Author:nairolf
Compiled by: TechFlow
I won't waste time writing a lengthy introduction - 2024 was indeed an exciting year. Let's jump straight to the highlights and take a look at what I'm most looking forward to in 2025:
Alternative Virtual Machines (altVMs)
2024 was a year of great success for Alternative Virtual Machines (altVMs).
@fuel_network has successfully launched its mainnet,
@cartesiproject continues to make steady progress, and MoveVM has gained more applications with the support of @Aptos, @SuiNetwork, and @movementlabsxyz.
2025 may become a breakthrough year for these alternative virtual machines, ushering in the next wave of on-chain applications.
It's worth mentioning that @fluentxyz's hybrid execution model will play a key role in this field. It integrates EVM, SVM, and Wasm into a single execution environment, providing developers with the most comprehensive and flexible application building approach. Even more exciting is that this design is scalable, meaning that any virtual machine can be added to this system in the future. Perhaps it will become the "ultimate solution" in the virtual machine domain.
Chain Abstraction
Chain abstraction made significant progress in 2024. It has evolved from an initial concept to create a user experience that feels like using a single chain, even if hundreds of chains are working in coordination behind the scenes.
Users no longer need to frequently switch wallets, manage multiple gas tokens, or - the most troublesome - cross-chain bridge.
@ParticleNtwrk's UniversalX solution allows trading of tokens on any chain through a unified interface, with an experience similar to Binance but fully on-chain. The maturity of this technology will spawn many new products, and more importantly, many existing projects will also start adopting these solutions.
This trend demonstrates deep collaboration between projects, such as the achievements of @EverclearOrg, @SOCKETProtocol, and @NEARProtocol, as well as @sedaprotocol and @routescan_io.
The focus in 2025 will be on how to get more users to access and use these innovative solutions.
L1 Public Chains
If the crypto industry goes a year without the birth of new L1 public chains, it would be a bit of a letdown. In 2024, Sui and Aptos were undoubtedly the star projects in this field.
What about 2025 then? We will welcome more exciting new projects.
@monad_xyz, @berachain, and @HyperliquidX may become the "golden triangle" driving industry development.
Among them, Hyperliquid's HyperEVM is particularly worth noting. As Hyperliquid's recent popularity continues to rise, how its ecosystem will achieve deep integration with the exchange itself will be an important and anticipated point.
RaaS (Rollup as a Service)
RaaS may be one of the least discussed areas currently. Why is that? The reason may be that it looks like a "boring business." However, many seemingly uninteresting business models often turn out to be the most valuable in retrospect.
Rollups and L2s were hot topics in the Crypto Twitter (CT) space in 2024, and this hype is unlikely to subside in the short term.
As @inkonchain and @AbstractChain are set to launch related services in the coming months, the debate around these technologies will continue. But one thing is clear: there will be more and more L2 chains emerging in the future.
Whether they are general-purpose or specialized chains, the data has already spoken. Platforms like @Calderaxyz, a Rollup-as-a-Service provider, have already supported the deployment of around 100 new chains this year, offering rich integration and customization options from day one.
Additionally, @conduitxyz and @alt_layer are also adopting similar models. The market demand for RaaS providers is becoming increasingly undeniable.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
According to statistics from @_kaitoai, AI has already surpassed 40% in terms of attention this year, with its popularity being unprecedented.
But my intuition tells me this is just the beginning. Eliza, a project from @ai16zdao, has become one of the most popular open-source projects on GitHub in the past few months. Will it be able to serve as a bridge to attract new developers into the crypto space? Time will tell, but it does have the potential to be an interesting "entry point."
We have already seen preliminary results of AI in the real world, such as the @aixbt_agent developed by @virtuals_io. This intelligent agent continues to attract attention in the crypto community while providing fairly accurate information.
Will the future revolve around "deciphering the mindset of AI agents"? There is no definitive answer yet, but it is foreseeable that in 2025, more and more AI agents will take on tasks that were previously handled by humans.
Other Notable Projects
@pendle_fi continues to achieve exponential growth and is now seen as one of the "veteran" DeFi projects. Will its Total Value Locked (TVL) be able to break the $10 billion mark in 2025? It's worth looking forward to.
@_kaitoai is pioneering a new domain of InfoFi (Information Finance). What will it look like in the future? The answer should be revealed next year.
@Polymer_Labs will become a strong competitor in the field of cross-chain interoperability, and I believe interoperability will be one of the important topics in 2025.
@OndoFinance is driving large traditional institutions to enter the blockchain space. Real-World Assets (RWA) and asset tokenization have already become a trend, but the bottleneck has not yet been fully broken. Will 2025 see a turning point due to a more friendly regulatory environment?
@nillionnetwork's mainnet plan is scheduled to launch in February next year. In the context of growing attention on privacy issues, this project may have a significant impact. Even more exciting is that it is expected to lead a new wave of on-chain applications.
See you in 2025.
