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Is the Web3 innovation explosion limiting user adoption?
Disclosure: The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not represent the views and opinions of the crypto.news editorial team.
In the decade since Ethereum cofounder Gavin Wood first coined the term “web3,” we’ve seen the promise of a new digital empire become a reality. Cryptocurrency has become a trillion-dollar pillar of the global economy; NFTs have become entrenched in high-stakes art and investment exchanges; blockchain-based financial services have gone from novelty to normal.
For all of the above, we can thank the dreamers and developers who took it upon themselves to create solutions that consumers didn’t even know they needed. It’s no exaggeration to say that their creative determination built our nascent web3 empire; today, the ecosystem comprehends tens of thousands of dApps and a wide variety of defi services.
The question is: can the same creativity overturn this too?
In theory, the explosion of innovation on web3 should accelerate user adoption. As offerings multiply and diversify, the ecosystem naturally becomes more intriguing. However, while user adoption has been respectable In recent years, the rates we see today are far out of proportion to web3’s apparent value proposition.
Why? We have a chain fragmentation problem. According to a relationship According to CoinPaper, over 1,000 distinct blockchains were operational as of January 2024. The Ethereum ecosystem currently features over 50 L2s, with another 50 expected to launch soon, all competing for users and liquidity.
This fragmentation has a profound impact on the experience. Users often have to manually switch between networks within their wallets or interfaces, which can be confusing and lead to frustrating (or even costly) errors. The proliferation of L2, L2, and L3 chains forces users to keep their available assets and gas tokens in their wallets if they want to try out emerging applications built on those chains. And when they do, they face a learning curve: each blockchain poses its own set of rules, transaction fees, and functionality.
Given these challenges, is it any wonder that traditional consumers have been hesitant to jump into Web3? To unlock widespread user adoption among traditional consumers, we need to deliver more seamless and intuitive user experiences.
The intuitive answer would seem to be to encourage developers to improve cross-chain compatibility and interoperability. However, relying on individual developers to provide global interoperability is a bit like asking someone to empty the ocean with a bucket: the scale of the challenge makes the request ridiculous.
Today, the web3 ecosystem features a thousand active blockchains; we could see ten times that in five years. Blockchains are proliferating at an exponential rate, as innovators create chains that cater to specific industries, interests, or business use cases, and given the early success and adoption of blockchain modularity thesisThis fragmentation will likely intensify.
But even if chains were proliferating a tenth as fast as they are today, developers would never be able to keep up. Unlike web2, where innovators can build once and attract users from across the internet with few limitations, web3 developers typically have to distribute instances of their apps across multiple chains to chase users and liquidity. As a result, developers must spend their time building insecure, inefficient, and inelegant cross-chain messaging solutions instead of elevating their core value proposition.
To return to our empire metaphor: instead of expanding the reach and resources of Web3, architects and builders are reduced to patching cracks and digging tunnels connecting sections of the city, exhausting themselves with work that most citizens will never see or appreciate.
So how can we alleviate web3’s UX problems and give developers more time for value-added innovation? The answer lies in chain abstraction.
Imagine a world where our fragmented chains were abstracted away. Developers could create a single instance of their app on the chain of their choice and attract users on any chain without disruption or inconvenience; users wouldn’t need to know which chain the app was built on or worry about whether their assets and gas tokens are compatible.
To build this functionally abstract ecosystem, web3 proponents should meet several requirements. First, user balances should be unified, aggregated, and accounted for across chains to ensure that users can spend their balances freely without any issues while avoiding intentional or accidental overdrafts. Additionally, developers should not need to incorporate complex integrations into their solutions to facilitate cross-chain accessibility.
Just like Rome, an abstract web3 empire won’t be built in a day, but there’s no doubt that we need to start building it today. Unless there’s an ecosystem-wide effort to prioritize abstraction, we won’t have the opportunity to unlock mainstream adoption. We owe it to web3 architects and innovators to ensure their visionary work gets the acclaim, appreciation, and use it deserves.
May Relekar
May Relekar is the co-founder of Arcana. A former product manager at Wow Labz, Mayur co-founded Arcana to simplify the complexities of blockchain and improve user experience. The company is backed by leading funds and investors in the industry, including Balaji Srinivasan, Polygon Ventures, Republic Crypto, and Woodstock Fund.
