Markets
Top Cryptocurrencies To Watch In 2023 – Forbes Advisor Australia
As the cryptocurrency landscape evolves, some projects stand out for their innovative approach and substantial growth potential.
Here are some cryptocurrencies to watch for 2024:
Immutable X (IMX)
Immutable X has quickly gained prominence in the blockchain gaming sector, an area that Baktyary considers “the most funded sector in the crypto space in 2022 and 2023.” The significant funding underscores the sector’s vast potential and investor interest. Immutable X’s strategic partnership with former competitor Polygon has been a game changer. Together, they now dominate approximately 80% of the blockchain gaming market.
“Previously competitors, Polygon and Immutable X now occupy a dominant position, with most crypto games being developed within their combined ecosystem,” Baktyary notes.
This partnership transformed Immutable X into a central hub for blockchain gaming, not just focusing on one game but facilitating the development of over 200 games.
“They don’t just create one game; they become the hub for games built on the blockchain.” This holistic approach increases the likelihood of significant success in the gaming industry,” Baktyary says.
Additionally, Immutable X has partnered with industry leaders such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Ubisoft, and offers games on the Epic Games Store. These collaborations demonstrate the project’s strong commercial development and potential for widespread adoption.
Another key feature of Immutable X is its focus on zk-rollup technology, which improves scalability, security, and user experience. This positions Immutable X at the forefront of technological innovation in the crypto space. “They are one of the pioneers of zk technology,” Baktyary adds, “which opens doors to much more than what the market is currently seeing.”
Polygon (MATIC/POL)
Polygon, in partnership with Immutable X in the gaming space, stands out for its broader contributions to blockchain technology. Its widespread adoption of the Chain Development Kit (CDK), more familiarly referred to as the Polygon stack, demonstrates the robustness and versatility of its technology.
“The adoption of the Large Chain Development Kit marks Polygon’s significant presence in blockchain infrastructure,” says Baktyary.
Polygon’s introduction of Polygon 2.0 adds a multi-layered structure to its protocol, with a notable layer being the staking layer. This layer uses Polygon’s native token and allows validators to earn rewards, including transaction fees, from the chains they validate.
“Polygon (Staking Layer) offers validators the potential for additional revenue streams,” Baktyary explains.
Additionally, Polygon is a leader in zero-knowledge technology, with its zkEVM already operational. This technology improves the privacy and scalability of blockchain transactions, making Polygon a pioneer in this field.
Polygon is also making strides in scalability by transforming its PoS chain into Validium, including experimenting with parallel execution. This move further improves the network’s efficiency.
“Polygon’s transition to Validium demonstrates its commitment to advancing blockchain scalability and alignment with Ethereum,” says Baktyary. Its technological advancements and strategic focus underscore Polygon’s role as a pioneer in the blockchain ecosystem.
Optimism (OP)
Optimism (OP) stands out as a significant player in the blockchain space, with several key achievements highlighting its importance in the evolving cryptocurrency landscape.
One of Optimism’s major accomplishments is its success in stack adoption, where it ranks second only to Polygon. In the blockchain world, a “stack” refers to the layered structure of technology solutions and protocols that build on top of each other to create a complete system. In this context, the Optimism stack refers to its core codebase that is used to help bootstrap other Layer 2 blockchains within the Optimism ecosystem.
Baktyary says, “Optimism has the second-highest public stack adoption among Layer 2 stacks, after Polygon, including strong customers such as Coinbase, who are committed to maintaining the integrity of the stack.”
This high level of adoption is a testament to the confidence in Optimism’s technology and its potential for large-scale application and integration across different blockchain platforms.
Another important development for Optimism is its partnership with Coinbase, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges. This collaboration, with Coinbase using Optimism’s stack, is a testament to the project’s security and technological robustness, Baktyary notes, and “is huge from a security perspective.” The relationship strengthens Optimism’s credibility and extends its reach to a wider audience, thereby driving further adoption.
In terms of governance and community engagement, Optimism has made notable progress and has received plaudits from the crypto community. The success of Optimism’s governance model was even highlighted in a Stanford Articleindicating a mature and thoughtful approach to community involvement in decision-making processes.
Baktyary adds that the Optimism team appears to be strongly aligned with the Ethereum ecosystem, demonstrating its adherence to the core values of blockchain, which resonate with a significant portion of the market.
Like Polygon and Immutable X, Optimism is also at the forefront of technological innovation with its advancements in zero-knowledge (zk) technology.
“Optimism’s Bedrock upgrade enables support for multiple runtime layer clients and an abstraction of the proof system, allowing for a rollup across the OP stack to use either a proof-of-failure or proof-of-validity system,” Baktyary explains.
“This upgrade is Optimism’s first step towards adopting zk technology.”
Clean diaper
Another project that is attracting attention for its pioneering technology is EigenLayer.
The project is bolstered by the prospect of a user reward system, a move that Baktyary says is aimed at rewarding early adopters.
“EigenLayer doesn’t have a token yet, but its points system and the introduction of projects like EigenDA have led the market to speculate that there could be an airdrop in the future,” he says.
The cornerstone of EigenLayer’s innovation is its revolutionary Active Validation Services (AVS) technology.
This technology benefits a variety of applications, from data availability layers to Oracle networks, by allowing them to benefit from external validator sets, thereby reducing the cost of securing and verifying their networks.
“AVS is a huge new primitive that allows the security of a blockchain’s validator to be exported to a whole new set of software and use cases,” Baktyary explains.
EigenLayer’s ability to export validator security can also help improve ecosystem interoperability. Previously siloed networks and ecosystems would have to bootstrap their own validator set, typically with high token incentives, and while running the risk of a somewhat centralized validator set. Now, early-stage networks could simply extract their validator security from another network that has already solved these blockchain issues early on.
By addressing critical issues within the Ethereum ecosystem, particularly around staking providers, EigenLayer offers a solution to bring balance and enhanced security.
“EigenLayer can help encourage a cap system for staking providers with a majority share of validators such as Lido; a topic that has been a hot topic of debate within the Ethereum ecosystem,” Baktyary explains.
Additionally, EigenLayer’s advancements could enable scaling solutions like Validiums and potentially expand the use of Ethereum validators to secure other blockchains, including Solana and Cosmos. This development represents a leap forward in blockchain scalability and security, which Baktyary sees as a crucial step toward the broader application of Ethereum’s technology.
“EigenLayer can help enable Validiums with projects like EigenDA, and can theoretically have blockchains like Ethereum secured on alternative layer 1 blockchains, such as Solana,” he says.