Over the course of just one year, the cryptocurrency market went from investment darling to a headache-inducing nuisance, particularly for the Web3 industry.
Web3, which includes modern concepts like blockchains and the metaverse, lost nearly $4 billion last year due to fraudulence that shook some of the biggest players in the cryptocurrency world, according to Immunefi.
Despite the shock that the industry has faced due to a myriad of reasons, including plummeting stocks and cryptocurrency founders being charged with fraud, it still managed to slash its losses by almost half year-on-year.
Now, Immunefi expects Web3 to overcome blows to its reputation, forecasting the industry to grow from $3.2 billion in 2022 to $81.5 billion over the next seven years.
“Web3 is still a brand new world, full of unknown paths,” said Mitchell Amador, founder and CEO at Immunefi. “That novelty, by definition, brings about a level of inexperience and danger to the game. Furthermore, due to the very nature of the Web3 ecosystem, where smart contract code holds huge amounts of capital, the environment is far more adversarial compared to traditional Web2 applications.”
Because Web3 is still expected to make waves in the future of work, its challenges should serve as major lessons for leaders: invest in security, education and training when incorporating modern tools.