Brian Newar, Cointelegraph’s reporter, spoke with Alex Svanevik (CEO of blockchain data company Nansen) at the Korea Blockchain Week (2022), held in Seoul. They discussed topics such as the upcoming Ethereum ( ETMerge) and how it will impact other blockchains.
According to Svanevik the industry saw a spillover effect during the last bull market. Svanevik stated that newcomers to the blockchain space were not willing to pay high transaction fees, up to $100, to trade nonfungible tokens (NFTs). Nansen CEO pointed out that NFTs were in high demand on other blockchains, where transaction fees are not as high as Ethereum. He explained:
“It will be interesting to see how these other products can continue to have demand, if there was a lot of that spillover effect. It is possible that you have much less usage.
When asked about what would happen to other blockchains following the merger, the executive stated that some may cease to exist. Many chains will likely become ghost towns or ghost chains. Svanevik said that he believes some chains will find their niches.
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Svanevik believes there are chains that can bootstrap their own ecosystems, despite this. Nansen CEO cited Solana ( SOL), Polygon( MATIC), and Avalanche( AVAX). Svanevik pointed out that there are many more chains that have the infrastructure to allow developers to enter their ecosystems. He stated that:
“I believe some chains have reached escape velocity when there is enough infrastructure so they can continue growing more projects.”
Svanevik also described blockchains as cities. The executive said that just like cities have hospitals, law firms, and media, so do blockchains.
Sergej Kunz, co-founder of 1inch, told Cointelegraph during the same event that there is a lot growth potential in the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Market in South Korea. Kunz acknowledged that there are still barriers and challenges to entry. He also noted the inability of many people to use crypto wallets or understand DeFi.
