2022 was one for the books. It was arguably the best year for web3 based on the advances made this year and the worst based on the number of scandals and losses that set the industry back for some time. What will this year be most remembered for in the web3 space?
This year there were almost 100,000 blockchain related patent applications globally. Over 70% came from Chinese companies according to Chinese authorities, with US companies following closely. A sign that shows progress and continuous efforts to drive innovation in the web3 space.
In the first half of 2022, web3 companies raised $30 billion, surpassing the funding the industry raised in 2021. Trading on NFT marketplaces went down by 90% this year but it didn’t stop Instagram from increasing the “total addressable market” for NFTs by about 1.5 billion users, when it let users create and trade NFTs within the platform.
On the flip side, over $15 billion in crypto value was wiped out through the LUNA and UST fiasco, questioning the validity of stable coins. The collapse of FTX led to the loss of more than $8 billion of customers' deposits and a large domino effect on other startups. In hindsight, players and regulators are seeing that crypto isn’t inherently bad, the root cause of these collapses are as a result of lacklustre risk management, slippery governance and incomplete disclosures.
The web3 space is a young budding industry with a lot of freedom and not enough scrutiny.
For one, 2022 will be remembered as the year that the web3 industry realised it needed some form of regulation and oversight. After all, there’s no true freedom without boundaries.
What do you say?
