9 things that excite us in Web3 in 2024
2023 was a year spent in the bear market. While the year had its moments of turbulence, it also gave space to incredible new technological innovations. Below is a shortlist of just some of the things that excite partners across Spartan’s Investment, Advisory and Labs teams about what’s ahead in 2024.
AAA Web3 Games
I’m excited about the next generation of AAA quality Web3 games, some of which will be launching in 2024. I believe these games will bring in millions of new Web3 users and demonstrate why Web3 games are the logical next evolution to existing Web2 games.
— Kelvin Koh, Co-founder & Partner, CIO, Spartan Capital (@SpartanBlack_1 on X)
Building on Bitcoin, Consumer Apps and Asian Markets
For 2024, I’m particularly excited about 4 things:
- Unleashing the power of the Bitcoin blockchain anchored with Bitcoin assets.
- The next generation of consumer apps which mark the next evolution of NFTs.
- Asian markets as centre of crypto — from crypto trading to enterprise adoption.
- Capital flows to regulated exchanges and local exchanges — liquidity will become more fragmented but it also forces projects to invest in local partners and exchanges instead of doing the “lazy” thing of listing on an offshore exchange but not really using their tokens to drive local adoption.
— Melody He, Co-founder & Partner, Co-Head of Spartan Advisory (@melmelmelting on X)
M&A Driven Consolidation
I expect 2024 to be a year of growth and consolidation across the Web3 industry. In particular, I think we will see consolidation amongst centralised exchanges. This consolidation will come in mainly 3 flavours: 1/ in-country consolidation amongst competitors in a single market, 2/ regional consolidation of exchanges operating in neighbouring markets, and 3/ cross-continent consolidation via large global players entering strategic markets. We will also see a sharp increase in M&A activity across other Web3 sectors including custody, prime brokerage, data and analytics, staking, payments, etc. After the wave of Web3-native M&A-driven consolidation we will see a second wave of M&A led by non-Web3-native companies seeking inorganic entry into the market, as well as IPOs of some of the larger Web3 platforms.
— Casper B. Johansen, Co-founder & Partner, Co-Head of Spartan Advisory (@CasperJohansen on X)
Major Applications, ZK and Modular Blockchains
I’m excited about the industry validating the infrastructure we have been building over the last years through the adoption of major applications. The success of this will be measured differently in Web3 and we will start to realise the value in ownership of computation in addition to individual assets. Privacy and security will be a key driver and this is where we will see the value of ZK primitives and modular blockchains being realised by users who don’t even know they are relying on them on the back end of applications as broad as from digital identity to gaming.
— Leeor Groen, Managing Director, Spartan Group (@leeorgroen on X)
Onchain Agents, Virtual Goods, & Aesthetic Crypto Brands
2023 saw the emergence of concepts like Intents, Networked Playable Characters, Crypto AI Agents, NFT applications, and Modular Account Abstraction. In 2024, I expect these scattered crypto sparks to converge towards a robust economy around Autonomous Onchain Agents.
Secondly, Apple’s Vision Pro is just around the corner. I’m excited for the corresponding wave of virtual goods and experiences that will be ushered in by new spatial formats.
Finally, I’m looking forward to seeing more aesthetically-driven crypto-native brands, led by innovators such as Family, Blackbird, Bebop, Seed Club, Zora, FWB.
— Adrian Lai, Chief Creative Officer (Head of Studio), Spartan Labs (@adrianlai on X)
DePIN and the Bitcoin Ecosystem
I’m excited about DePIN taking off; projects that leverage crypto economics to offer structural cost reduction would be serious contenders to existing Web2 businesses. Also, the BTC Ecosystem, with upcoming infrastructure upgrade layer 2 on Bitcoin, becomes more functional and usable; coupled with newly minted asset classes like BRC-20 offering high speculative value — the ecosystem is poised to strong growth.
— Cody Poh, Investment Associate, Spartan Group (@0xhopydoc on X)
Intersection of AI and Blockchain
In 2024, I’m most excited about the intersection of AI and Blockchain. We have research and new use cases around Zero Knowledge and Machine Learning (ZKML). We have games allowing you to train AI agents using ERC6551 (Parallel). I believe over the next year, we will see more ways AI can be used to enhance the user experience and efficiency of Web3 as well as more blockchain tech being used as guardrails and transparency layers for AI.
— Audrey Taylor-Akwenye, CTO, Spartan Labs (@0xOddrey on X)
Web3 Consumer, Social and Games Taking Off
Looking forward to 2024, I’m excited about the following areas in crypto:
- We can see another wave of momentum and traction for the relatively new L1/2s. I hope to see increased developer activity, TVL, the emergence of “killer dapps” on these chains, and community building. Sui, Sei, Aptos, Base, Scroll and others still have a lot more to do in 2024 to prove and validate themselves.
- Expecting a rise in retail-oriented consumer applications in the crypto space: The success of friend.tech, along with a potential airdrop in the coming year, has led to the proliferation of copycat projects. This is just the start. This trend signifies a notable shift in industry focus towards consumer and social apps. I’m excited to test out more products featuring enhanced UI/UX, improved incentivization flywheel and token utility, and more sustainable business models.
- Envisioning the emergence of more sophisticated Web3 games and metaverses in the industry: numerous AAA and MMORPG Web3 games are set to launch over the next 1–2 years — after the past years of development. With advancements in both hardware (e.g. apple’s Vision Pro) and software (metaverse engine companies), I think there is considerable potential for growth in the gaming & metaverse sector, and I’m excited to test out more of them in 2024.
— Dana Gan, Advisory Associate, Spartan Group (@cornergirl999 on X)
Tokenization of RWA and the Bitcoin Network
- Tokenization of real world assets expands in categories and the possibility of securing on the Bitcoin network.
- Bitcoin network taking off with L2s solutions providing scalability and interoperability, unlocking $850B+ unproductive BTC capital and paving the way for institutional adoption.
- DeSci getting more traction as a strong use case of Blockchain — using Web3 technology to establish a secure, lasting record of scientific contributions that enables fair credit allocation, simplifies transactions, allows worldwide resource sharing, and overcomes economic barriers.
— Yan Ma, Associate, Spartan Group (@zi0nn_eth on X)
Editor: Jim Duivenvoorden (@jimduif on X)
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