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2022 Forbes China Web3.0 Innovation Pioneer List Released

Forbes

2023-01-11 19:55

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Original Title: "Innovation as the Spearhead, Pioneering Forward | "2022 Forbes China Web3.0 Innovation Pioneer Selection" Released"

Original Source: Forbes

Foreword

Anything only becomes so important when it actually happens.

2022 is a year where black swans and gray rhinos are competing in the field of digital economy.

"Metaverse" is gradually moving from concept to reality, but the shipment volume of Oculus has entered a bottleneck period; more and more content creators are engaged in digital art creation, but the trading volume of non-fungible digital tokens (NFTs) has experienced a cliff-like decline; in the "decentralized finance" (DeFi) scene, protocols based on mutual trust between platforms can reduce barriers and begin to focus more on the pursuit of product services and value innovation, but this cannot prevent billions of dollars of stablecoins from being redeemed.

As one of the exploration directions of the next generation of the Internet, Web 3.0, although controversial and with a fuzzy boundary, is undeniably starting with blockchain, consensus protocols, smart contracts, etc., trying to improve the relationship between data creators and platforms, and allowing users to control their digital identity and assets, thereby providing important support for the integration and development of digital economy and real economy. The new era of digital economy and the Internet based on trust mechanism, represented by Web 3.0, which connects the virtual world and the real world, is emerging, which makes traditional investment institutions eager to try.

Nowadays, Web 3.0 has begun to outline the appearance of the next generation of the Internet, and this market will become clearer in 2023. The era dominated by Wall Street will come to an end, and the power of Asia is expected to rise again. Web 3.0 will return to value innovation led by technology, and it will not only be a simple innovation of the Internet application layer, but may also change people's lives, business, and transaction methods, and give birth to the next generation of Chinese companies that change the world.

So far, only a few pioneers have truly immersed themselves in the Web 3.0 field, and their commonality lies in their belief in technological revolution and the disruptive power of technology. Therefore, Forbes China, in collaboration with Foko Unlimited, has launched the "2022 Forbes China Web 3.0 Innovation Pioneer Selection" to seek out innovative enterprises in the Web 3.0 field that create value and showcase how the current Web 3.0 wave is shaping a new order with greater autonomy.

Standing in the torrent of on-chain applications, we believe that these optimistic, diligent, brave and practical entrepreneurs have a natural connection with the spiritual and adventurous Web 3.0. We will also observe from here, what expectations will those who are constantly pioneering in Web 3.0 bring to the industry?

Evaluation Interpretation

There are various definitions of Web 3.0 in the traditional industry, and the concepts are also diverse and constantly changing with technological advancements. Simply put, if Web 1.0 was the "read-only" era and Web 2.0 was the "read-write" era, then Web 3.0 has become an all-encompassing term for a newer and better vision of the internet. Its emergence aims to make the internet more decentralized and secure through the design of new technical protocols and the construction of new infrastructure, while allowing users to control their digital identities and assets. Therefore, Web 3.0 is not just a simple innovation in the application layer of the internet, but also a comprehensive evolution and systematic upgrade of the internet system architecture to some extent.

According to Statista data, in 2021, the investment amount in the Web 3.0 related field reached 30.49 billion US dollars, and the number of VC investments and M&A activities reached 1,349; since 2022, the investment heat in Web 3.0 has continued to rise, with 14.6 billion US dollars invested in this field in Q1. In February 2022, as one of the world's largest venture capital institutions, Sequoia Capital announced the launch of a fund dedicated to investing in Web 3.0 related technology startups, with a fund size between 500 million and 600 million US dollars; at the same time, the well-known American private equity investment company Bain Capital also established a 580 million US dollar cryptocurrency special fund. Taking Coinbase Ventures, where the selected candidate Emily Choi is located, as an example. The bull market effect in the cryptocurrency market in 2021 has promoted the rapid expansion of Coinbase Ventures' investment map, with a total investment of nearly 150 transactions in the past year, averaging one new investment every 2.5 days. Since 2022, Coinbase Ventures has completed about 150 investments again, completing more than 70 investments in the first quarter alone.

