Blast ecosystem, and they are very practical. For example, the stablecoin USDB can grab a share in the fiercely competitive stablecoin market; in the NFT market, there are leading companies such as Blur to support and empower, occupying more than 6% of the market. In financial products with strong demand such as lending (Juice) and contracts (Bloom), the products can be simple and easy to use, and in some emerging Web3 tracks, such as social (Fantasy) and games (YOLO GAMES), there are some differentiated and recognizable products leading the way. The simplicity and richness of the products in the Blast ecosystem have become its advantage in allowing more users to enter the on-chain world.
During the airdrop collection process, Blast also launched a mobile APP, which is rare in L2. From the launch of L2, the airdrop points system, Blast Gold, Multiples, to the launch of the mobile version of Blast APP, Blast has always brought novel experiences to users. For L2, which has only been developed for half a year, Blast's innovation density is not infrequent, which also gives it the opportunity to compete for the L2 leader and the next blockchain mass adoption entrance.
Of course, Blast's opening of all Web3 products to its ecosystem also means that the security of users' funds is facing great risks. At the same time, whether Blast can maintain continuous and frequent innovation after the first round of airdrops and bring more fresh gameplay to the community is also currently questioned. Blast seems to have a long way to go to achieve its goals of "L2 leader" and "the next blockchain mass adoption entrance."
