The five major obstacles to the large-scale application of blockchain technology are being broken down.

The widespread adoption of new technologies often takes a long time. Taking the United States as an example, it took 78 years for automobiles to reach a 92% adoption rate, 48 years for household electricity to achieve full coverage, and 26 years for the internet to reach an 88% adoption rate. Although the time required for the widespread adoption of new technologies is decreasing, blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies face a unique dilemma: despite these concepts successfully permeating global public consciousness, most people have still never actually used the related services.

The reasons for this phenomenon are mainly divided into five aspects:

1. Access channels for institutional funds are restricted.
2. The entry channels for ordinary users are not smooth.
3. Lack of investment targets that meet the tastes of the general public
4. Most developers find it difficult to enter the industry.
5. The infrastructure is struggling to support large-scale applications.

However, during the current market downturn, some positive signs are emerging, and these changes are expected to accelerate the mass adoption of cryptocurrency technology.

1. Bitcoin Spot ETF: Opening the Door for Traditional Capital

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has recently extended the review period for Bitcoin spot ETF applications. Nevertheless, industry insiders remain optimistic about its approval prospects. Some believe that the approval of the Bitcoin spot ETF is just a matter of time and could be realized within 4 to 6 months.

The listing of Bitcoin spot ETFs will greatly simplify the process of investing in Bitcoin. The U.S. stock market is dominated by institutional investors, with mutual funds and other institutional investors accounting for 55%. Currently, the Bitcoin spot ETFs seeking SEC approval are mainly driven by several large mutual funds. Therefore, once the Bitcoin spot ETF is approved for listing, it will not only attract potential investors from the mainstream stock market but, more importantly, provide a convenient entry channel for large-scale institutional funds.

According to an analysis by a certain institution, the assets managed by products related to Bitcoin (including Bitcoin trusts, futures ETFs, and spot ETFs in other countries) have reached 28.8 billion USD. Based on this data, the industry expects that the listing of Bitcoin spot ETFs may bring about an additional demand of approximately 30 billion USD.

2. A major payment giant launches a stablecoin: opening up access for ordinary users

Recently, a globally renowned mobile payment company launched its own dollar stablecoin on the Ethereum network. The company covers 202 countries and regions, supports 24 currencies, and has over 400 million monthly active users worldwide, making it the first large fintech company to embrace digital currency payment transfers.

This stablecoin is issued by a professional institution and is 100% backed by deposits in US dollars, short-term US Treasury securities, and similar cash equivalents. Eligible users will be able to transfer this stablecoin between the company's platform and compatible external wallets for peer-to-peer payments or merchant payments, and it can also be exchanged for other cryptocurrencies supported by the platform.

The company's vision is to become a bridge between fiat currencies and Web3, promoting the mainstream adoption of stablecoin payment systems. Compared to the existing USD stablecoins in the cryptocurrency industry, this newly launched stablecoin has a natural advantage in attracting ordinary users and is expected to bring tens of millions of new users into the cryptocurrency industry.

3. The Real World Asset (RWA) Boom: Providing Entry Points for Traditional Institutions to Participate in the Cryptocurrency Industry

In the past six months, RWA has become a hot topic in the market. Supporters believe that RWA will introduce real-world assets and yields, significantly increasing the asset scale of cryptocurrencies. Although there are still some challenges in the tokenization and clearing and settlement of off-chain RWA, the industry has already developed some clearing and settlement mechanisms based on collateral, staking, arbitrage, and games.

Opponents argue that most RWA projects still rely on centralized trust in "compliance" and "auditing," making it difficult to fully achieve trustlessness, which does not align with the core principles of cryptocurrency.

Despite the controversy, RWA may still become an important entry point for traditional large institutions to participate in and co-build the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Just like the US dollar stablecoin launched by a certain payment giant, which is actually an RWA with the yield from US Treasury bonds, but currently does not distribute the yield to holders. In the future, "interest-bearing stablecoins" may become mainstream projects.

4. Blockchain Supporting Multiple Programming Languages: Attracting More Web2 Developers

Currently, the cryptocurrency industry has two main development directions in programming languages: one is to explore new languages suitable for specific application scenarios, such as the Cairo language, which is friendly to zero-knowledge proof applications, the Move language, which is more friendly to formal verification, and the DeepSEA functional programming language that prioritizes security.

Another direction is to support blockchain platforms that utilize multiple programming languages, such as zkSync, Risczero, VRRB, etc. These platforms are beneficial in attracting more Web2 developers into the Web3 space. Currently, the number of Web3 developers is only in the hundreds of thousands, while Web2 developers exceed ten million. Blockchain platforms that support multiple programming languages are expected to attract more Web2 developers, thereby creating a more prosperous ecosystem.

5. Infrastructure Upgrade: Paving the Way for Large-Scale Blockchain Applications

In 2017, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin pointed out that technological barriers are the most important factors hindering the large-scale application of Blockchain, and improving scalability is a top priority.

After years of development, the Ethereum ecosystem has formed a prosperous Layer2 expansion matrix. Layer2 solutions such as Optimism, Arbitrum, StarkNet, zkSync, Polygon, Scroll, and Taiko have significant improvements in performance compared to the Ethereum mainnet.

In addition, the modular blockchain sector is also experiencing rapid development. Projects such as Celestia, Polygon Avail, and Rooch are expected to support large-scale blockchain applications in their respective fields.

Overall, compared to previous cycles, the development of cryptocurrency infrastructure has made significant progress and is expected to support the emergence of large-scale Blockchain applications. As these barriers are gradually removed, the large-scale application of Blockchain technology may come faster than we think.