But behind the active capital is also "different strokes for different folks". By mid-2022, some well-known projects that were once seen as Web 3.0 have collapsed one after another. First, the cryptocurrency Luna crashed, with its price dropping from nearly $90 to less than $0.00015 in just a few days; Axie Infinity, once the "king of P2E blockchain games", also saw its game token SLP plummet to $0.005 overnight, a 99% drop from its highest point; even the cryptocurrency trading platform FTX, which was once valued at $32 billion, recently collapsed... From these cases, it can be seen that the development of the market not only requires capital support, but also official guidance.

Currently, China is exploring a development path for Web 3.0 that is in line with its own national conditions, striving to achieve a balance between trends and risks. Although its regulation of the blockchain industry continues to be strengthened, it also attaches great importance to the positive role of Web 3.0 in industrial development, and gradually forms a path of integrated development of technology industry services and physical industries.

Starting from 2020, China not only included blockchain in the "14th Five-Year Plan" outline and coordinated its layout, but also actively issued relevant policies from the perspective of the basic national conditions, emphasizing the combination of various fields and blockchain technology to accelerate the development of blockchain technology and industry innovation. Various official departments and many provinces and cities continue to increase their policy support for blockchain, comprehensively promoting the empowerment of the real economy by blockchain technology.

In July 2022, the Shanghai Municipal People's Government Office issued the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Shanghai's Digital Economy", proposing to break through a number of key technologies including blockchain. In the key tasks, the plan emphasizes the significant value of blockchain in developing new digital industries, especially in the field of digital finance. On October 31, the Hong Kong Financial Secretary officially released the "Policy Statement on the Development of Virtual Assets in Hong Kong", clarifying the Hong Kong government's policy stance, regulatory policies, and trial plans in establishing the virtual asset industry and ecosystem. As one of the selected candidates and CEO of a Hong Kong virtual asset trading platform, Wu Weiliang has also made contributions in further improving the norms of the Hong Kong crypto industry, attempting to make virtual asset investment safer and more convenient.

There is a saying in the industry: "Elites are flocking to Web 3.0." From the thirty selected candidates in this selection, it can be seen that they mostly graduated from world-renowned universities, have extensive academic backgrounds or investment experience, and "internationalization" is their common "label". Their company's business scope covers China Hong Kong, the United States, South Korea, Singapore and other places. In addition, the selected candidates also reflect the commonality of "strong alliances", and most of the projects are supported by top VCs such as Sequoia, KPCB, and Source Code. It is worth mentioning that female founders are also gradually emerging in the Web 3.0 field - from the gender ratio, female selected candidates account for about 20%.

Additionally, China is one of the countries with the most internet technology talents in the world. Currently, in Singapore's Web 3.0 talent structure, there is a gap in developers, while China not only has abundant application-oriented technology talents, but also a large number of underlying infrastructure developers. Some believe that if China can effectively leverage the resources and potential of the internet, it may be able to "seize the bridgehead of global Web 3.0".

From the architectural perspective, Web 3.0 has preliminarily formed an architecture that includes infrastructure layer, basic layer, extension layer, and application layer. At the same time, with the interaction of digital identity and digital object assetization, a new system that supports the integrated development of the real economy and the digital economy is gradually forming while ensuring security.

First of all, the infrastructure layer adapts the protocol stack logic rules, reshaping the forms of computing, storage, and communication, and promoting the evolution of network architecture towards security, flexibility, and scalability. Taking the MAP Protocol launched by James Cheng as an example, it is a provable decentralized full-chain infrastructure that uses LightClient and zero-knowledge proof technology to build, which is both a non-privileged role in cross-chain processes and a full-chain infrastructure that can cover all heterogeneous chains and EVM chains.

