Weekly Recommendations | Web3 Development Stack Guide; Conversation with "Debater" Wang Jianshuo
This week's recommended 9 excellent articles in the cryptocurrency industry.Organizer: Hu Tao, Chain Catcher
1. “Coinbase Research: Web3 Development Stack Guide”
Despite the rise of Bitcoin and Ethereum, as well as the emergence of new categories like DeFi, NFTs, GameFi, and DAOs, web3 developers account for less than 1% of the 31.1 million software developers worldwide. So why are there so few web3 developers today? On one hand, the tools and infrastructure available to web3 developers are far less robust than those in web2. This only makes it more difficult to start building, experimenting, and deploying in web3.
However, this is rapidly changing, as the number of active web3 developers reached an all-time high at the end of 2021. To support this growing unexpected situation, a vibrant team ecosystem is dedicated to simplifying the journey for all web3 developers, ultimately helping to unlock the next phase of growth and innovation in web3.
2. “Applications vs. Infrastructure: Where is the Next 'Excess Return' Opportunity in Web3?”
One question we encounter is: why are applications prioritized over infrastructure in this cycle? One possible reason is that it makes no sense to create infrastructure before there are applications asking you to solve their underlying problems.
There is a saying in the cryptocurrency space that we first need to build great tools, and once we have those tools, we can then build applications. But what we want to demonstrate is that during transitions on other platforms, we were able to build the initial few applications (though it required more cash and time) before having great tools, and then these early applications inspired us to build tools, creating a cyclical process.
3. “The Rise of Uniswap: Past, Present, and Future”
Uniswap is a decentralized trading protocol based on Ethereum that automatically executes token swaps through smart contracts, achieving decentralization and trustlessness in trading through algorithms. Since its launch, Uniswap has become the leader in the DEX space, defending its market position despite facing strong challengers multiple times. This report comprehensively studies the development history, mechanisms, and pros and cons of Uniswap.
Since May of this year, a new "contrarian" has emerged in the crypto industry—Wang Jianshuo. For three consecutive months, he has frequently fired shots at the crypto industry through his personal social media and industry media, intensively expressing his doubts and judgments. Typical views include "The relationship between Web and Web3 is like that of Lei Feng and the Lei Feng Tower," and "Web3 is not the next version of the internet," among others.
In late August, Chain Catcher invited Wang Jianshuo for a dialogue. In the conversation, Chain Catcher attempted to present the issues he discovered in the crypto industry since studying blockchain, the reasons behind them, his learning and thinking methods, as well as his suggestions and thoughts on industry development.
5. “Is the NFT-Fi Summer Led by Sudoswap Here?”
Currently, the most mainstream innovation in the market is bonding curves like sudoswap, which ensure that price fluctuations in the same pool are independent of the number of NFTs in the pool, fixing price slippage and promoting a better trading experience. The author believes that AMM is one way to improve liquidity/capital efficiency, but it is not a suitable trading model. This article will discuss some interesting sub-tracks/protocols around NFT collateral lending and derivatives in the NFT-FI direction, as well as the current bottlenecks and potential future developments.
6. “Animoca Launches Aggressive Offensive During Crypto Winter, Targeting a $20 Billion Valuation”
Since last November, the so-called "crypto winter" has caused a $2 trillion evaporation in the market capitalization of digital currencies, and many investors have entered hibernation. However, Yat Siu, founder of Hong Kong's Animoca Brands, has ramped up his offensive.
Asia's largest blockchain venture capital firm, Animoca, is forming a massive group in finance, gaming, and social media, totaling over 340 companies. Siu stated that the company's goal is to give people ownership of their virtual property and to break the empires of Meta Platforms and Microsoft. Siu describes it as "digital dictatorship."
The current Web3/Crypto space is filled with various new terms, making this already obscure industry even more confusing. Coupled with a plethora of regulatory bans, ideologies, scams, Ponzi schemes, and inefficient yet counterintuitive application scenarios, it is challenging to grasp the context. Focusing too much on details can hinder one's ability to see the big picture. When the internet was first adopted by a small group of geeks, it seemed very nebulous, and no one could predict its future development, filled with various innovations, protocols, and products, with hardly any surviving a decade later.
These issues may be important, but they are not the core logic of the internet. However, as long as we grasp the underlying logic that the internet "unprecedentedly reduces the cost of information flow," we can realize how it will drastically change society and identify trends when search engines, social media, online shopping/payments, smartphones, ride-hailing, local services, and algorithmic recommendations emerge.
Therefore, this article will not discuss the circuit design of ZK-Rollups, whether GameFi is just a shell for tokenomics, how composability affects DeFi, etc., but will focus on the most core question: What is the innovation point of Web3? How will it change the world?
8. “The Pillars Supporting Web3: Information, Contracts, Identity—'Centralization' Remains Indispensable”
This is the Achilles' heel of the blockchain and Web3 world we have high hopes for: we have an "information internet" that allows for infinite input and output, and we also have a blockchain that can carry "assets" and realize value transfer; but where are our souls, identities, credits, and social relationships? They still have no place to settle.
The emergence of the concept of "soul-bound tokens" (SBT) has begun to provide us with answers. In the current web3 blueprint, a clear hierarchy is starting to emerge— we need three towering pillars: the "Information Network," the "Asset Network," and the "Status Network" to jointly support a complete and viable "Web III."
Vitalik Buterin is one of the most well-known and beloved figures in the crypto world, and he co-founded Ethereum with Gavin Wood, which has become the leader of the entire Web3 world. It is evident that he is a smart and friendly person who just wants to create cool things rather than deceive anyone. In addition to being one of the spokespersons for cryptocurrency, Vitalik also has an interesting Twitter account and a blog where he often shares deep original insights on various crypto topics.
As we mentioned, Ethereum, which powers most smart contracts in the crypto world, is undergoing a historic transformation. In a process called The Merge, which is planned to be completed in two weeks, Ethereum is transitioning its method of validating transactions from proof of work (PoW) to proof of stake (PoS). This will significantly reduce the network's energy usage and carbon emissions.
In the following interview, the author discusses topics with Vitalik including proof of work vs. proof of stake, the recent collapse of the crypto market, cryptocurrency security, decentralized governance, and "network states."
