Oak Grove Crypto 2024 successfully concluded, attracting thousands of Web3 builders from around the world to discuss new trends for the next five years

On April 5th, the Oak Grove Crypto 2024, hosted by Oak Grove Ventures and co-organized by Polyhedra, Alchemy Pay, Ritual, and ChainCatcher, successfully concluded during the Hong Kong Blockchain Week.

At the event, representatives from dozens of well-known Web3 projects and platforms, including Binance, CoinMarketCap, TRON, Solana Foundation, NEAR Protocol, Gate.io, OKX Wallet, Bitget Wallet, Manta Network, io.net, Merlin Chain, Lifeform, Delysium, IoTeX, BounceBit, UniSat, Conflux Network, OKX Ventures, and Avail, as well as global tech giants like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, and LaPay, delivered keynote speeches on popular industry topics such as the Bitcoin ecosystem, AI + Web3, DePIN, and important fields like public chains, zk, payments, and cloud computing. The exciting presentations attracted nearly 3,000 attendees on-site and over 10 million online viewers.

Discussing New Developments in Web3 Infrastructure such as Public Chains, Payments, and Cloud Computing

At the opening of the event, Oak Grove Ventures co-founder Shawn detailed the establishment and philosophy of Oak Grove Ventures in his opening speech. Shawn mentioned that their team consists of professionals from renowned institutions such as NGC, Harvard Blockchain, Libra, Coinbase, and Google. Currently, Oak Grove Ventures has a funding scale of $60 million, distinguishing itself from traditional funds by being more professional, flexible, and fast.

Following that, Oak Grove Ventures partner Sally shared in her keynote speech that Oak Grove Ventures has initiated some innovative work since 2023. Technologically, Oak Grove Ventures is innovating in areas such as data encryption, data processing, data transfer, and data privacy to ensure transparency and positive interaction in its transaction processes. A diverse team of experts from different industries has been formed at Oak Grove Ventures to provide comprehensive and effective strategic support for more early-stage projects.

Over a dozen heavyweight guests, including Polyhedra Network CSO Eric Vreeland, Binance Director of Payment Business Development Pakning Luk, Alchemy Pay APAC Partner Director Adam Farhat, Avail co-founder Anurag Arjun, Solana Foundation advisor Adam Jin, BNB Chain Business Development Head Walter, and COO of Scallop, kicked off the morning's keynote speeches or panel discussions. Oak Grove Ventures partners Sally and Andrea Chang served as moderators for different themed panels, raising important issues of concern in the crypto market.

Among them, Binance Director of Payment Business Development Pakning Luk and Alchemy Pay APAC Partner Director Adam Farhat shared insights on the future trends of crypto payments. Pakning Luk stated that the adoption rate of crypto payments is growing at a rate of 14% per year.

The first panel discussion focused on Layer 1. Avail co-founder Anurag Arjun, Solana Foundation advisor Adam Jin, BNB Chain Business Development Head Walter, Berachain APAC Business Development Head Nezha Bear, and Chromia APAC Head Yeou Jie shared the biggest changes and trends in the current Layer 1 track, emphasizing the impact of modularization on their respective businesses.

Trust Wallet Community & Growth Head Scarlett Zhang revealed in her keynote speech that Trust Wallet is expected to launch an on-chain interaction platform in May this year.

Google Cloud APAC Web3 expert Kyle Song and Amazon Web Services (AWS) Solutions Architect Sijie Han shared how they are actively expanding Web3 as leaders in cloud computing. Kyle Song mentioned that Google is actively laying out in multiple Web3 areas such as L1/L2, MPC, and data indexing. Sijie Han noted that AWS's solutions currently support various types of Web3 enterprises, having served well-known Web3 projects like Coinbase and Phantom.

Looking Ahead to Cutting-Edge Trends in AI, DePIN, and the Bitcoin Ecosystem

After a brief intermission, guests including TRON founder Justin Sun, CoinMarketCap's Anson Lee, Ritual founding member Saneel, Delysium founder XK, Solana Foundation DePIN head Kuleen, DIMO co-founder Andy Chatham, BounceBit founder Jack Lu, Merlin Chain founder Jeff, UniSat founder Lorenzo, and Lifeform founder Kevin Che discussed important narratives in the industry such as AI + Web3, the Bitcoin ecosystem, DePIN, the metaverse, and public chains.

In the discussion on how AI + Web3 can be combined, Ritual founding member Saneel, Chasm co-founder KC, Virtual Protocol ecosystem head Matthew, and Aki Network co-founder Ming S shared their practices of integrating AI and Web3 from their respective products. They mentioned how to leverage cryptocurrency to incentivize AI to become accessible and trustworthy for everyone.

Regarding the DePIN field, the focus was on how to use blockchain and tokens to incentivize users to share physical world resources in a decentralized manner. IoTeX Business Development and Research Manager Dr. Andrew Law, DIMO co-founder Andy Chatham, Reddio founder and CEO Neil, Solana Foundation DePIN head Kuleen, Aethir co-founder Dan, and Network3 founder Rock shared their practical experiences.

Solana Foundation DePIN head Kuleen stated that the current market size of DePIN is still far from expectations, but like the insurance industry, it needs to focus on economies of scale to grow bigger and better. Aethir co-founder Dan mentioned that current DePIN developers face multiple challenges, such as ensuring the smoothness and usability of the DePIN network technology; when many companies use the service, how developers should balance input and output.

For the currently hottest Bitcoin ecosystem, the event featured keynote speeches and panel discussions focusing on two main directions: the Bitcoin protocol Ordinals and Bitcoin Layer 2.

Tap Protocol CSO Alex Philippine believes that in the future, using Bitcoin will become increasingly user-friendly, just like using ordinary chat tools, to expand market scale. Tap Protocol CSO Alex Philippine and UniSat head Lorenzo believe that innovation should become more universal to have a more profound impact on the Bitcoin ecosystem.

Merlin Chain founder Jeff mentioned that Merlin is currently considering a question in application development: besides the protocols and applications that have already appeared on Ethereum, do applications on Bitcoin need to combine the open-source, composable, and interoperable characteristics of Bitcoin asset chains, along with bottom-up community-driven and Fair Launch asset issuance changes, to create more innovative content to gain market recognition?

Regarding the large-scale application of blockchain, Lifeform founder Kevin Che mentioned that in internet competition, user engagement time and frequency of use are more important than DAU. Currently, not everyone uses blockchain, but everyone uses smartphones. From the experience of smartphones, products must not only provide usage value but also emotional value. Emotional value is more likely to determine the final market and frequency of product use.

Finally, TRON founder Justin Sun shared his views on the current cycle and TRON's strategic planning through an online video. Justin Sun stated that based on past experience, around the time of Bitcoin halving, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies may enter a phase of widespread increase and break previous highs. Additionally, this year, with the favorable news of the approval of the Bitcoin ETF in the U.S., this market trend may occur more rapidly and violently, and we are currently only in the early stages of this bull market. TRON will focus on expanding in areas such as Bitcoin Layer 2 and interoperability during this cycle. Furthermore, TRON will collaborate with more meme coin projects to issue more meme coins on TRON to incentivize more users to use TRON.