It was one hell of a year in 2022 when looking at it from a Web3 perspective. It has been a rollercoaster of ups and downs as it was the year of bear markets, protocol collapses, NFT bans, and a year full of scams and hacks, the biggest scam of all being the FTX scandal. However, last year showcased Web3’s potential as more and more brands jumped on the blockchain wagon, and we witnessed major big tech leads invest in the decentralized technology. So, how does Web3 2023 appears from the horizon of this new dawn?
After the 2022 NFT recap, we might have a clear vision of where the future of Web3 and blockchain technology is headed. We can safely say that it looks bright and hopefully has an up-only future!
Web3 2023 Predictions
Based on the past year’s highs and lows, the many technological advancements, and the new promising Web3 projects and curated communities, we’ve gathered up a list of the Web3 2023 trends we might see happening this year.
Mass Blockchain Integration
Although 2022 was a bad year for cryptocurrency and NFTs alike, considering the large market crash and FTX collapse, nonetheless, it was a great year for brands stepping into the Web3 space. We’ve seen big brands like Porsche, Gucci, Nike, Starbucks, Mattel, HUGO, and many more that have experiment with Web3 by launching their respective NFT collections.
We’ve also witnessed big tech companies supporting Web3 technologies by incorporating them into their platforms, like Twitter Tweet Tiles which allows you to buy NFTs through tweets, and Instagram’s NFT marketplace. And companies like Google, Amazon, and Ebay are already curating a dedicated Web3 team.
Web3 in 2023 will mark a turning point for more brands and businesses to implement blockchain technology into their ecosystems. This will generally be easier thanks to platforms that offer blockchain-as-a-service solutions. These solutions allow companies to access blockchain technologies without the need to build a whole system from scratch.
This year we might also witness governmental organizations integrate blockchain technology as a database. The implementation of blockchain can create an effective data management system for organizations with large quantities of data. There’s a high possibility that governments will adopt digital currencies and recognize the benefits of blockchain-based assets, and as a consequence, would issue national cryptocurrencies.
The year 2023 will also see an influx of blockchain experts demand. Since blockchain technology is relatively new, there are few skilled people in this field. With the increasing growth of this decentralized technology’s advancement, Web3 is in dire need of blockchain and tech experts. Some companies and universities are already implementing blockchain training programs for developing and managing blockchain networks.
Web3 Laws & Regulations
We’ve already seen what the lack of laws and regulations can breed in an open-source space like Web3. The Web3 corner has witnessed its fair share of legal uncertainty when it comes to fraudulent acts. Wash trading, plagiarism, money laundering, copyright infringement, and many other offenses spiraled out of control in the past year when it comes to NFTs and cryptocurrency.
The Web3 might sooner or later be under the regulations of the U.S. government or any government. This might sound like opposition to Web3’s ethos of decentralization. However, government regulations will most likely not interrupt or get involved in any decentralized governance. DeFi protocols will continue as well as the distributed peer-to-peer blockchain. What regulations and laws can provide is the certainty and safety factor against fraudulent activities.
In fact, the year 2022 was a year of reflection on the policies of Web3 as provided in an executive order issued by President Biden on digital assets and crypto legislation. We can say that Web3 in 2023 will have clearer and more defined policies and regulations.
Web3 Mainstream Adoption
Until now, NFTs, cryptocurrencies, and blockchain technology are foreign words, almost scary sounding, for many people. Although Web3 is growing to adopt as many users as it can, it is still a niche subject that not all can swallow. However, it is quite known the new iteration of the internet is real and comes with a big force. If not PFP NFT collections, Web3 is bringing a new decentralized technology with a BANG just like the first iteration of the internet did. No one believed that the internet can exist, let alone become a day-to-day technology.
The mainstream adoption of Web3 in 2023 will be encouraged by major brands and companies that started to incorporate its technology into day-to-day programs. Take Starbucks for example. The coffeehouse giant has launched an NFT-based reward loyalty program Starbucks Odyssey in 2022. Now people would be rewarded with “Journey Stamps” and might not know that they’re NFTs in the first place.
This brings us to the mass adoption of NFTs. In 2023, we might see the term NFT diverge into multiple labels. Fashion NFTs are referred to as Digital Fashion. PFP or other visual NFTs are referred to as digital art and so on. If data ownership is standardized in the future, the term NFT will slowly fade out. Why? Well because NFT means “Non-Fungible Token” which relates to the underlying technology for a certificate of ownership of a certain digital asset. You don’t hear people nowadays refer to songs as mp3 do you? In the future, “skins in video games will remain skins”, even if they are NFTs.
