Blockchain Industry Outlook 2024: Top Ten Trends from First Principles

A senior executive of a well-known blockchain group recently released a New Year message for 2024, exploring the ten major development trends of the industry from the first principles of blockchain.

The first principle of blockchain is to establish a public and transparent global ledger. Throughout history, every iteration of accounting methods has been aimed at adapting to changes in the socio-economic landscape. From the single-entry accounting on Sumerian clay tablets in 3500 BC, to double-entry bookkeeping in the Mediterranean city-states of northern Italy in the 13th century, and then to distributed ledger technology in the digital world in 2009, each advancement marks a significant socio-economic transformation.

Based on this principle, the top ten trend predictions for the blockchain industry in 2024 are as follows:

1. Ethereum will continue to lead Blockchain technology innovation, and its leading position is hard to shake.

2. The L2 technology of Blockchain will mature, providing strong support for specific scenarios and real value applications, and is expected to trigger an application explosion.

3. Cryptoeconomics will become a prominent field of study. Token economic models will demonstrate great value in supporting the real economy and technological innovation.

4. The Bitcoin ecosystem will continue to develop, but only projects that adhere to its fundamental characteristics will succeed. It is worth noting the fiat stablecoin payment settlement system based on the Lightning Network.

5. AI and Web3 will achieve seamless integration. Blockchain will be used to establish large-scale collaborative networks for algorithms, computing power, and data, as well as to manage the registration, issuance, and trading of AGI intellectual property.

6. The development of the Blockchain will be driven by developers rather than consumers. The focus of competition among major blockchain networks will be on attracting developers.

7. The main reasons for the current rise in Bitcoin prices are the anti-inflation demand from developed economies and the safe-haven demand under geopolitical turmoil, while other factors have less impact.

8. A global wave of digital nomadism will rise, and countries will compete to launch "digital nomad visas." Attracting digital nomads will become crucial in the competition of global technology innovation centers.

9. DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network) will bridge the real world and the virtual world, connecting off-chain and on-chain.

10. Business application models based on distributed ledger technology will emerge at the L3 and L4 layers of the Blockchain. In 2024, blockchain technology will shift from the infrastructure construction stage to the commercial application implementation stage.

Looking to the future, the boundary between the real and virtual worlds will become increasingly blurred, and the integration of the two will become an inevitable trend. In this new year filled with opportunities and challenges, I wish everyone can grasp the pulse of the times and ride the waves in the tide of Blockchain.