As the saying goes, do not mistake a clear vision for something within reach. Even with a keen intuition for structural shifts, timing remains the most difficult variable to grasp—most changes only become obvious in hindsight. The views expressed here are solely my own and reflect my understanding of current industry trends. I hope you enjoy reading this. I believe that by 2026, you will see the following seven themes in the digital assets and Web3 space. 1. DeFi expands, but the ecosystem loses its gravitational pull I'd like to start by discussing DeFi, as it is often misunderstood in these conversations. I fully believe in DeFi and am confident it will continue to grow significantly. As on-chain finance continues to absorb use cases from traditional markets, total value locked and trading volume are likely to surpass previous cycle peaks.
DFINITY Foundation launches a new $ICP tokenomics whitepaper, aiming to significantly reduce token release under #Mission70, making $ICP staking more aligned with market conventions:
1/ NNS Staking Rewards > Longest lock-up period reduced from 8 years to 2 years > Shortest lock-up period reduced from 6 months to 2 weeks > Eliminate the 13%+ APY for ultra-long-term lock-up staking, and allow short-term lock-up staking to yield at least 2-3% APY > Adjust maturity-to-ICP calculation to incentivize "buy during bear markets, sell during bull markets" (Note: Most major tokens in the market are fully liquid or have staking periods under one week, and no other tokens offer lock-up staking longer than one year; thus, the previous $ICP staking model deviated significantly from market norms)
2/ Node Operator Rewards > Adjust the unreasonable rewards for first-generation outdated node machines > Adjust node reward distribution timing to incentivize "buy during bear markets, sell during bull markets"
Under the new proposal, token release will be reduced by 44%
zCloak 2025: From Technological Depth to Commercial Validation
💌 Dear Community Members: 2025 was a year of breakthroughs and innovation for zCloak Network. Starting from the perspective of infrastructure builders, we focused on the core theme of "trust" and achieved significant progress across product innovation, technological advancements, and ecosystem collaborations. Below are our major achievements and developments this year. 1. Comprehensive Upgrade of the Product Matrix 1. zCloak Money: Redefining Organizational Fund Management zCloak Money, the organizational self-custody fund management infrastructure we launched this year, has achieved official product launch and rapid iteration. The core concept of this product is to significantly reduce the complexity of using organizational wallets without compromising self-custody security.
Overview of zCloak Network's Partnerships in December
zCloak.Money is a multi-signature wallet launched by zCloak Network, the first 100% on-chain, architecturally secure, enterprise-grade passkey wallet designed specifically for decision-makers. With zCloak.Money, enterprises can achieve: ✅ True autonomous management: No intermediaries, no backdoors 🧩 Enterprise-grade multi-signature control: Weighted approval, permissions, and spending limits 🔐 Password security: Biometric login with zero seed risk
Learn more: http://app.zcloak.money Overview of partnerships in December
On December 2, zCloak.Money announced a partnership with UXLINK, the world's largest web3 social platform and infrastructure, building the social growth layer and social ecosystem.
The brutal truth I learned after spending $47,000 and 18 months
In short: I spent $47,000 developing an AI tool used by only 12 people. Here's the real face of the 'AI gold rush,' and why most AI startups are just expensive tech demos. Origin (also known as: How I got caught up in this craze) 18 months ago, I was a well-paid software consultant living a very happy life, then ChatGPT appeared, and suddenly everyone became an 'AI entrepreneur'—my LinkedIn feed was flooded with posts like: 'I built an AI that can complete task X in 10 minutes!'
Speaker Announcement 📢 We are pleased to share that Ronit Ghose, Global Head of Future of Finance at Citi, will be speaking at World Computer Day in Davos on Tuesday, January 20, 2026. Meet the Speaker: Ronit is the Global Head of Future of Finance team at Citi Institute, Citi’s thought leadership unit. Prior to his current role, Ronit was Citi’s Global Head of Banks and FinTech Research. He serves as an Advisory Board member at several technology and VC firms and authored "Future Money", a book on the past, present and future of money. Learn more about #WorldComputerDay:
A month has passed, and I surprisingly mined over 800 LIKE!
On December 2nd, I published an article titled “Discovering Something Fun!” In this article, I introduced the Vly wallet and provided a tutorial on how to use it on the web version of ChatGPT. It also mentioned that mining is possible, and I mined a token called LIKE. Now, after a month, I've already mined 832.96 LIKE! The LIKE token can be claimed once every 24 hours. When claiming, just click “Claim”:
After claiming, click “Start Mining” to continue mining:
The system will start a countdown, displaying “Mining”, which means mining is in progress:
Introduction In recent years, the tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) has been one of the hottest sectors in the cryptocurrency space, with interest peaking as U.S. regulatory policies become clearer. The rise of decentralized finance and blockchain technology, along with the increasing participation of institutional investors in cryptocurrency, has paved the way for various traditionally illiquid or hard-to-access assets - artworks, bonds, real estate, and even private credit - to enter the blockchain. The advantage of RWA lies in its simplicity and appeal: it splits assets that are typically only accessible to institutional investors and high net worth individuals (HNWI) into cheaper 'shares' and presents them in a tokenized form.
zCloak Trust Layer - AI Native Trust Infrastructure for the Digital World
1. Core Dilemma: Trust is becoming scarce Today, AI has fundamentally changed the traditional content economy paradigm. In traditional scenarios, text, images, audio, video, software code, and even legal documents can now be generated instantly and on a large scale by AI. Content creation and dissemination are no longer constrained by the scarce costs, time, or manpower in traditional scenarios. But it is still constrained by trust. With the large-scale adoption of generative AI, individuals, organizations, and even the AI agents themselves face the following crisis: Source of content: Who created or generated this content?
DFINITY joins the MiCA Crypto Alliance to advance open, decentralized blockchain infrastructure.
The MiCA Crypto Alliance is honored to welcome the DFINITY Foundation as part of the collaboration. The alliance has drafted a white paper compliant with MiCA regulations for the native token of the Internet Computer blockchain, ICP.
This work reflects the DFINITY Foundation's ongoing commitment to clear and transparent disclosure of information in accordance with the EU's Market in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulations.
About DFINITY and ICP
DFINITY is a Swiss non-profit foundation dedicated to promoting the development and application of the Internet Computer. It conducts research in cryptography, distributed systems, and protocol engineering, and supports a global developer community building on this network.
Although DFINITY is the primary contributor to the protocol, it is just one of many decentralized participants in the ecosystem, with its proposals needing approval through the Internet Computer's on-chain governance system - the Network Nervous System (NNS).
The Internet Computer is a decentralized Layer 1 blockchain that hosts smart contracts known as "Canisters," which can directly provide interactive web applications from the chain. It offers on-chain computation, storage, and web services, thereby reducing reliance on traditional cloud infrastructure.
The protocol employs chain-key encryption and subnet blockchain technology to achieve efficient validation and horizontal scalability across independently operated node providers. Governance tasks are managed by the NNS, which is responsible for coordinating upgrades and network configuration.
Why This Matters
DFINITY's inclusion strengthens the alliance's efforts to establish shared MiCA compliance standards across first-layer networks and the broader crypto asset market. As the foundational protocol continues to evolve into a critical digital infrastructure, clear, consistent, and verifiable information disclosure becomes increasingly important.
By collaboratively providing consistent sustainability data, transparent technical documentation, and MiCA-compliant white papers, the alliance helps ensure that networks like the Internet Computer can efficiently and credibly meet regulatory requirements.
Looking Ahead
A new white paper for ICP will be released soon as a public resource supporting the implementation of MiCA, with more details to be announced in due course.