2024 will be the biggest year in the history of the Ethereum network

2024 has all the conditions to become the biggest year in the history of the Ethereum blockchain.

In addition to the possible approval of a spot ETH ETF in the United States, this year will also mark the network's first bull cycle since The Merge in 2022.

This update causes ETH to deflate during busy network periods.

Since The Merge, 1,509,991 ETH have been burned, and this number will increase further in the coming months as network usage increases.


ETH supply since merger. Source: Ultra Sound Money

Furthermore, the next Ethereum network update – Ethereum Improvement Proposal 4844 – will take place this year, scheduled for March 13. It aims to make the entire ecosystem of blockchain layer 2 (L2) built around Ethereum is up to 10 times cheaper.

This will be a major turning point in this cycle and it will lead Ethereum and layer 2 to the most successful year in history.

The idea is simple: Without L2, Ethereum cannot scale. And without a subchain and a dedicated business developer team, L2 doesn't grow at the pace it needs to.

What is Ethereum?

Unlike Bitcoin, Ether is not simply an asset whose intrinsic value is solely related to the operation of the blockchain.

Ethereum is more suited to the idea of a shared and programmable database or decentralized application development platform (DApp). Therefore, for it to have value, valuable applications must exist on it.

Some of these applications already exist and emerge from Web3, but the majority will come from traditional companies adapting their systems and integrating with blockchain.

This has never been achieved before. What are the main non-native Web3 killer applications that exist onchain today? How many companies have seriously maintained their onchain applications after the last bull cycle?

The main reason for their absence is because there are very few people who have the ability to “think blockchain”, see the problem and see blockchain as a solution, or understand tokens well enough to think about related business opportunities. to them.

In previous cycles, help was not always available to guide those players because – due to the vast and agnostic nature of blockchain – most actors were very general.

As a result, some operations are not viable because they compete for block space with memecoins and the NFT boom.

Companies are eager to experiment with blockchain but don't know how to do it and need guidance from the blockchain's own business development team or other Web3 companies. Business development segmentation is often done by region, resulting in these teams serving 20 different sectors, each with unique needs and complex applications. The result was superficial guidance that ultimately doomed these projects over time.

But in 2024, the game will change.

With more leadership positions at large companies – with much more mature thinking about how to build onchain – the blockchain ecosystem is going through a period of specialization.

Today, it is clear that the largest L2 blockchains are splitting into subchains with specific configurations as well as specialized groups and structures to cover specific niches.

Chain development kit

Taking Polygon as an example, instead of having just one common blockchain for all applications and regional business development teams, Polygon has diversified into several subchains dedicated to specific use cases.

How did this happen? Polygon is providing the market with a Chain Development Kit (CDK) — on which subchains are built — and all liquidity is connected by an aggregation layer.

In recent weeks, Polygon announced:

B2, a CDK chain focused on building rollups for Bitcoin OEV network, CDK chain aims to capture all oracle extractable value (OEV)

Hypr, the CDK chain focuses on games

Libre, the CDK chain dedicated to issuing tokenized assets to institutions

FireDrops, the CDK chain is designed to serve customer loyalty activities for FlipKart, India's largest e-commerce platform.

And all the other major L2 blockchains are following the same path. For example, what Polygon calls CDK is called “Op-Stack” by Optimism.


Blockchain is based on OP Stack. Source: CryptoRank

The paradigm shift is brutal, and 2024 promises to be a major battle, as many specialized subchains and business development teams from each of these major L2 blockchains will compete in the same segment.

With that said, 2024 has everything to do with being the year that the great applications of Web2 finally appear in Web3.

The year will mark the beginning of a retention cycle, where companies and users will begin and continue to incorporate blockchain into their daily lives.

This will be the year of the L2 blockchain and, therefore, the biggest year yet for the Ethereum network.