BiB Exchange: Don’t forget your original intention in the new year, let’s start with the impossible triangle of blockchain

This article will delve into the progress of the latest digital currency’s overall ecological blueprint, including traditional finance and Bitcoin evolution, ETH and L2 development, public chain development, cross-chain bridges, oracles, inscriptions, DePIN track, GameFi, SocialFi and A series of summaries and developments including the ten major AI blockchain projects will be elaborated on.

Written by: BiB Exchange

Introduction

2023 has passed and 2024 has come. Among the crowds, have you noticed that the currency circle has changed recently? It is not the roar of bright fireworks in the New Year, but a kind of overwhelming sound singing at the top of your voice of blooming flowers.

Recently, with the continuous launch of various projects, major KOL publicity tricks have emerged one after another. Wave after wave of stories of making money a hundred times or a thousand times are lingering around you and me. The survivor bias has been infinitely amplified, and many ordinary investors have become restless. Up, especially many people such as “You don’t understand this project, if you don’t participate now, then you will be eliminated in the future, and the wealth in the currency circle will miss you”, “Whatever technology, the market consensus is the consensus”… Some people regard these words as good words, while others regard them as scaremongering. They all make troubles about who is right and who is wrong?

The higher the position, the more cautious people are in what they say. Most people’s opinions on a thing are just casual remarks or have other purposes. Although this sentence may not be malicious, due to its lack of understanding (perhaps it is expressed in a sensational tone pretending to be insufficient), it may affect you and even lead you into the abyss. However, based on the influence of these people, or a series of opinions of Zhongkou Shuojin, it will often cause your investment style to deviate, especially if you make a trading mistake in the process, you will have a negative attitude towards your own affairs. Principles are deeply doubted, even to the point of being overwhelmed and frightened.

No matter what, I think about myself three times a day, maybe we really should stop and do some deep thinking. Even V God, the natural person who has the greatest influence in the currency circle, issued a declaration on social software to return to the original blockchain application at the end of 2023.

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In the field of digital currency, staying true to our original aspirations is what drives us forward, and returning to the essence of the “Impossible Triangle” in the currency circle is the cornerstone of our continued progress. We must always keep in mind the original intention of digital currency and blockchain technology, which is to establish an open, transparent, and decentralized value transmission network. At the same time, we must also recognize the “impossible triangle” dilemma that exists in the currency circle, that is, it is impossible for a system to be completely decentralized, absolutely safe and efficient at the same time.

With the continuous development of technology, the digital currency market is ushering in a new wave of change. In this article, BiB Exchange will delve into the progress of the latest digital currency’s overall ecological blueprint, including traditional finance and Bitcoin evolution, ETH and L2 development, public chain development, cross-chain bridges, oracles, inscriptions, DePin track, Gamefi, A series of summaries and developments including SocialFi and the ten major projects of the AI blockchain will be elaborated on.

Part One: Traditional Finance and Bitcoin Evolution

For Bitcoin, 2024 can be said to be a magnificent year that is about to take off. An important sign that traditional finance is moving into a new era is that the Bitcoin spot ETF is expected to be successfully issued in January 2024. Although the initial attempt may not be successful, there are many signs that in the first half of the year, the Bitcoin spot ETF will become the most successful ETF issuance target in history. The BiB Exchange team analyzed that this milestone event indicates that at least 1% of the US stock ETF market will share, and approximately US$72 billion or more of funds will flow into BTC spot ETFs, bringing unprecedented market recognition to Bitcoin.

In April 2024, Bitcoin experienced its fourth halving, which is traditionally considered the launch mechanism of the bull market. History has proven many times that the price of Bitcoin will rise sharply after the halving event, and this time is no exception. According to market analysis, the price of Bitcoin is expected to exceed $100,000, bringing huge returns to investors. At the same time, we can take a look at the previous BIB Exchange column article “Is the time coming?” 2024 Bitcoin Halving & Cycle Analysis", this article provides an extremely detailed description of the Bitcoin halving and also provides investors with a more in-depth analysis perspective.

The U.S. election will end on November 5, 2024, and the two parties’ moves on national debt and Federal Reserve policy will affect the market’s adjustment mechanism. It is expected that the elected political parties will gradually reduce the restrictions on the market and provide a better development environment for various industries. This change is generally considered a positive factor for the market, laying the foundation for the steady development of various industries.

Circle, the parent company of USDC, plans to go public in April 2024, which is also a landmark event for digital finance to move towards traditional finance. It marks that the digital currency industry has gained wider recognition in the traditional financial market and can inject new ideas into the digital currency field. vitality, providing strong support for the promotion and development of digital currency.

