To dive directly into the highlights, skip down below to the End of the Year Web3 Highlights header. Otherwise enjoy this upfront read as a nice preface before diving in. As always, none of this is financial advice nor an endorsement of anything mentioned.

Upfront Context:

Reading last year’s End of the Year Recap made me reflect on how dated any mention of a project’s innovation can become, by the sole fact that most NFT projects die. Then again, even non-nft project posts can become dated.

Recap of Previous Year’s Thoughts:

• SVS, the first PFP NFT I minted, now dead. It shouldn’t retract from honoring their Dashboard tech innovation, but it feels tainted. Same with Valhalla..

• Surprisingly, but not such a big surprise with today’s context is how much of a disappoint Ledger has been. You can read my excitement then and hear the contrast now. Still no STAX in existence.

• Premint has also become pretty fucking irrelevant, with Subber and Alphabot being the leaders when it comes to Collabs and collabs in themselves mostly being spam and noise with few opportunities.

• Sense is dead thanks to new laws and regulations.

• Uniq.Cx was retired. But we have NFTStats on our timeline.

• JoinFire has become less of a separate application and more of a service implemented and built into wallets (like Rabby) as well as continued add-ons with WalletGuard etc.

• TokenProof, AI, Manifold Studio, and The Beacon (specifically highlighting L2s) are the freshest and still most relevant contributions

Web3 = Ownable, Immersive, and Personalized

Before we begin, I want to share this image I been working on. The ways in which I approach Web3 are influenced by my former employment’s definition, but with my own twist on these buckets and what they mean.

Blockchain, Metaverse, and GenAI are represented by the cycle flows which allows them to dip higher into mainstream from subculture while still remaining in their respective areas. I find this important to callout and be honest about, as their status isn’t static or as cemented as the others.

The most interesting section to me, is the middle layer, where “In-Game Currencies, Digital Assets, AR/VR, Roblox/Fortnite, Co-Creation and UGC exist. I find this to be the ‘underpriced attention’ and bridge between mainstream and subculture. I admit this isn’t perfect and there are overlaps, but it’s getting pretty close.

End of the Year Web3 Highlights

1. Formerly delgate.cash now delgate.xyz was one of the greatest contributions of 2023 as it normalizes users separating their assets into what many of us web3 security practioneers been preaching for a long time.

1. Delegate ; scaling secure practices for operating in decentralization

2. Phantom Wallet’s Cross-Chain Swapper ; I received payment in Solana USDC, swapped it to Ethereum USDC all within the wallet, in 2 minutes or less, without transferring to centralized exchange or experiencing the headaches of bridges

3. .Swoosh’s Airphoria cross-pollination between blockchain and Fortnite & Alo Yoga’s same outfit 1000+ multiple experiences ; the early workings of seamless bridging between web2 and web3, scaling experiences to all participants

4. drip.haus ; free NFTs, the way it mostly should be (fcfs code: 2eCe1ewL) with subscriber model + tips, droplets and rarity chest gamification

5. Coinbase using GenerativeAI to increase participation for Stand with Crypto and BASE (Layer 2)

   In general, same as last year.. I am very excited for Layer 2s, Rollups and even competing Layer 1s that offer scalable solutions, minimal transaction fees allowing for an expansion of Product Market Fit opportunities instead of cramming everything onto Layer 1 Ethereum and/or Bitcoin

6. Bridging Digital → Physical
   a. Azuki’s Collector Profile , Badges and Emblems → Gus Raffle to deliver a generative PBT with 7 personalities tied to 7 Deadly Sins
   b. Pudgy Penguins Figures & Plushies with on-chain tradable traits
   c. Courtyard.io Collectible Cards (Pokemon) tradable with On-chain digital assets

   Multiple ways to skin a cat, but all steps closer to connecting digital and physical assets from trojan horsing users into the blockchain (pudgy) to allowing users on the blockchain to combine collectibles both physical and digital into one experience

Looking Forward into 2024

Collectibles aren’t going anywhere and Merchandise being used as Marketing is something both the gaming industry and blockchain industry are leading the charge on, offering many creative and innovative solutions to bring users exciting experiences

Mixed Reality.. Quest3 was an amazing step forward, and excited to see what doors and opportunities Apple’s Spatial Computer.. VisionPro will bring in 2024 ; Still too early to become normalized.. but when the tech is as convenient as our cellphones the world will become very Bladerunner 2049, HER and more..

Blockchain Agnostic, Blockchain Abstraction, and overall everything that allows users to operate across multiple chains without having to operate directly on those chains and or be aware of them and the bridging experience is exciting as we continue to mature the application layers of blockchain across multiple chains allowing for the best product market fit and application of a chain to be considered for usage