Impressions from participating in the Hong Kong Web3 Carnival: The narrative around “chain” is still the top priority

Original author: Haotian

I have ended my 3-day trip to the Hong Kong Web3 Conference. I have a lot of feelings and words, so I will use my time to briefly share my feelings:

1) Judging from the excitement of the conference, we can be sure that the market is in the early stages of a bull market, and we can feel strong enthusiasm for participation, but there is not too much FOMO yet. Although the secondary market continues to be turbulent during this period, the Feds expectation of interest rate cuts has been delayed, and the bull market uncertainty has increased, the enthusiasm of the primary market builders to participate is very certain, which is why this round of bull market is firm enough. , lasting and majestic foundation;

2) Theme sharing and panels at the main venue, sub-venues, and surrounding community-led activities are decentralized, thematic, and community-based, so it is difficult to say which one is the mainstream. Some people believe that Solana can flip Ethereum, some believe that CKB can drive the prosperity of BTC layer 2, and some are looking for Alpha in the direction of AI+DePin. Of course, more people are sticking to the field of Ethereum layer 2 and so on. It seems that everyone has their own mainstream in their mind, but there is no one that has gained the consensus of the whole people and the national FOMO Main Shenglang has emerged. The entire northwest of Shanxi is in a state of chaos, and the leader has yet to be decided. This just proves that we are still in the early stages of the bull market, and there is not yet a track and leader with absolute say.

3) When the whole venue went out to socialize, I felt that the weight of the CEX exchange was no longer so “prominent”. Maybe they were forced to hide in the dark for some reason. But without the rows of Western beauty Models and the large-scale Shill visual sense, you can absorb more nutritious spiritual food when you look around. Although there are still many kinds of technology, community and industry narratives that make people dizzy and confused, it is obvious that the stories are being told seriously and the market aesthetics have also been improved. After the adoption of Bitcoin ETF, it is not only BTC itself that has been mainstreamed, but also the Build mentality of Crypto practitioners? In fact, the market is not afraid of telling stories, but it is precisely afraid that the market will treat Leek as a fool.

4) The narrative surrounding the “chain” is still the top priority, whether it is ETH layer 2, BTC layer 2, high-performance layer 1, parallel EVM, modular chain launch, chain abstraction interoperability, AI+Crypto, ZK , DePIN, etc. Behind every narrative direction seems to be making a fuss around the chain infra. On the surface, all parties in the industry have focused their development efforts on the chain development narrative, but the direction of application implementation seems to have stalled? But in fact, the direction of application landing is actually very exciting, but the narrative of the application can only have a sense of existence if it reaches the same phenomenal level as Stepn. As soon as the application is locked, it has to go through Internet-style involution such as new acquisition, retention, growth, etc. However, the current mass adoption level of the market is far from the point where the application can be rolled out. On the contrary, volume B-side services can use modular resources to integrate nesting, and use chain abstraction to combine liquidity across ecosystems. The scalability is really rich. Rather than saying that the market prefers to tell B-side stories, it’s better to say that these are the only things we can tell at this stage;

5) It can be clearly felt that the new love of BTC layer 2 and the old love of Ethereum layer 2 are engaged in a competition. The layer 2-centric story vision proposed by Vitalik is very beautiful, but it is still unsatisfactory when reflected in the currency price and actual delivery expectations, which is also true. Because of this, BTC layer 2 has taken on large enough new market expectations. Therefore, there is no doubt that BTC layer 2 is reaping the dividends of Ethereum layer 2 being less than expected. Of course, this kind of involution will be suspected of reinventing the wheel, but don’t ignore it. The user groups who play in the BTC ecosystem and those who play in the Ethereum ecosystem are not 100% overlapping. The strong consensus of BTC is likely to be the core driving force of this bull market. . In the long run, BTC layer 2 can derive a unique new route of UTXO architecture, and can also be combined with the mature Ethereum layer 2 ecosystem. If we take Layer 2 as the standard, BTC layer 2 and Ethereum layer 2 are not life-and-death. In the competitive relationship, it can be clearly felt that both camps are embracing each other;

6) There are indeed no innovative and inspiring outstanding Alpha projects. Some people say that this is a stage for Eastern forces to show off their muscles, while Western forces are concentrated on Dubai Token 2049 in a few days. In terms of narrative direction, AI, DePIN, ZK, and parallel EVM, if you don’t consider implementation, Western power is indeed more attractive. After all, many Western projects have extremely high valuations when they reach the Chinese-speaking circle; in terms of innovation vitality, Inscription Market, BTC layer 2, DePIN hardware mining, if you don’t care about Rug friction, the wealth effect of Eastern Power is indeed driving the entire industry forward. Rather than saying that Eastern forces and Western forces are competing in secret, it is better to say that each has missed the others growth. The current Eastern inscriptions and Western MEME forces will always form a combined force after a certain main Shenglang force is generated.

7) It is obvious that the voice of high-quality KOLs has become stronger, and their influence exceeds that of some VCs to some extent. This is fundamentally due to the change in VCs style of play. VCs work with project parties to incubate projects and win over exchanges to accumulate projects. This round of VCs have obviously become old leeks mentality. In the past, VCs who locked up positions for a long time were used to build dreams. , is no longer working. To a certain extent, money that you want to escape at any time has become a hot potato. Most excellent projects cannot get quotas if you have money, and KOLs who have both first-level investment capabilities and second-level ability to bring goods have become a hot potato. So, KOL Round did not come out of thin air. It is a good complement to the weakening voice of VC in the primary market.

8) Driven by narrative directions such as restaking and modularization, the resource integration (La Bang Jie Pai) capabilities of the project have become increasingly prominent, which has become a manifestation of soft power beyond the mainstream technology and development narrative of the project party. It should be said that the resource accumulation ability behind the project side will become a strong support for its development expectations. Once a project has extremely strong resources and relationships, judging from a business perspective, it has already won at the starting line. We are also telling stories that are difficult to implement. Which type of projects will users prefer? The answer is obvious;

9) There are so many stories about old trees sprouting new shoots this time, and I personally like to hear them. Although the new chain also has the conditions and environment for one-click issuance, behind the Great Again of the old chain lies the ardent expectations of each community, and it is also an expectation that should be delivered. If old chains can tell new stories, revitalize communities and consensus, and keep pace with new chains, I personally hope that more old chains will rise.

10) There will be all kinds of FUD voices in every meeting, just listen to them as gossip. TVL false prosperity, DeFi mining income dilemma, potential thunderstorms on exchanges, etc. If you all agree that resource integration is the main theme of the current market, FUD TVL fraud, which tears off the industrys bottom, does not make any sense. As for, black swan events under uncertainty are difficult to avoid, but generally project parties and teams that are capable of transcending bulls and bears will definitely be able to move more steadily and maturely this round. Fud cant kill the project, it can only add some market noise.

Note: The above thoughts only represent personal experience of participating in the conference and feelings from the perspective of observation, and do not reflect the full picture of the Hong Kong Web3 Conference. However, I hope that the industry can tear off the labels of niche and scam, and gradually develop in a direction that is more popular and mature. I really hope that one day I will not be able to understand this industry, but I can always feel its growth.