Spending my career in the tech industry, when Ethereum entered the scene, I was immediately interested. I followed the expanded use cases Ethereum brought to blockchain closely and purchased Eth in 2015. As more time went on, I began to truly understand the potential implications of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, particularly for the gaming space.
After a few years of observing market fluctuations and the emergence of additional uses for the technology, like blockchain gaming, on September 13th, 2021 I began my professional journey in the space as the COO of Stardust.
The Bull Market
Coming from the world of big tech and walking into the world of cryptocurrency was like walking into the Wild West. When I entered the industry, Bitcoin was trading at over $47,000, Ethereum was trading at an all-time high of $3,280, and the NFT market was exploding. The sentiment in the space was unbridled optimism, with many people convinced of their expertise in predicting the market and guaranteed financial success. The tight knit crypto community would flock from city to city each week for a different conference where it would ride the wave of optimism and growing success.
Meanwhile, back at the Stardust office (it was a closet) in Palo Alto, a very different approach was being taken. Rather than chasing the hype, we were focused on building out our process as a big company would. We made the plan to expand our team of 6 by adding experienced veterans who wanted to learn crypto but could take their expertise to build a scalable business in Web3. We wouldn’t have a token and we wouldn’t build our blockchain. We began the process to obtain the licenses we would need to offer a fully custodial wallet solution. At Stardust, the focus has always been on building blockchain infrastructural tools for games that allows for security and scalability that will still have the interoperability of decentralized blockchains.
We were not only making immediate plans but detailed plans for the long term. For an industry built on unprecedented speed, our deliberate and slower approach may have left a few people questioning our sanity.
The First Crash
By early February 2022 the market began to drop and it was clear that we were in for a larger correction than anyone had anticipated.
While the market was crashing, Stardust’s momentum gained traction. We continued to execute on our plans through expanding our team with the right people for our goals, signing clients like Tilting Point, and starting the process of establishing the brand at industry events starting with GDC.
We continued to do what we have done since the beginning: we focused on the product and the long game.
The Stabilization
The market recovered relatively quickly from the February crash, and once again, the sentiment in the space was incredibly optimistic and people were convinced that we were through the wilderness.
It seemed as though the industry had learned its lesson from the previous crash and had become much more measured in its approach. The focus seemed to shift more in the direction of products and apps being built around the technology rather than the hype of the crytpo market.
The Bear Market
In May, the market began to correct for a second time. The onslaught of inflated tokens, lack of real tools being built, and some decisions that had been shrouded from the masses came to the forefront.
Over the course of 2022, the industry has gone from a state of unchecked exuberance to one of introspection and in many cases, fear. The sentiment shifted from optimism to caution, separating those who are here building for the long term from those who are solely here to make a bunch of money quickly.
Despite all the negativity, during the bear market, the ecosystem and uses for the tech have grown immensely. The focus went from coins to blockchain games, token gated commerce communities, DAOs, real blockchains that work and are scalable, analytics, and SAAS tools. The industry is now centered on infrastructure in Web3.
The Next 12-18 Months
Now that the bear market has forced industry consolidation and changed the overall sentiment, people focusing on long term building are no longer the outliers. The focus has shifted to developing scalable products and services in Web3 that solve real-world problems. People are building apps and tools because there is now an actual use for the blockchain, which is the most exciting part of Web3.
The next 12-18 months will be critical for the industry. The market may go up or down, but this is the beginning of a new era for crypto. The more companies we have building this way will usher in the next era for Web3, one where we will see mass adoption of blockchain technologies because they provide real value to people in their everyday lives.
About Stardust
Stardust is a SaaS, blockchain agnostic, platform that offers a seamless “low code” integration of NFTs for game studios. To learn more, you can schedule time with our sales team here.
