Dmitry Mishunin founder & CEO at HashEx Blockchain Security.
Every new trend results from technological leaps, which inevitably affect the existing industry. This is true for any industry, but it’s especially relevant for Web3, where technologies tend to develop at an incredible pace.
Blockchain used to be a new technology believed to change finances, but now other technologies are changing blockchain. Today, I want to take a look at how these new trends adapt and modify blockchain technology.
AI And Blockchain
Equally big, equally popular and equally controversial, AI and blockchain really do have plenty in common. It’s not at all surprising that many AI and Web3 cheerleaders are excited about the opportunity to merge the two technologies and see where it goes.
Each camp presents plenty of ideas: Blockchain fans are looking to implement blockchain into AI, and vice versa. There are already several notable projects that harness the power of AI to empower blockchain.
MyShell is one example of this symbiotic development. The company’s goal is to build “an open and equitable ecosystem for AI creators.” It’s a Web3 AI platform that lets creators build AI apps, often bots and agents, that can be used in AI-generated content.
There are many use cases of AI in blockchain, but surprisingly, there are not nearly enough examples of the opposite. Even though the conversation about using blockchain to improve AI security hasn’t died down, the implementation of this initiative is still a work in progress.
Scaling And Building Custom Chains
This is another trend that’s taking off. Many projects choose to create custom blockchains to avoid depending on existing ones. There are several reasons for that, and each project makes this choice based on its own ideas. But mainly, new projects aim to avoid eventual scaling, expand decentralization and often minimize dependency on the existing chain and potential changes within it.
This is certainly a positive development, especially in terms of lowering new projects’ operational costs while simultaneously accepting the responsibility of running the whole system. It also helps maintain the ideas of decentralization and shake up the system.
The software has moved way beyond simple forks. If you attempt to fork Ethereum today, you have a high chance of drowning in different layers, providers and abstractions.
The solution that many projects choose is to take elements and construct their own chain from them. There are already SaaS companies that deliver these components and help a project integrate them into the chain. It’s simple, fast and promising. This is why we can expect a growing number of L2 and L3 solutions among big and small projects alike. In turn, these developments may very well lead to creating new economic models and DeFi.
Real World Assets
The tokenization of real-world assets has been around for a while. It’s certainly an attractive concept, considering that it operates in the intersection between real valuables and digital space. It’s in 2024 that the trend suddenly began rapid growth.
According to the report published by CoinGecko, the highest results were shown by USD-pegged assets (99% of all stablecoins), while market capitalization of commodity-backed assets has reached $1.1 billion, with gold remaining in the lead. This can only mean one thing: RWAs are not going to stop. On the contrary, further growth is very likely.
ZK-Proof Based Projects
It’s unfair to claim that zero-knowledge (ZK) proof is a new concept. However, its popularity is growing, and it’s fair to expect that in 2025, the number of such projects will only grow. The idea behind the ZK principle is that cryptographic methods are used to prove a statement without revealing its contents. ZK-proof covers two issues critical for blockchain—privacy and scalability.
Account Abstraction Wallets
This type of wallet has gained attention for its innovative way of managing assets. Simplifying the transactions and cross-chain interactions has always been a big issue for digital wallet users. Instead of keeping all the finances in one place and having easy access to them, users were forced to diversify their savings and find creative ways to reach them when necessary. Account abstraction wallets respond to a very common request, which is why we can expect their growth in 2025.
All in all, there is plenty to expect from 2025. Blockchain technology and new associated developments have a bright future ahead, especially considering new DeFi-centric initiatives that pop up in the headlines. As always, we will have to wait and see which trends really take off and manage to change the way we see the industry.
Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
Read the full article here