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Cryptocurrency Price August 1: Bitcoin Dips Below $65K; Solana, XRP Down Up To 8%
Major cryptocurrencies fell in Thursday trading following the Federal Reserve’s decision to keep its key interest rate unchanged. Overnight, the U.S. Federal Reserve kept its key interest rate at 5.25-5.5% for the eighth consecutive time, as expected, while also signaling the possibility of a rate cut at its next meeting in September. The unanimous decision by the Federal Open Market Committee reflects a continued wait-and-see approach as it monitors inflation trends.
CoinSwitch Markets Desk said: “Bitcoin has fallen below $65,000 after the US Federal Reserve announced it would keep interest rates unchanged. However, with markets now anticipating rate cuts at the next Federal Reserve meeting in September, the outlook for a Bitcoin rally by the end of the year has strengthened.”
Meanwhile, CoinDCX research team said: “The crypto market has plunged after the Fed decision. Tomorrow’s US unemployment rate announcement is expected to induce more volatility, with the ‘actual’ figure coming in higher than the ‘expected’ one, which is positive for cryptocurrencies.”
At 12:21 pm IST, Bitcoin (BTC) was down 3.2% at $64,285, while Ethereum was down nearly 4.5% at $3,313. Meanwhile, the global market cryptocurrency The market capitalization fell 3.6% to around $2.3 trillion in the last 24 hours.
“Bitcoin needs to clear its 200-day EMA at $64,510 to consolidate further. Otherwise, a retest of $62,000 could be in the cards,” said Vikram Subburaj, CEO of Giottus.
Altcoins and meme coins, such as BNB (3%), Solana (8%), XRP (5.7%), Dogecoin (5%), Cardano (4.6%), Avalanche (4.3%), Shiba Inu (3.8%), Polkadot (3.4%), and Chainlink (4%) also saw declines.
The volume of all stablecoins is now $71.64 billion, which is 92.19% of the total cryptocurrency market volume in 24 hours, according to data available on CoinMarketCap. Bitcoin’s dominance is currently 54.99%. BTC volume in the last 24 hours increased by 23.3% to $35.7 billion.
(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, opinions and views provided by experts are personal. They do not represent the views of the Economic Times)
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Altcoins WIF, BONK, RUNE, JUP Down 10% While Bitcoin Drops 4%
Altcoins dogwifhat, Bonk, THORChain, and Jupiter have suffered losses of more than 10%, while Bitcoin is down 4% in the last 24 hours.
After a period of relative calm yesterday, July 31, Bitcoin (BTC) price action has seen a drastic change as the cryptocurrency dropped by more than $3,500, bringing its value to $63,300. At the same time, altcoins mirrored this trend, with the total value of liquidated positions rising to nearly $225 million over the course of the day.
Initially, the week started on a positive note for Bitcoin, which reached its highest point since early June, hitting $70,000. However, this peak was short-lived, as it was quickly rejected, leading to a substantial decline, with Bitcoin falling below $65,500.
The cryptocurrency managed to regain some stability, trading comfortably at around $66,800. However, following a Press conference According to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, the value of Bitcoin has fallen again to $64,300, down more than 3% in 24 hours.
BTC Price Chart 24 Hours | Source: crypto.news
The recession coincided with a relationship from the New York Times stating that Iran had called for retaliatory measures against Israel following the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, increasing the risk of further conflict in the region.
Meanwhile, on the economic front, the Federal Reserve decided to keep its benchmark interest rates in place, offering little information on a planned September rate cut. Powell also hinted that while no concrete decisions have been made on the September adjustment, there is growing consensus that a rate cut is likely.
Amid Bitcoin’s decline, altcoins have suffered even more significant losses. For example, dogwifhat (Wife) saw a 12.4% drop and (DISGUST) has suffered a 10% drop. Other altcoins such as THORChain (RUNE) also fell by 10%, while Jupiter (JUPITER) and the Ethereum naming service (ENS) decreased by 8% and 9% respectively.
Among the largest-cap cryptocurrencies, the biggest losers are Solana (SOL) with a decrease of 8%, (Exchange rate risk) down 6%, Cardano (ADA) down 4%, and both Ethereum (ETH) and Dogecoin (DOGE) recording a decrease of 4.4%.
Data from CoinGlass indicates that approximately 67,000 traders have been negatively impacted by this increased volatility. BTC positions have seen $61.85 million in liquidations, while ETH positions have faced $61 million. In total, the value of liquidated positions stands at $225.4 million at the time of writing.