Finally, in the second half of 2024, with the expectation of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate cut policy, capital liquidity may be released, the cost of capital use will decrease, and investment and purchasing power will be further enhanced. Although a rate cut is not inevitable, this expected speculation provides investors with an optimistic outlook, demonstrating Bitcoin’s strong momentum amid multiple positive factors. 2024 will undoubtedly be a colorful and opportunity-filled year for Bitcoin and the digital currency space.

The evolution of traditional finance is, to a certain extent, the complete centralization of encrypted digital currencies. From breaking out of the circle to the best way for everyone to participate in the daily financial field, it is no longer a situation where only one person in the currency circle lives alone.

Part 2: The rise of ETH and L2 technology

In 2024, the development of Ethereum (ETH) may show huge changes, and the first to bear the brunt is the upgrade of Ethereum. January 17, 2024 is tentatively set as the first test network deployment date for the upcoming “Dencun” upgrade. Ethereum revenue is expected to rise significantly in 2024, or be several times that of 2023. The main reason for this change is the continuous growth of on-chain applications and the continuous improvement of the ETH-based Cancun upgrade. The BiB Exchange team believes that the launch of the Cancun upgrade will significantly reduce the gas fee of Layer 2 (L2), thereby reducing the cost of each chain transfer and bringing benefits to the entire Ethereum ecosystem. The Kunkan upgrade, originally planned to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2023, has attracted much attention due to its delay. The expected passage time is set in the first quarter of 2024. Although the possibility of delay still exists, it will not be a long delay.

Breakthroughs in L2 technology (Layer 2) will also have a profound impact on the future of Ethereum. The core idea of L2 technology is to build a second layer solution on top of the blockchain to increase transaction speed and reduce transaction fees. The rise of solutions such as Optimistic Rollup and ZK-Rollup has greatly improved the performance and scalability of blockchain. The L2 solution significantly improves the transaction speed and throughput of the blockchain by building an independent blockchain network on top of the main chain. Among them, the editor once explained the relevant mechanisms of L2 in detail in “BiB Exchange: Exploring the Speed and Furiousness of Blockchain - Layer 2”. If you are interested, you can go and review it.

Both ARB and OP projects currently use Optimistic Rollup, but in the eyes of many technical experts, this is a relatively low-tech protocol. Zk is their belief, so in the field of L2 technology, projects such as zkSync and StarkNet are highly anticipated. zkSync is a Layer 2 extension solution based on zk-rollup, which uses zero-knowledge proof to ensure the validity of transactions. In addition, StarkNet, as another important zk project, implements Layer 2 expansion through different technical routes based on the STARK protocol, showing different design concepts.

In addition to the two old L2 projects of the zk series, Metis and Manta Network based on RWA have also attracted much attention. Under the leadership of RWA, stablecoins will become the first choice for more products, and even replace credit cards on some occasions. The Metis project is based on Optimistic Rollup and aims to solve the impossible triangle problems of decentralization, security and scalability. Manta Pacific is a modular L2 ecosystem for EVM native ZK applications and dApps that want to provide users with the lowest cost and best experience.

Both projects are related to traditional finance. JPMorgan plans to issue a RWA fund on the chain to tokenize real-world assets, providing new opportunities for the integration of blockchain and traditional financial fields. All these changes indicate that Ethereum will usher in a wave of comprehensive technological and ecological improvements in 2024, laying a more solid foundation for the future of the digital currency field.

Part 3: The booming development of public chains

In 2024, public chain technology will make great progress. BiB Exchange predicts that first-generation public chains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum will continue to expand and optimize performance in 2023. Bitcoin may achieve better scalability, and Ethereum will completely shift to PoS consensus and sharding technology. At the same time, many new public chain projects are also emerging. Third-generation public chains such as Solana/Avalanche will attract more decentralized applications and form a more complete ecosystem.

The price of SOL in December can be said to be the public chain with the sharpest price surge among all public chains. In particular, SOL’s popularity even surpassed that of ETH. First of all, the Solana ecological liquidity staking agreement Jito launched the governance token JTO. This token is the core of SOL. No contributors will participate in this airdrop, and the community will enjoy greater benefits. There is also a particularly eye-catching project, which is the wealth-making news of Silly in the SOL ecosystem that everyone is familiar with. The tens of thousands of times of the increase is “tear-jerking (leaving tears of regret as to why I didn’t buy it).” Since then, various The number of ecological projects has soared.

