In the evening, I casually flipped through past moments and was suddenly moved by myself. Let me also tell a story based on time and see how many brothers and sisters can resonate with me!
🔽2009-2013: The beginning of everything, a spark
On January 3, 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto mined the first block. At that time, very few people knew what Bitcoin was; it was just a novelty toy in geek forums. But its genes were revolutionary: decentralized, self-controlled assets. In 2013, Vitalik Buterin threw out the Ethereum white paper, stating that blockchain could not only transfer money but also run programs (smart contracts). Many people thought it was a pipe dream, but a seed of 'reconstructing trust' was planted. Old players remember that back then, if you lost the private key to your wallet, you really lost everything. It was painful, but it taught us what it truly means to 'manage your own assets.'
🔽2014-2019: Building Roads Amidst Bubbles and Curses
In 2015, the Ethereum mainnet went live. Soon after, the ICO frenzy of 2017 came. A white paper could raise tens of millions, and air projects were rampant. That was the first nationwide carnival and the first large-scale harvesting. In the same year, a CryptoKitty clogged the entire Ethereum network, and people realized: this technology was still far from practical. The frenzy subsided, leaving a mess. But some people continued to build. In 2019, did you hear about Uniswap and Aave? Back then, they were still niche, using “liquidity pools” instead of exchanges, executing loans with code. Many people didn't understand and thought it was another bubble. But looking back now, that was the foundation of DeFi being gradually laid out in the fog.
🔽2020-2021: Crazy Acceleration and Identity Awakening
The “liquidity mining” of 2020 completely ignited DeFi. The locked amount exploded, and annualized returns of thousands of percent made people's blood rush. It felt like if one did not participate for a day, they would be abandoned by the times. In 2021, it was the turn of NFTs to break out. Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) became social capital, and NFT avatars flooded Twitter. Art, avatars, music—everything could be an NFT. Web3 became the hottest trend, with capital and newcomers flooding in. But beneath the feast: project teams rug pulling became the norm, contract vulnerabilities caused money to evaporate in an instant, and the boot of regulation hung overhead. It was an extreme FOMO (fear of missing out), with everyone rushing forward while feeling anxious inside.
🔽2022: Before the Abyss, After the Gaze
What is meant to come will come. In May 2022, the death spiral of LUNA and UST gave everyone a heavy lesson on the risks of algorithmic stablecoins. A market cap of hundreds of billions turned to zero in just a few days. In November, the centralized exchange giant FTX collapsed, and user assets were misappropriated. The old saying, “Not your keys, not your coins,” was etched into everyone's heart in a bloody way once again. The total market cap was halved and halved again, the winter was biting cold. But it was also in this year that speculators left, and builders remained. People began to seriously look at code, teams, and real applications, and discussions on regulatory frameworks started to accelerate. The bubble burst, but the foundation became more solid.
🔽2023-2025: Through the Fog, Towards Integration and Infrastructure
In 2023, Europe's MiCA legislation arrived, and the US SEC began to strike hard. Compliance is no longer optional; it is a matter of life and death. Technically, Layer 2 (like Arbitrum) finally made Ethereum transaction fees negligible. More importantly, real-world assets (RWA)—government bonds, real estate—began to be massively tokenized on-chain. Blockchain started to truly touch the core of the traditional world.
In 2024, did you see BlackRock and JP Morgan, these giants, enter the market? They brought traditional capital and users. Uniswap V4's “hook” made the trading market smarter. AI and blockchain also began to combine.
🔽Arriving in 2025, cross-chain technology matures, and different chains interconnect as easily as sending a text. Metaverse platforms begin to host real concerts and business meetings. More than 30 countries are seriously researching their own digital currencies (CBDC).
Web3 is no longer an isolated concept; it has become a basic infrastructure like water, electricity, and coal, quietly embedded in the foundation of digital life.
💯 Summary
Ten years have passed. We have experienced the myth of overnight wealth and the panic of assets going to zero. We have cursed it as a scam and firmly believed it is the future. From a geek's toy to a capital prey, to now a basic infrastructure module in the mainstream world—this fluctuating decade is an anchor point in our shared memory. In the next decade, the story will shift from “proof of concept” to “mass application.”
What you and I are witnessing is not just a chronicle of technology, but a revolution in the concepts of trust, finance, and digital ownership for a generation. The road continues to extend, but the direction has never been so clear!!!