News
Riot Platforms Sees 52% Drop in Bitcoin Production in Q2
Bitcoin mining firm Riot Platforms has released its second-quarter financial results, highlighting a decline in cryptocurrency mined due to the recent halving.
Colorado-based Bitcoin (BTC) mining company Riot platforms revealed its second quarter financial results, highlighting a significant reduction in mined cryptocurrencies attributed to the recent halving event that took place in early April.
The company reported total revenue of $70 million for the quarter ended July 31, a decline of 8.7% compared to the same period in 2023. Riot Platforms attributed the revenue decline primarily to a $9.7 million decrease in engineering revenue, which was partially mitigated by a $6 million increase in Bitcoin extraction income.
During the quarter, the company mined 844 BTC, representing a decline of over 50% from Q2 2023, citing the halving event and increasing network difficulty as major factors behind the decline. Riot Platforms reported a net loss of $84.4 million, or $0.32 per share, missing Zacks Research forecast a loss of $0.16 per share.
Halving increases competitive pressure
The Colorado-based firm said the average cost of mining one BTC in the second quarter, including energy credits, rose to $25,327, a remarkable 341% increase from $5,734 per BTC in the same quarter of 2023. Despite this significant increase in production costs, the firm remains optimistic about maintaining competitiveness through recent deals.
For example, following the Recent acquisition Cryptocurrency firm Block Mining, Riot has increased its distributed hash rate forecast from 31 EH/s to 36 EH/s by the end of 2024, while also increasing its 2025 forecast from 40 EH/s to 56 EH/s.
Riot Platforms Hashrate Growth Projections by 2027 | Source: Riot Platforms
Commenting on the company’s financials, Riot CEO Jason Les said that despite the halving, the mining company still managed to achieve “significant operational growth and execution of our long-term strategy.”
“Despite this reduction in production available to all Bitcoin miners, Riot reported $70 million in revenue for the quarter and maintained strong gross margins in our core Bitcoin mining business.”
Jason Les
Following its Q2 financial report, Riot Platforms shares fell 1.74% to $10.19, according to Google Finance data. Meanwhile, the American miner continues to chase Canadian rival Bitfarms, recently acquiring an additional 10.2 million BITF shares, increasing its stake in Bitfarms to 15.9%.
As previously reported by crypto.news, Riot was the first announced a $950 million takeover bid for Bitfarms in late May, arguing that Bitfarms’ founders were not acting in the best interests of all shareholders. They said their proposal was rejected by Bitfarms’ board without substantive engagement.
In response, Bitfarms She said that Riot’s offer “significantly understates” its growth prospects. Bitfarms subsequently implemented a shareholder rights plan, also known as a “poison pill,” to protect its strategic review process from hostile takeover attempts.
News
Aave Price Increases Following Whales Accumulation and V3.1 Launch
Decentralized finance protocol Aave is seeing a significant spike in whale activity as the market looks to recover from the recent crash that pushed most altcoins into key support areas earlier this week.
July 31, Lookonchain shared details indicating that the whales had aggressively accumulated Aave (AAVE) over the past two days. According to the data, whales have withdrawn over 58,848 AAVE worth $6.47 million from exchanges during this period.
In one instance, whale address 0x9af4 withdrew 11,185 AAVE worth $1.23 million from Binance. Meanwhile, another address moved 21,619 AAVE worth over $2.38 million from the exchange and deposited the tokens into Aave.
These withdrawals follow a previous transfer of 26,044 AAVE from whale address 0xd7c5, amounting to over $2.83 million withdrawn from Binance.
AAVE price has surged over 7% in the past 24 hours amid buy-side pressure from these whales. The DeFi token is currently trading around $111 after jumping over 18% in the past week.
Recently, the price of AAVE increased by over 8% after Aave founder Marc Zeller announced a proposed fee change aimed at adopting a buyback program for AAVE tokens.
Aave v3.1 is available
The total value locked in the Aave protocol currently stands at around $22 billion. According to DeFiLlamaApproximately $19.9 billion is on Aave V3, while the V2 chain still holds approximately $1.9 billion in TVL and V1 approximately $14.6 million.
Aave Labs announced Previously, Aave V3.1 was made available on all networks with active Aave V3 instances.
V3.1 features improvements that are intended to improve the overall security of the DeFi protocol. The Aave DAO governance has approved the v3.1 improvements, which also include operational efficiency and usability for the network.
Meanwhile, Aave Labs recently outlined a ambitious roadmap for the projectwith a 2030 vision for Aave V4, among other developments.
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