These high-speed, low-cost public chains will have new improvements in transaction speed, network capacity and other indicators. For example, Avalanche’s TPS can reach 4,500+ and has supported the participation of 100,000+ verification nodes. At the same time, it has established cooperation with Chainlink and uses Chainlink to introduce high-quality external data to Avalanche. Its subnet function is officially launched, supporting more customized subchains and providing services for different types of dApps.

What is obvious to all in December is the rapid surge in the prices of LUNA/LUNC/INJ, etc. The average price increase of the currencies in the Cosmo ecosystem exceeds 300%. On the contrary, the performance of the mainnet token ATOM is average. The reason why BiB Exchange pays attention to the Cosmo ecology is not only that exchanges like dydx choose the Cosmo main chain, but also that in the latest proposal for ATOM pledge, the pledged ATOM liquidity pledge solution is given, so the future is promising.

Let’s take a look at the Polkadot ecosystem. The first thing that comes to our attention is its extremely high staking yield of 16%. Relative to ETH, which is around 4%, DOT’s staking yield is very attractive, especially the new rules’ role in governance: holders and technical associations. From the perspective of governance roles, the new solution is more decentralized than the original governance solution, and Polkadot’s governance has also become more closely related to holders.

Part 4: Innovation in cross-chain bridges

Multi-chain interconnection of digital currency is an inevitable trend to promote the development of the industry, and cross-chain bridge technology has become the key to achieving multi-chain interoperability. BiB Exchange believes that the new generation of cross-chain bridges can not only achieve seamless interaction between digital currencies, but also span different blockchain networks, further promoting the prosperity of the entire digital currency ecosystem. It was also mentioned in the previous paragraph that cross-chain interoperability is a new direction for the development of public chains.

Projects such as Cosmos and Polkadot will promote the continuous optimization of cross-chain bridging and asset transfer processes, making cross-chain calls more convenient. This helps build open networks that connect multiple chains. New public chain models will also emerge, such as homogeneous public chains allowing multiple blockchains to share security; zero-knowledge proof consensus bringing better privacy protection, etc. These innovations will push public chains to reach new heights in terms of ensuring security and improving performance. For example, Cosmo now supports CCTP’s native USDC, a cross-chain ecosystem dedicated to building a bridge connecting different blockchains.

Even SOBB, a cross-chain bridge project between SOL and BTC, attracted tens of thousands of people to hold BRC and SOL ecological assets for innovation. In order to obtain 1,350 whitelists, a large amount of handling fees were consumed at once. There are four tasks, each task has a minimum of 3,000 people participating, and the result is 5 whitelists. Explain how drastic a cross-chain bridge project can be.

At the same time, the most controversial cross-chain bridge project also deserves our attention. The FTX Foundation, which is deeply involved in litigation, sued LayerZero Labs in September 2023. However, it does not affect the market influence of LayerZero itself and its use value in various public chains. The project has always had the ability to use native tokens within the protocol, and within its project’s community, it has now made clear that it will launch LayerZero tokens, which is expected to be implemented in the first half of 2024.

Part 5: Intelligent Application of Oracle

I believe everyone has seen the crazy price increase of TRB. Some people say that it is the story of a Korean banker controlled by a few people. Others say that 20 people control 95% of TRB tokens. But in any case, this project is actually an oracle in the final analysis. Even with such a high Token price, its market value is only US$600 million.

The application of oracles in the field of digital currency has also received increasing attention. The latest developments show that oracles are not just tools for data transmission, but have gradually evolved into an integral part of smart contracts. The execution of smart contracts will be more reliable and efficient, providing stronger support for the popularization and application of digital currencies.

In BiB’s previous article, “BiB Exchange: An Oracle Exploring Hidden Corners”, a comprehensive and in-depth description of the oracle Chainlink is provided, which realizes the connection between the blockchain system and real-world data. The oracle machine extracts real-world data sources and introduces these data to the blockchain for call and use by smart contracts.

At the same time, let’s mention another project here: Pyth and Pyth’s data providers come from platforms such as Vela Exchange, Unidex, HMX, and Synthetix. Some people say that the Pyth network can only provide price information, which makes the amount of data it may provide much lower than its competitors, but it ensures that someone can manipulate market prices through false information, especially the confidence interval provided is based on the network by integrating multiple Source data to provide price information.

Part Six: Breakthrough in Inscription Technology

Many people should have enjoyed this wave of popularity, especially the three projects ORDI/SATS/RATS, which have set off a market climax. Bitcoin inscription is a technology that inscribes text or data on the Bitcoin blockchain. These words or data can be any content, such as pictures, videos, audios, texts, etc. Inscriptions (NFT) continue to grow rapidly and are widely used in art, games and other fields. At the same time, NFT standards are constantly being optimized and enriched, allowing NFT to represent more types of digital assets and collectibles. Many mainstream brands have also launched their own NFT series. NFT marketing has become a new trend.

