Today’s Bitcoin ecosystem has mostly solved the problem of asset issuance, but lacks paradigm innovation.
In fact, paradigm innovation has long existed, or is quietly brewing, but the market often fails to recognize them.
Imagine a situation. If a new thing appears and calls itself “paradigm innovation,” and at the same time issues relatively fair, accessible assets. Then people will flock to it – the new thing looks impressive, “strike first, talk later.” After the initial rush, these people will promote this asset, making more people believe it is the so-called “paradigm innovation.”
If something appears without issuing new assets, without a group of people rushing to buy, then no one will claim that this thing is paradigm innovation.
So, if we set aside asset issuance, how should we define true paradigm innovation? Good question.
True paradigm innovation will not cause short-term FOMO in the market, but will survive in a cyclical state.
Going back to Atomicals, our community always says that AVM is a paradigm innovation, and I believe it. But some friends asked me, if AVM is really impressive, shouldn’t ARC20 assets have soared before AVM appeared? Why are they plummeting despite positive community expectations?
In fact, the market has already told us that the masses are not buying into AVM at the moment, whether holders or outsiders.
But if we look at it from a different angle, if AVM is a new channel for asset issuance, and a leading token will be issued on AVM, open for MINT. Then today, everyone would anticipate it, prepare for it, learn everywhere, and be confident in AVM’s prospects.
Yes, true paradigm innovation, even if it is indeed paradigm innovation, will not be an “ATM” type innovation, only issuing new assets for everyone to rush to. Everyone knows that the Bitcoin ecosystem is a big market, but everyone is only buying into asset issuance.
Who will buy into a truly useful ecosystem?
However, have you noticed that the “ATM” effect in the circle is getting worse? This is a good thing, those who were rushing to buy various new asset issuances will realize that not all new assets are good assets at a certain stage.
In the second half of last year, a bunch of new protocols, any one of which was a hundredfold at the bottom, I personally got into two projects that were over a hundredfold. At that time, as long as you were diligent and discovered new projects, even if you missed the beginning of the year, there would be another wave at the end of the year. But this year, this pattern has changed, and the benefits of buying into new projects are far less than before.
At a certain point, those who should have lost have lost, and those who should have earned have earned, and the market continues to return to the combination of “mainstream coins + altcoins.” Bitcoin rises, other altcoins rise with it, some with potential, some with applications, some with value, rise a little more.
But in such a market, it may be difficult to see the emergence of many hundredfold or thousandfold myths.
In this circle, when you are sure that the bull market is here, it is difficult to hold onto your assets and you have to buy something to keep up with the bull market. This is when “useful” coins will start to be discovered.
Apart from the innovation of asset issuance, the Bitcoin ecosystem inevitably needs innovation at the application layer.
The term “ecosystem” may evoke everything already on Ethereum – various Fi: DeFi, SocialFi, GameFi, various independent concepts: DAO, DID, SBT, storage, L2, XXX to Earn, various module tokens: Meme, fans, PoW, AI…
Back to Atomicals, we say that AVM is a “paradigm innovation” precisely because it will bring everything on Ethereum.
It is undisputed that AVM will come, and it is also undisputed that AVM can achieve a certain degree of programmability.
Last time, a friend asked in my comments, is there any way to implement DeFi on BTC L1? I replied briefly with this: “AVM expresses 0 and 1 binary through coloring and de-coloring, and then achieves programmability, one application angle that can be achieved is DeFi. Just saw a new project preparing for this @spiralismxyz, their official website already has the words swap and stake. That’s why Atomicals’ development on BTC L1 is of great significance.”
But then I found out that many people didn’t know that AVM will bring Bitcoin into a widespread “application ecosystem.”
However, even if these applications are implemented, I don’t think the market will immediately buy in – it is difficult to attract a group of new people and new money in a short time, and naturally it is difficult to satisfy the high desire for “quick money in a different place.”
So what does this new application mean for ARC20 assets? I still want to use the word I’ve been using – mainstreaming. Whether something is valuable is one thing, whether the masses know it, use it, and can’t do without it is another. The latter is extremely far-reaching for the former. Price changes are very fast, if everyone suddenly knows something is good, the price will change rapidly. But if everyone slowly realizes its value, the price may not fluctuate much, but behind the scenes, many sudden “seeds” of good news will be brewing, and these seeds are extremely important for the life and death of a coin.
Take the most common topic of “listing” as an example. Why should a purely speculative coin list on Binance? Something recognized by Binance as being able to survive and withstand a round of bull markets will be listed on Binance. The latter is due to those seeds (whether the masses know it, whether they are using it, whether they can’t do without it).
Something like AVM is a seed – whether this seed can achieve “mainstreaming” is not apparent today, and it is also a reason why the masses are not buying in.
We need time.
When everyone is “not buying in,” it doesn’t matter who is buying and who is selling. What matters is enduring for a while, who can survive, who is truly useful, who will bring sustained benefits to Bitcoin, be recognized by the Bitcoin community, and be pushed to the mainstream layer of Bitcoin applications.
When a true paradigm innovation appears, people won’t realize it right away. Only when the ecosystem of this new paradigm flourishes, more applications appear, more users join, and even the next step of ecological development cannot do without its application assistance – people will realize that it is a paradigm innovation.
Atomicals is an ecosystem I deeply understand and am building, and I believe it is a paradigm innovation in my heart. But in places I cannot see, I believe that the entire Bitcoin ecosystem is already brewing many depth paradigm innovations that “cannot make quick money in the short term.”
In terms of the big picture, we should fully support the concept of the entire “Bitcoin ecosystem.”
(Authored by Leaper from the Quark Community on 2024.04.23)
