2024 will be the biggest year in Ethereum network history.

2024 has everything to be the biggest year in Ethereum blockchain history.

In addition to the approval of an Ether (ETH) spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the United States, this year will mark the network's first bull cycle since its merger in 2022.

This update will make ETH invalidate during peak network usage.

Related: An Ethereum ETF Is Coming Sooner Than You Expected

Since the merger, 0.2% of the Ether supply has been burned, and this number will increase further in the coming months due to the increasing use of the network.

In addition, the next Ethereum network update – Ethereum Update Proposal 4844 – is scheduled to take place this year. It aims to make the entire ecosystem of Layer-2s (L2s) built around Ethereum up to 10 times cheaper.

This will be the major turning point in this cycle, and will lead Ethereum and Layer 2 to the biggest year in history.

The idea is simple: without L2s, Ethereum will not scale. And without sub-chains and dedicated business development teams, L2s won't grow as fast as they need to.

What is Ethereum?

To understand this, it's worth taking a step back and asking: What is Ethereum?

Unlike Bitcoin (BTC), Ether is not just an asset with an intrinsic value tied solely to the operation of the blockchain.

Ethereum is more aligned with the idea of ​​a shared and programmable database or decentralized application (DApp) development platform. Therefore, for it to have value, useful applications must exist on it.

Some of these applications already exist and come from Web3, but most come from traditional companies adapting their systems and integrating them with blockchain.

This has never been seen before. What are the top non-native Web3 killer apps on the chain today? How many companies have seriously maintained their on-chain application since the last bull cycle?

The main reason they don't exist is that there are few people who can “think in blockchain”, see a problem and consider blockchain as a solution, or understand tokens well enough to think about business opportunities related to them.

In previous cycles, help to guide those players was consistently unavailable because – due to the broad and agnostic nature of blockchain – most actors were too generic.

As a result, some operations failed to materialize as they competed for space with the meme coins and non-volatile token (NFT) boom.

Companies were eager to experiment with blockchain but didn't know how and didn't know if they needed guidance from blockchain themselves or business development teams from other Web3 companies.

The division of business development is often carried out by region, as a result of which these groups have to meet 20 different sectors, each of which has different needs and complex applications. The result was superficial guidance that destroyed these projects over time.

But in 2024, the game will change.

While there are many leadership positions in large companies – with more mature thinking about how to build on-chain – the blockchain ecosystem is going through a period of specialization.

Related: 3 Bull Market Narratives for 2024 You Haven't Heard Yet

Today, it is clear that the large L2 blockchains are being divided into sub-chains with specific configurations and specific groups and structures.

Chain development kit

Using Polygon as an example, instead of having one general blockchain and regional business development team for all applications, Polygon is branching out into different sub-chains for specific use cases.

Until now, blockchain scaling has had 2 paradigms: monolithic and modular

Introducing the next: Sum

A new solution combining the advantages of monolithic and modular designs by integrating liquidity through secure near-real-time atomic cross-chain txs using ZK proofs.

Feb Mainnet … pic.twitter.com/mE0qssoWyJ

– Polygon | Polygon (@0xPolygon) January 24, 2024

How is this happening? Polygon markets a chain development kit (CDK) – where the sub-chains are built – and all of which are fluidly connected by an aggregate layer.

In recent weeks, Polygon announced:

B2, a CDK chain focused on building coils for the BitcoinOEV network, a CDK chain that aims to capture all OEVsHypr, a CDK chain focused on gamingLibre, India's largest e-commerce CDK chain designed for loyalty functions for FlipKart.

And the same way is being followed by all other major L2 blockchains. What is called a CDK in Polygon is called “Op-Stack” in Optimism, for example.

The paradigm shift is drastic, and in

With that said, 2024 has everything to be the year that Web2 killer apps finally emerge on Web3.

The year marks the beginning of the retention cycle, where companies and users begin and continue to incorporate blockchain into their daily lives.

It will be the year of L2 blockchains and, thus, the biggest year for the Ethereum network.

This article is not intended for general information purposes and should not be construed as legal or investment advice. The views, ideas and opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.