Blockchain & Web3 Outlook 2024/25

Last Friday, the 24th, the Politecnico di Milano hosted the Blockchain & Web3 Outlook 2024/25 conference.
Interesting and very well organized.

First of all, there was a review of the main events of the year just ended, many of which we had already commented on at length on this blog. The events were summarized in a slide, which we reproduce below, dividing them between traditional players (institutions, governments, agencies..) and Web3-native ones (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple).

Web3 is a reality that is rapidly gaining ground around the world. Blockchain and crypto are leading the way, while for NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) it’s a period of stagnation. As was repeated several times during the morning, Web3 is here to stay.

By the way, why Web3? Why 3 (three)? Because Web1 was the web of static sites, where the webmaster decided the content, which could only be viewed passively. Web2, the one that dominates today, is where users interact by entering data, which, however, become the property of the site. In Web3, users become the owners of their own data recorded on the blockchain.

Unfortunately, Web3 is not spreading at the same speed everywhere. In Italy, for example, the numbers are bordering on embarrassing. In 2024, investment in blockchain projects in our country amounted to 40 million euros.

And on top of this national dwarfism, another piece of not-so-good news. 49% of Italy’s meager Web3 investment is concentrated in a single sector. Finance. And here we can’t help going back to the idea of a deadly embrace between finance and crypto (Bitcoin in particular), which we’ve warned about several times recently. The risk that the traditional financial world will swallow up the Web3/crypto world, turning it into an asset class like any other. A sad nemesis that would be, for a world that was born precisely to move beyond it.

Then the outlook for 2025 was discussed, summarized in the following slide

One challenge for the financial world is integrating traditional Information Technology with Web3/blockchain technologies, which still run on separate tracks.

The tokenization of real world assets, blockchain’s entry into the real world, which we talked about so much at the end of last year.

And, more generally, the decentralized web and the paradigm shift it brings with it. Frankly, a bit optimistic, at least in Italy, given the premises. A paradigm shift not only for the financial system, but also for traditional businesses.

There was also emphasis on the consolidation of technological solutions which, it’s now clear, are here to stay, on the different speeds of Europe, Asia and of course North America (with the usual hope for fewer rules and more innovation), and on the possible lines of development for 2025.
One of the round tables was also livened up by a heated exchange between banking regulators and the regulated.

The format of 5-10 minute presentations worked very well, keeping the pace brisk.

But the most striking thing is clear from the photo of the audience. We had fun counting the heads in the photos. 93% of them are male. Confirming that Web3, ultimately a branch of STEM, is still essentially a male preserve.

But we’ll look into this in more depth in the coming weeks.