New Year, New Sprees: What’s In Store for Web3?

The year 2022 was a tough and strange year for crypto and finance in general. But new Web3 developments sound both exciting and reassuring.

Full disclosure – 2022 has been a difficult or rather, strange year for the crypto scene. There are some who would even go as far as to dub it disastrous, for it has revealed the dark side of crypto. But the optimists may actually call it the decisive year. Crypto advocates and optimists actually think that the dramatic changes in the crypto scene are a good thing. According to them, all the recent events, centered around and arising out of the FTX crash, have successfully whittled away all that was wrong with crypto. 

Crypto doomsayers are still vocal, and you can always hear things like “NFTs are gone, man”, and “crypto’s done, man”. It’s almost as if there were many people out there hoping, wishing, and keeping their fingers crossed for the demise of everything crypto. They simply can’t help but enjoy it all. They are waiting for their “told you so” moment with relish.

But there are others who are determined to stay the course and who genuinely believe that the best is yet to come for the world of crypto. According to them, the FTX collapse and, by extension, the FTX contagion that spread like wildfire across the global crypto sector, was caused by a human failure and shows a single person’s lack of accountability. This doesn’t, in any way, reflect the nature and the nurture of other industry leaders and will, in fact, only serve the betterment of the entire crypto community. However, that’s just one thing that gives hope that crypto’s here to stay, proving that it has the potential to thrive.

Sounding the false alarm of doom too soon

There’s one thing the general public loves and it’s a combination of the negation of new and different trends, especially if they’re connected to their “financial security”, and the burning desire to see those trends crash and burn like the Hindenburg (the boomer pun’s closely related to this obsolete and cantankerous school of thought). It’s true that it hasn’t been a stellar year for the world of crypto, but then again, it hasn’t been a good year for the world of finance and technology either and seeing how the two go hand-in-hand, it is hardly a surprise. 

For the sake of remembrance and argument, let us rewind and look at the dot com crash in the 1990s. It was caused by the stock market bubble (let’s face it: the investors’ greed). Yet here we are.  And we all remember the grim predictions of the fall of the personal computer some ten years back? Is the PC dead? No? If there’s one constant that is inherent to the technology, it’s that its mainstream adoption takes time. 

There’s a learning curve and its values are not always apparent straight off the bat. In other words, emerging technology somehow manages to bounce back, and crypto’s well on its way to doing the same, and the same goes for NFTs. It just takes time for the real-world values and applications of blockchain assets to be acknowledged and appreciated. In fact, it could return even stronger than before. Momentarily, it seems that NFTs will become more intertwined with brand IP. 

And of course, we have to look at NFTs and crypto within the much broader, and frankly much more exciting, the context of Web3. Even more importantly, innovative, ground-breaking Web3 apps with “real-world utility” are gaining traction and providing a sneak peek at what is yet to come.

There are still so many prominent experts in the Web3 sector who know a thing or two about the world and realistic future prospects of cryptocurrencies and NFTs, which are already being used by some of the biggest brands to tokenize IP. These experts’ active involvement and first-hand experience with the evolution of Web3 promise greener pastures in the years and, even more likely, decades to follow. 

We have done our research and drawn conclusions from experts’ year-in-review summaries of the niche. Based on that, we have identified the four trends likely to dominate the year 2023. It is these trends that we believe have the potential to propel Web3 developments and various Web3 initiatives, including the spheres of crypto and NFTs, in the foreseeable future.

Widespread Acceptance of Real-World Utility Applications

Unlike the Bored Ape Yacht Club which became a laughing stock and a running joke within and outside of the crypto community, it actually makes a lot of sense that Web3 platforms will bring real-world utility apps. It also makes sense that active Web3 proponents and stakeholders will continue to put a lot of effort into breaking the stale Web2 monopoly and insist on establishing real-world applications that are not purely hypothetical or utopian, which is the case with Metaverse. 

Professional Gamers Enter Web3?

Web3 developers, enthusiasts, and investors all share the same vision: Web3 is the new safe haven for recreational and serious gamers everywhere. It is true that the large and rapidly-growing gaming community is probably most likely to recognize and embrace the full potential of Web3. The Web3 gaming market does look promising, and we have reason to believe that it is going to flourish in the years to come. 

Perhaps no Web3 game is destined to become a superstar of the year 2023, but the play-to-earn aspect of blockchain-based gaming is definitely where the money is, and this feature will, without a doubt, attract investors and developers alike. The Asian community is most likely to assert dominance in the near future, and this is likely to serve as the driving force for developers and investors, pushing them to laser-focus on exploring and exploiting the ground-breaking features of Web3 gaming.

ETH & BCT to Become Vital Reserve Assets

This is one change that many are looking forward to, and it will likely go into effect in the near future. Many countries may turn to ETH & BCT as reserve assets, lending more legitimacy to them and contributing to the overall upward trend. Alternative assets such as cryptocurrency may especially be of interest to countries that rely heavily on exports and depend on the US dollar.