KBW2024: Chain Abstraction, Modularity, AI and Alt Layer 1s Reign Prominent

cryptonews.com:

Tanzeel Akhtar has been covering the cryptocurrency and blockchain sector since 2015. She has written for the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, CoinDesk and Bitcoin Magazine.

Korea Blockchain Week (KBW2024), held between September 1-7 in Seoul, drew in attendees from all over the world, making it one of the premier blockchain and Web3 conferences in Asia.

Organized by FACTBLOCK and co-hosted by venture capital firm Hashed, the event showcased developments in blockchain, decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and Web3.

Discussions and side events centred around the growing intersection between blockchain and traditional finance, with topics like asset tokenization, crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and stablecoins taking centre stage. Here is a rundown of what people were discussing during the week-long event.

Speaking to attendees on the ground at KBW2024 in Seaoul there were a few interesting themes which seemed to dominate discussions and meet-ups.

“Chain abstraction, modularity, alt Layer 1s reign prominent,” Burnt Banksy, XION core contributor told Cryptonews, explaining that a lot of the focus at the event is mainly on infrastructure due to the market being down.

For those unfamiliar, modularity in blockchain is the ability to separate different components of a blockchain system into individual, customizable parts. The chain abstraction process separates the application layer from the underlying blockchain infrastructure. However, one VC had a different opinion on Layers 1s dominating.

“We observed a contrast in the infrastructure sector. New Layer 1 or Layer 2 and middleware initiatives were less prominent, suggesting a potential saturation point in this area,” said Kenzi Wang, the co-founder of