NFT Utility To Become the Standard
We’ve had our fair share of pointless PFP NFT projects that don’t provide any value other than a token that leads to an uninspired Ai-generated JPEG file. There are already hundreds of derivative projects similar to well-known BAYC and Cryptopunks collections, at this point, it is becoming ridiculous.
Many NFT projects fake promise utility and other rewarding aspects of owning an NFT that is simply not true. Even if the promises are truthful, the utility given doesn’t live up to the price. For now, NFTs have only scratched the surface of what non-fungible technology can offer.
However, as Web3 further advances, we might see NFT projects elevate to truly offer experiences instead of PFPs in 2023. NFTs will become a way to access events, gain membership, act as tickets, or be integrated into loyalty programs. They will also serve as “tokenization in gaming and DeFi crossover functionality”.
Moreover, we will see a rising trend in Physical or Phygital NFTs. By the end of 2023, we might witness an influx of physical goods tokenization as more and more brands delve into the Web3 space. This can benefit both the creator of a specific asset and the buyer. For example, the creator of an asset will ensure ongoing royalty payments through secondary sales. In contrast, the buyer would ensure the authenticity of the piece by retracing its transaction history on the blockchain.
This Phygital trend will inspire many collaborations of real-life brands with other creators to produce physical assets tied to their digital twins. Much like how Tiffany did when collaborating with the famous Cryptopunk NFT collection, they introduced a digital Cryptopunk necklace that can be redeemed physically.
An influx of Web3 Technology Projects
Blockchain technology is still in its infancy. Thus, we will definitely witness major development projects surface in the Web3 space in 2023. For example, we’ve seen last year many layer 2 solutions projects. These solutions build upon already established layer 1 blockchains like Ethereum. Until now, we haven’t been hit by the magnitude of transactions that might or might not break the blockchain, figuratively speaking.
However, considering the exponential growth of blockchain technology, and the huge adoption it is receiving, we might enter a multi-billion transaction per day magnitude. Here, blockchain scaling problems truly unfold, and many layer 2 solutions might not be able to handle the load. This might lead to new technologies surfacing to enhance layer 2 solutions.
We might also see projects that aim to aid the blockchain ecosystem in different ways. Take Nillion for example. This Web3 project provides decentralized processing that can speed up transaction validation through a non-encryption technology. In addition, it is building a post-quantum protocol that adds an extra layer of security.
We’ve already seen this year, 2023, a newfound technological experiment by witnessing the controversial Ordinal Bitcoin NFTs. I mean, who would’ve thought a year ago that the possibility of inscribing digital assets on the Bitcoin blockchain is real? We might witness in the near future the surfacing of Ordinal NFTs marketplaces where collectors can trade these Bitcoin digital artifacts.
AI Blockchain Integration
Recently, we’ve seen a rise in the value of major AI-based cryptocurrencies after the famous chatbot ChatGPT made headlines. The implementation of artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities with the Web3 ecosystem can breed an advancement in blockchain technology. This is provided by AI’s ability to analyze vast data sets, automate smart contracts, increase security, and add biometric recognition.
We might also witness many NFT projects coming to life using AI technology, just like Alethea did with their very first iNFT, Alice. The influx of donations funding artificial intelligence is bound to attract Web3 companies and tech savvies to invest in the technology by incorporating it with Web3 projects. Not to mention, AI-based capabilities can help predict and analyze market behavior to showcase which token is worth investing in.
Decentralized Social Platforms
There are already a handful of Web3 decentralized applications that are emerging. The current Web3 trend is to decentralize as many Web2 social platforms as possible and to create their Web3 counterpart. Decentralized applications move away from the central governance big tech companies have over their users.
In the article discussing Web3 ethics, we mentioned how Web2 platforms are built on something called attention economy and users’ data manipulation. Web3 in 2023 will definitely witness a large adoption of decentralized applications that will provide open-source backends, open access, and no censorship platforms.
Good Forecasts?
In the end, these are just predictions. However, these predictions are built upon what we’ve seen last year, and especially in the last quarter. Some believe that after the major bear market witnessed in 2022, the Web3 space will not sustain much longer. However, seeing the ongoing development and advancement in blockchain technology might say otherwise. In all honesty, the surge of brands jumping into the Web3 space is certainly not a blind move. These mega companies have professional financial consultants that would advise them to do so. Hence, Web3 might be going into a rollercoaster that only goes up. Until the end of the year, we will hope for the best in this chaotic yet promising ecosystem. WGMI!