Secondly, in terms of expanding applications, Web 3.0 projects often use digital wallets as an entry point, connecting different fields such as finance, social media, media, games, and continuously innovating application models.

On the payment level, as a leading compliant cryptocurrency payment enterprise, Alchemy Pay is the developer of the global "fiat-cryptocurrency" hybrid payment solution, committed to solving the problem of stitching together cryptocurrency and fiat currency. In terms of specific applications, the projects under the selected include: WECO LAND, a metaverse infrastructure product that provides WorkFi for the GameFi entertainment community; Hyperorcale, a new generation of zero-knowledge oracle network that enables automated, decentralized machine learning, decentralized quantitative finance, DiFi 3.0, and other applications through mathematical security guarantees rather than voting; and Registry3, which creates a domain name allocation framework that promotes fairness and openness in Web 3.0 and can accelerate the large-scale application of Web 3.0 domain names through a complete internal toolkit.

Finally, from a security perspective, Web 3.0 provides an opportunity to get rid of past network security errors, and information security professionals who realize the potential of this technology have already invested in it. For example, MetaTrust Labs, selected this time, has long focused on Web 3.0 security solutions. With its automated security toolchain and intelligent code auditing services, it prioritizes security and compliance in the development lifecycle.

Currently, Web 3.0 is still in the exploration stage, and there is a lot of uncertainty and risk in this field due to the immaturity of technology and global regulatory environment. We will continue to pay attention to the industrial opportunities brought by Web 3.0 technology innovation, as well as the layout and development of related internet companies.

Selection Method

This selection adopts two methods: public registration and institutional recommendation to solicit candidates. The candidates are comprehensively evaluated from dimensions such as project market value, innovative application scenarios, candidate's education background, candidate's entrepreneurial or investment experience, recognition from investment institutions/ invested enterprises and other third-party institutions, and contributions of products or projects (investment projects) to the Web 3.0 related fields. Finally, thirty "Web 3.0 Innovation Pioneers" were selected.

The complete selection results are as follows, and the ranking is not in any particular order:

The following are some selected "Web3.0 Innovation Pioneers" and their introductions:

施襄 Shawn Shi；Alchemy Pay

Shawn Shi; Alchemy Pay

Alchemy Pay is the developer of a global "fiat-cryptocurrency" hybrid payment solution, serving customers in over 70 countries and regions, and compatible with mainstream international payment methods such as Visa/Mastercard/PayPal, as well as localized payment methods in various countries.

Charles Wayn & Harry Zhang；Galxe

Galxe is a Web 3.0 credential data network and one of the important projects in the DID field, with a market value of 600 million US dollars. It is built on an open and collaborative infrastructure, using digital credential data and NFTs to help Web 3.0 developers build better products and communities.

Wu Weiliang; Hong Kong virtual asset trading platform

The Hong Kong virtual asset trading platform actively promotes industry compliance and the development of virtual asset licenses, making investing in virtual assets safe and convenient. Its services include a trading platform and digital asset custody services, allowing users to participate in various types of Web 3.0 projects in a trusted environment.

Todd Hessert Jiang; Shiyue Xingcheng

StarHeir is a virtual asset research and operation company that focuses on fashion trends. It has successively incubated and launched a chain of digital fashion brands such as Meta Street Market®, Otamakee, RaRavila, MET@NEGA, and VON11. It has a historical cumulative issuance of 70,000+ virtual goods and has also established and operated multiple brand owner communities. Its investors include NetEase, Kaihui Fund, and Hong Kong New World Development.

Xu Jiawei; Weiguan Internet

WECO LAND is a metaverse project invested in by Eduardo Saverin, the core founder of Facebook, in China. As a Web 3.0 metaverse infrastructure, it focuses on providing WorkFi products for GameFi entertainment communities, using blockchain technology to ensure asset ownership of original content in social communities, so that users' intellectual property and information rights can be better protected.

