The past year 2022 was one of the most eventful in the history of the crypto industry - unfortunately, not all events were positive. We are faced with the collapse of many centralized and decentralized projects; a number of others are still barely staying afloat. There are also advantages to this - the bear market cleared the industry of weak and bad players, and also brought Web3 technologies to a leading position.
Web3 is a new stage in the evolution of the Internet, which in importance can be compared with the transition of society from agriculture to industry. Key functions are transferred to the community, and privacy is greatly increased.
We offer several forecasts from experts regarding what awaits us in 2023.
1. Reduce venture funding
Venture capital inflows are expected to continue to decline in the first half of the year. But this is not a reason for concern - on the contrary, we can say that it will come to an adequate level.
Investors do not want to invest when the market is falling, so they wait for the market to “bottom”, while at the same time assessing the risks of a global recession and macroeconomic problems. Clearly, DeFi settlement, interoperability, trading and lending solutions will continue to be funded as the vacuum left by exchange crashes and regulatory changes needs to be filled.
2. Changing the concepts of web3 projects
When the web3 concept first came out, it was quite anarchist in nature and completely rejected any connection with large companies or brands.
Now there will be an understanding that it will be difficult for the industry to survive without large cash injections from well-known corporations. Therefore, it will become the norm to finance the project with the help of sponsors and advertising, so that quality external capital will push web3 to further development. Brands such as Nike, Starbucks, Meta are experimenting with this trend, paying special attention to the NFT format and customer engagement.
3. Changing the role of the community
For a long time, "community" in web3 was just a fancy word. Often behind it was simply a group of speculators, hungry for profit and selling the project’s tokens as soon as their growth slowed down.
In 2023, there will be an understanding that in fact there are very few really strong and interested communities and DAOs. Most people come for profit, which means that you need to work with them and stimulate them in some other way.
4. Emphasis on openness and quality
As web3 application development costs fall and customer acquisition costs rise, projects will prioritize delivering the highest level of transparency and quality.
The industry will have its own “app store”, where users will be able to more efficiently search for projects that interest them. Wallets and blockchains will compete to create such a “store,” but it is highly likely that some new player will fill this niche. The applications will have a simple, intuitive interface combined with innovative technologies.
5. Operation stability
In 2022, we encountered problems with Axie Infinity - this became one of the strong incentives for projects to improve stability.
The gameplay will become more similar to existing web2 games, and the priority of market speculation will fade into the background as an auxiliary tool.
6. Analogues of traditional applications
A certain niche in the market will be occupied by decentralized applications, which are functionally clones of existing traditional products, but with blockchain elements.
This is a popular option among those users who need different types of banking services, but want to maintain confidentiality and a commitment to decentralization. Such solutions will differ in marketing strategy and user experience, but in terms of functionality they will repeat basic classic products. Some of them are quite capable of becoming the next breakthrough innovations.
7. Cost optimization
Meeting user requirements imposes significant costs on applications. Therefore, projects will likely rely more on existing large-cap tokens to drive tokenomics.
Ethereum will continue to evolve along its 2023 roadmap, and when sharding is finally implemented to reduce network fees, the relevance of alternative blockchains may plummet.
8. Stablecoins
Stablecoins will become more widely adopted, primarily among companies and developers, not excluding the web3 sphere. Active research and innovation in the blockchain industry, conducted by private and government companies, continued. This also applies to the creation of centralized structures on the blockchain, for example, CBDC (central bank digital currencies).
9. Policy Impact
At the end of 2024, elections will be held in the United States, and before that the situation, as always, will become tense. Such events always affect the cryptosphere. You should prepare for high volatility, unexpected cycles of growth and decline, aggressive risks and outright fraud.
Politicians will gradually take a firm stance on cryptocurrencies, but regulation will continue to be weak, incomplete, and full of loopholes.
10. New solutions
In addition to the projects that are already familiar to us, such as NFT marketplaces, liquidity pools, alternative first-level blockchains, completely new interesting products will appear that bring real usefulness to clients. This is quite capable of pushing a new market cycle.
Overall, the year promises to be full of exciting changes, and those who can adapt the fastest will win.
Translated from: https://cointelegraph.com/news/10-predictions-for-crypto-in-2023