Chainfeeds Summary:
Controlling and dominating one's own blockchain space is becoming a major trend in the industry.
Article source:
https://x.com/archetypevc/status/1998814808209240565
Article Author:
Archetype
Opinion:
Archetype: Current blockchain and application trends are undergoing a significant shift: the best-performing chains of the future will be those deliberately assembled from fundamental primitives and first principles, tailored to specific application needs. A new wave of developers, institutions, and users entering the crypto world, unlike in the past, emphasizes explicit cultural and user experience preferences rather than abstract ideals of decentralization. In cryptographic abstractions for ordinary users (such as Blackbird and Farcaster), stablecoin chains, and transaction systems relying on millisecond-level latency (such as Hyperliquid and GTE), some previously unthinkable centralized design choices—such as locally deployed nodes, a single sequencer, and custom databases—are now perfectly reasonable. However, not all applications should move towards centralization; for example, privacy is becoming an increasingly important requirement. Fortunately, customizing a blockchain for an application is far less difficult than it was two years ago, more like assembling a PC: you can completely customize the parts or extend them based on preset combinations provided by Commonware, Delta, etc., allowing the application to develop a unique form reflecting its culture and UX at the primitive levels of consensus, execution, data storage, and liquidity, and to evolve without disrupting the upper-layer structure. Circle's acquisition of Malachite from Informal Systems illustrates that "owning custom blockspace sovereignty" is becoming an industry focus. In the coming year, we will see more applications build around these primitives and control their own chain resources, thus creating stronger moats in user experience and value capture. Prediction markets have become one of the most watched applications this cycle, with weekly trading volume reaching a new high of $2 billion, prompting many projects to attempt to complement or challenge leaders like Polymarket and Kalshi. Truly noteworthy innovations will come from solutions that improve market structure, including lowering spreads, increasing open interest, improving routing systems, and trying new liquidity models and collateral efficiency. Different platforms differentiate themselves based on their product categories: for example, Kalshi's trading volume in November was approximately 90% from the sports market, while Polymarket's trading volume in the political and crypto markets was 5–10 times higher. Nevertheless, on-chain prediction markets are still far from mainstream adoption. For example, the 2025 Super Bowl saw $23 billion in off-chain betting on a single day, more than 10 times the current daily trading volume of all on-chain prediction markets combined. To narrow the gap, a group of outstanding teams capable of solving core market problems is needed. Meanwhile, DeFi is also seeing the emergence of new "intelligent" forms: Agentic Curators are becoming a third force between algorithmic models and human management. Composed of LLM + tools, they can not only enforce rules but also reason about risk, return, and strategy. In the future, they will compete alongside algorithms and human managers, making yield products more scalable through emotion-neutral execution, systematic strategies, and composable reasoning. When the cost of deep reasoning becomes negligible, the most profitable vaults may be those with the strongest computing power, not the smartest humans. Short videos are becoming a new interface for global users to discover content and complete purchases. TikTok Shop generated over $20 billion in GMV in the first half of 2025, leading many users to view entertainment as a shopping gateway; Instagram's Reels have also upgraded from a defensive feature to a revenue engine; Whatnot has proven that personalized live-streaming sales based on anchors far surpass traditional e-commerce in conversion rates. Every swipe is a potential decision point. Recommendation feeds and payment settlement processes are merging, while AI further reduces the cost of video creation, leading to a surge in content volume and accelerating conversion opportunities. Encryption plays a key role in this trend: ultra-fast content and embedded shopping require faster, cheaper, and more programmable payment systems, and on-chain micropayments, automatic income distribution, and traceable contribution chains are designed for this purpose. On the other hand, AI agents are also changing the form of the Web, ushering in an "agent-driven product renaissance." Approximately 50% of internet activity is already completed by agents, with on-chain agents executing transactions, managing vaults, scanning contracts, and building games. In the future, we will interact more frequently with dedicated agents through chat-like interfaces. These agents will automatically execute strategies, aggregate data, report risks and results, and form a scalable ecosystem supported by on-chain data graphs, cross-chain liquidity, micropayments, and open protocols. As more assets, systems, and users are on-chain, a positive cycle will form between opportunity, agent, and value unlocking, driving the rapid growth of this agent-based network.
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