Wang Yiming; JDI/B.xyz founder

B.xyz is a one-stop financial service platform located in Hong Kong, while JDI is a Web 3.0 underlying infrastructure service provider that provides hardware for Web 3.0 projects such as Helium, DIMO, and Hivemapper. JDI is a leader in the DeWi sub-track.

王家天；Hyper Oracle

Wang Jiatian; Hyper Oracle

Hyper Oracle has received a $3 million investment from Sequoia, dao5, Foresight Venture, and FutureMoney. The company aims to solve various problems in the old blockchain middleware network using new-generation blockchain technology, in order to improve security and decentralization, and lay the foundation for various DiFi 3.0 applications. Its zkMiddleware is a new category in the Web 3.0 zk track.

Nemo Yang；Oxygen

Oxygen is committed to building a marketing and promotion platform based on the core concept of Web 3.0, aiming to become the "Google Ads" for the future. Currently, Oxygen focuses on using machine learning to establish a model of understanding for influencers and a marketing network to help project parties and brands evaluate and match Web 3.0 influencers. Through closed-loop promotion project management, payment management, and effect analysis, Oxygen ensures the reliability and transparency of bilateral cooperation.

James Cheng；MAP Protocol

MAP Protocol is the full-layer of Web 3.0, with cross-chain security that is built on Light-client and ZK technology, and can communicate with all EVM and non-EVM chains, providing secure and smooth cross-chain communication for all chains. With a complete set of SDKs, MAP Protocol empowers dApp developers to deploy across the entire chain, gaining comprehensive user resource advantages.

Li Siyu; FutureMoney Group

FutureMoney Group is a blockchain/crypto technology/Web 3.0 investment firm registered in Singapore in 2018. Over the past five years, it has invested in over 100 blockchain/crypto technology/Web 3.0 projects and is a limited partner (LP) in several blockchain funds. The firm supports innovation in the blockchain/crypto technology/Web 3.0 industry through compliant USD funds, proprietary capital, and extensive content output.

Wang Pengyu; Particle Network

Particle Network is a middleware platform in Web 3.0, with its core product being the MPC login and wallet middleware for developers, allowing end users to log in to Web 3.0 products using various Web 2.0 login methods such as phone, email, Facebook, and Google accounts, and automatically helping users create a non-custodial on-chain wallet.

Cao Heng; Boundary Intelligence

Borderless Intelligence focuses on blockchain technology and application innovation. Its core products include the AVATA multi-chain cross-chain distributed application service platform, the BSN open alliance chain Wenchang chain, and the IRITA product series that supports the next generation of distributed business systems. Borderless Intelligence cooperates with partners such as the Blockchain Service Network (BSN), Asian Digital Bank, Hainan International Cultural and Art Trading Center, and Beijing Cultural and Art Joint to jointly promote the landing application of innovative technologies in the fields of metaverse digital collections, cross-chain services, digital finance, and cross-border trade, and serve the real economy.

刘杨；MetaTrust Labs

Liuyang; MetaTrust Labs

MetaTrust Labs focuses on Web 3.0 security solutions, providing comprehensive and three-dimensional deep security scanning and dynamic protection to empower developers and project teams with security.

Suji Yan；Mask Network

Mask Network focuses on bridging Web 2.0 social media to Web 3.0. Its initial product allows users to post encrypted tweets on traditional social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, protecting their personal information from being accessed by the platforms. It has since evolved to enable decentralized communication, payment, tipping, file storage, and sharing through existing social networks.

董沫；Celer Network

Dong Mo; Celer Network

Celer is a blockchain interoperability protocol that supports cross-chain access to Token, DeFi, GameFi, NFT, governance, and more. Developers can use the Celer inter-chain messaging SDK to build inter-chain native dApps for efficient liquidity utilization, coherent application logic, and shared state.