Blockchain
Top Cryptocurrencies to Watch in 2023 – Forbes Advisor Australia
As the cryptocurrency landscape evolves, some projects stand out for their innovative approach and potential for substantial growth.
Here are some cryptocurrencies to watch for 2024:
Immutable X (IMX)
Immutable X has rapidly gained traction in the blockchain gaming industry, an area that Baktyary considers “the most funded sector in the crypto space in both 2022 and 2023.” This significant funding underscores the industry’s vast potential and investor interest. Immutable X’s strategic partnership with Polygon, a former competitor, has been a game-changer. Together, they now dominate about 80% of the blockchain gaming market.
“Previously competitors, Polygon and Immutable X now hold a dominant position, with most crypto games developed within their combined ecosystem,” Baktyary notes.
This partnership has transformed Immutable X into a central hub for blockchain-based gaming, not just focusing on a single game but facilitating the development of over 200 games.
“They’re not just building a game; they’re becoming the hub for blockchain-based gaming. This broad approach increases the likelihood of significant success in the gaming industry,” Baktyary says.
Additionally, Immutable X has partnered with major industry players such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Ubisoft, and has games available on the Epic Games Store. These partnerships are a sign of the project’s strong business development and potential for widespread adoption.
Another key feature of Immutable X is its focus on zk-rollup technology, which improves scalability, security, and user experience. This places Immutable X at the forefront of technological innovation in the crypto space. “I’m one of the pioneers of zk technology,” Baktyary adds, “which opens the door to much more than the market currently sees.”
Polygon (MATIC/POL)
Polygon, partnering with Immutable X in gaming, stands out for its broader contributions to blockchain technology. Its widespread adoption of the Chain Development Kit (CDK), more colloquially known as the Polygon stack, demonstrates the robustness and versatility of its technology.
“The adoption of the Large Chain Development Kit marks Polygon’s significant presence in blockchain infrastructure,” says Baktyary.
Polygon’s introduction of Polygon 2.0 adds a multi-layered structure to its protocol, with one notable layer being the Staking Layer. This layer uses Polygon’s native token and allows validators to earn rewards, including transaction fees, from the chains they validate.
“Polygon (Staking Layer) offers validators the potential for additional revenue streams,” says Baktyary.
Additionally, Polygon is a leader in zero-knowledge technology, with its zkEVM already up and running. This technology improves privacy and scalability in blockchain transactions, making Polygon a forerunner in this space.
Polygon is also making strides in scalability, transforming its PoS chain into a Validium, including experiments in parallel execution. This move further improves the efficiency of the network.
“Polygon’s transition to becoming Validium demonstrates its commitment to advancing blockchain modularity and alignment with Ethereum,” Baktyary said. Its advancements in technology and strategic direction highlight Polygon’s role as a pioneer in the blockchain ecosystem.
Optimism (OP)
Optimism (OP) stands out as a major player in the blockchain space, with several key findings that underscore its importance in the evolving cryptocurrency landscape.
One of Optimism’s key successes is its success in stack adoption, where it ranks second only to Polygon. In the blockchain world, a “stack” refers to the layered structure of technology solutions and protocols that build on each other to create a complete system. In this context, Optimism’s stack refers to its core code base that is used to help launch other layer 2 blockchains within the Optimism ecosystem.
Baktyary says, “Optimism has the second-largest public stack adoption rate among Layer 2 stacks, after Polygon, including major customers like Coinbase, who are committed to maintaining the integrity of the stack.”
This high level of adoption signals confidence in Optimism’s technology and its potential for broad application and integration across multiple blockchain platforms.
Another significant step for Optimism is its partnership with Coinbase, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges. This partnership, with Coinbase using Optimism’s stack, is a testament to the project’s security and technological strength, Baktyary notes, and “is huge from a security perspective.” This relationship strengthens Optimism’s credibility and extends its reach to a wider audience, driving further adoption.
In terms of governance and community engagement, Optimism has made significant progress and has received applause from the crypto community. The success of Optimism’s governance model was even highlighted in a Stanford Articleindicating a mature and thoughtful approach to community involvement in decision-making processes.
Baktyary adds that the Optimism team appears to be strongly aligned with the Ethereum ecosystem, which demonstrates their commitment to the blockchain’s core values, which resonate with a significant portion of the market.
Like Polygon and Immutable X, Optimism is also at the forefront of technological innovation with its advances in zero-knowledge (zk) technology.
“The Bedrock update to Optimism enables support for multiple run-level clients and a proof-of-concept abstraction, allowing a rollup on the OP stack to use a fail-safe or proof-of-concept system,” says Baktyary.
“This update is Optimism’s first step toward adopting zk technology.”
Own layer
Another project that is attracting attention for its pioneering technology is EigenLayer.
The project is enriched by the prospect of a reward system for users, a move that according to Baktyary aims to reward early adopters.
“EigenLayer doesn’t have a token yet, but its point system and the introduction of projects like EigenDA have led the market to assume that there could be an airdrop in the future,” he says.
At the heart of EigenLayer’s innovation is its revolutionary Actively Validated Services (AVS) technology.
This technology offers benefits to a wide range of applications, from data availability levels to Oracle networks, allowing them to take advantage of external validator sets, thus reducing the costs of securing and verifying networks.
“AVS is a huge new primitive that allows the security of a blockchain validator to be exported to a whole new set of software and use cases,” says Baktyary.
EigenLayer’s ability to export validator security can also help improve ecosystem interoperability. Previously siloed networks and ecosystems would need to start their own validator set, typically committing high token incentives to validators, and in the process running the risk of a somewhat centralized validator set. Now early-stage networks could simply extract their validator security from another network that has already solved those blockchain problems in the early stages.
To address critical issues in the Ethereum ecosystem, especially those related to staking providers, EigenLayer proposes a solution to bring balance and greater security.
“EigenLayer can help incentivize a cap system for staking providers with a majority stake of validators like Lido; a topic that has been a major topic of debate within the Ethereum ecosystem,” Baktyary says.
Additionally, EigenLayer’s advances could advance scalability solutions like Validiums and potentially extend the use of Ethereum validators to secure other blockchains, including Solana and Cosmos. This development represents a leap forward in blockchain scalability and security, which Baktyary notes is a crucial step for the broader application of Ethereum technology.
“EigenLayer can help enable Validiums with projects like EigenDA, and can theoretically have blockchains like Ethereum securing alternative layer 1 blockchains, like Solana,” he says.