Inscription technology is an innovative technology in the field of digital currency that achieves transaction privacy and security by introducing encryption algorithms into transactions. The latest inscription technology not only protects user privacy, but also provides better solutions for the legal and compliant application of digital currency, helping the sustainable development of the digital currency industry.

Part 7: The Rise of GameFi

Many people say that in 2024, GameFi will definitely be a booster for the bull market in 2024, and GameFi’s project tokens will surely experience explosive growth. The BiB Exchange team worked on “From Poverty, Confusion to Enthusiasm?” BiB Exchange takes you through the world’s largest GameFi application market - the Philippines" pointed out in the article that GameFi can even have an impact on a country’s industry.

PLAY TO EARN is GameFi’s original value form. The game mode has grown rapidly by allowing players to obtain cryptocurrency or NFT rewards. Many traditional game companies have also joined this industry and are trying to use blockchain technology to redefine the game business model. There are also many challenges, such as sustainability and scale. However, the Play to Earn model also has certain limitations and shortcomings, so there will be many game models in the future similar to Move to Earn, Play and Develop, social games, decentralized games, metaverse games, NFT interoperability games, and games that serve both etc. mode.

The gaming field is not only the game itself, but also involves industries such as gambling. For example, in December 2023, data show that more than 1 billion US dollars will be invested in the Gambling prediction market, becoming a new killer application in the encryption market.

All in all, the biggest G-point for games is: a large number of markets and people. For example, the development history of various traditional online games such as Fantasy Westward Journey, Legend, DNF, DOTA, League of Legends, and even mobile games such as Honor of Kings and Stimulating Battlefield. Therefore, these mobile games are definitely worth looking forward to and investing in as they move towards Web3 games.

Part 8: DePin Frontier Exploration

The DePin track has been particularly popular recently, especially with the various inscriptions, and everyone has discovered that the miner group is actually the silent harvester of hidden wealth. I believe that when it comes to the mining track, everyone will think of “Filecoin”. If you look at this model rationally, it is not difficult to find that the miners in the bull market in 2021 are here again. They began to deploy various mining coins from 2019 to 2020. So are they planning again before the bull market comes in 2024? In particular, Wanxiang Blockchain Labs and HashKey Capital, the big makers behind FIL/ICP, announced to jointly launch the Web3.0 innovation incubation platform Future 3 Campus, focusing on the three major tracks of Web3.0 Massive Adoption, DePIN, and AI. Could it be that everyone is “mining” together again? Worth pondering.

DePin is the abbreviation of Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks. DePin is the abbreviation of “Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network”. Its core concept is to use tokens to incentivize users to deploy real-world hardware devices to provide goods, services or digital resources.

DePin can be divided into two categories:

• Physical Resource Network (PRN): Users provide WiFi, 5G, VPN and other services through hardware devices distributed throughout the country. *Digital Resource Network (DRN): An infrastructure network that provides digital resources through hardware facilities, including broadband network, storage network and computing power network.

DePin uses hardware equipment and resources to decentralize and lightweight these asset-heavy services through token incentives to solve the cold start problem. It adopts a spiral mechanism to allow users, providers and platforms to participate with less risk. DePin technology improves the security and trustworthiness of digital currencies through decentralized identity verification.

BiB Exchange believes that the more representative project here is Helium. As a blockchain decentralized network company, Helium Mobile focuses on the research and development and application of Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure and DePIN (Decentralized Internet of Things Protocol) technology. The core product is to build a distributed IoT network based on blockchain. Mainly the blockchain + Internet of Things integration wave in the infrastructure field.

Helium Mobile greatly reduces the cost of network construction and maintenance by motivating users to provide network coverage and transmission services. Users only need to pay low equipment costs to participate in the network and receive token incentives. Helium Mobile’s main competitors include blockchain-based decentralized network and data platforms such as DIMO and Hivemapper. These projects are competing for the data transmission and analysis market in areas such as the Internet of Things and autonomous vehicles.

Of course, other hot projects here are worth studying by investors: LoRaWAN routers, bells mining by shib partners, Mynd and other projects are all being promoted in full swing.

Part 9: SocialFi

SocialFi is a commonplace topic. SocialFi refers to decentralized social applications that combine social functions with blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies. This is another rising blockchain track after DeFi and GameFi. In the last bull market, some people speculated that it would become a hot project and win the favor of many investors, but its market performance was often unsatisfactory.

The SocialFi ecological sector is rapidly expanding and has formed a unique product ecosystem based on network, storage and data, social infrastructure, application layer, etc.:

• Social Tokens: Representing membership in an online community or holding social tokens can grant special privileges such as access, voting rights or community influence, such as Rally (RLY), Friends With Benefits (FWB) and BitClout for content creation, etc. .
• Social Wallet: A wallet designed for social connections, tips and transactions. They can seamlessly send cryptocurrencies in social environments, such as Phantom, Solana, and MetaMask wallets.
• Social NFT platforms: Platforms for buying, selling, and trading NFTs while connecting with other users, such as Blur, OpenSea, LooksRare, and Solanart.
• Social DAO: A platform for launching decentralized autonomous organizations, with built-in social profile, chat and forum functions, such as Collab.Land, Prime DAO, Snapshot for proposal voting, etc.
• Social platform: Platforms that combine social networks and crowdfunding functions to raise funds, such as BitClout and Cluster, and online virtual worlds that focus on social connections, such as Cryptovoxels, Decentraland, etc.
• Social game platform: Blockchain games that focus on social interaction and community, such as Axie Infinity and The Sandbox.

Of course, it also includes application products such as Social networks for investors, Content creation - social network, Content creation, Infrastructure, Donations/charities, Blogs/Text and so on.

The traditional metaverse projects include sandbox and mana, mainly through the originator of metaverse social interaction. With the rise of the Metaverse concept, it is foreseeable that new ways of combining SocialFi and GameFi will continue to emerge, which opens up a broader space for imagination for SocialFi applications. As a product that combines social networks with the crypto economy, users can earn crypto token income by sharing content and building communities. BiB Exchange believes that SocialFi eliminates the centralized platform exploitation of traditional social media and allows creators to obtain more value. This is why many people in the industry are optimistic about SocialFi, which seamlessly links from Web2 to Web3. If SocialFi applications can successfully enter the mainstream mass market, its potential to change the social and content industry structure is huge.

Part 10: The combination of AI and blockchain

From ChatGPT to Wenyan, Google’s Bard, Amazon’s Claude, Musk’s GROK and other conversational AI systems launched by major technology companies, we can see that this field is rapidly iterating and progressing, with each eye-catching project and the capital behind it. Fang’s story was also performed in front of the public.

In the development of digital currency, artificial intelligence (AI) projects have also become the focus of attention. The application of AI projects will provide more intelligent and personalized services for digital currency and promote the continuous development of the digital currency industry. First, at the level of market analysis and prediction, machine learning algorithms can analyze large amounts of market data, detect potential trends and patterns, and help investors make more informed decisions, which is particularly important for the highly volatile digital currency market.

Second is the trading strategy: by using AI to predict market trends and user behavior, the efficiency of automated management of Defi products can be improved. AI can be used to develop intelligent trading strategies. Algorithms based on machine learning can continuously optimize and adapt to market changes, helping investors better manage risks and obtain returns. Some hedge funds and professional trading firms are already adopting these techniques. Even if the AI model is trained to become a decentralized autonomous agent, it may subversively change the existing economic system.

Then there is fraud detection: AI can also be used for fraud detection in the field of digital currency. By monitoring transactions and account activity, machine learning models can identify unusual patterns and help prevent fraud. At the same time, in turn, AI can also act as a fraud party and simulate relevant counterparties. The last point is the application of AI in blockchain technology and smart contracts. The execution and management of smart contracts may be more efficient and intelligent through AI.

Image source: Foresight News:**

The above are some of the latest development tracks of AI and blockchain, and there are relatively many projects. We can see that these technologies not only change the financial system, but also affect all aspects of human society. They have brought us new economic forms, cultural forms and organizational structures, and they also face certain risks and unknowns. But BiB Exchange believes that no matter what, this wave of change brought about by new technologies is unstoppable, and we are all witnesses and participants in its history.

Conclusion

Don’t forget your original intention and return to the essence of the “impossible triangle” in the currency circle. The seamless link from Web2 to Web3 will be the easiest way to implement. As a new application wave of blockchain technology in the Internet field, Web3 realizes decentralized networks and applications based on blockchain and encryption economy, including decentralized identity authentication, data ownership, communication payment, etc., and may further develop in the future. Expand into new areas such as the Metaverse. BiB Exchange believes that the development of digital currency will never end. We ordinary currency circle participants must continue to learn and innovate, seize the opportunities of technological development, and promote the digital currency industry to usher in a more prosperous future. Only by constantly returning to the original intention and maintaining the essence of innovation can we continue to move forward and surpass in the wave of digital currency.