7 Predictions for Web3/AR in 2024
Visit Medium for the full article: https://medium.com/@robbyoso/7-serious-3-joke-predictions-for-web3-ar-in-2024-b4576bd24cbb
Photo Cred: Illust
Peering out through the window of the flight I’m currently on, I’m greeted with a refraction of light and matter that gives a sense of perceived reality. Since I returned my crystal ball to amazon a couple years back due in part to false advertising, this window off my left shoulder will have to make do.
February, 2024 will mark Illust’s 4th company birthday. We’re a young company but we’ve seen things, all kinds of things. Booms, busts, irrational exuberance, tempered optimism, culture vultures, real ass people coming and going, jokers, thief’s, soothsayers, snake oil, and true value.
As a forewarning for the forward looking, these are predictions I’m throwing into a hat, we shall see what 2024 decides. And like my crystal ball, you will not be able to return these predictions back to the manufacturer (but you can email me with your review). Alright let’s get down to business, here are my:
7 predictions for Immersive Tech/Web3 in 2024
1. Mobile AR > wearable AR
Mobile AR will be the winner, sorry wearables, we’re not ready for you yet. We will see Niantic, Snap, and of course Illust’s geofencing and AR content deployment tech launch new forms of artwork, customer engagement, and business solutions that will dwarf what’s happening in the VR/XR world.
2. Apple Reality Pro too early but not for artists
On that note, Apple’s Reality Pro will be too esoteric for the standard consumer market. Artists will be pumped, find it incredibly useful, but everyone else will see it as a flop. But this is Generation 1, let’s see what people are saying around generation 4.
Photo Cred: Gravity Sketch
3. Generative art gets smart
A new form of crypto artwork will take the NFT world by storm…contextual compute. Contextual compute will give art collectors the ability to generate artwork by tying external variables such as the time of day, location in the world, growth of the S&P 500, etc.. to the specific attributes of the work of art such as color, reflections, and animations. Pair this with NLP soup and we’ll be in for some pretty exciting generative works of art.
Photo Cred: https://enter-realm.medium.com/
4. Loyalty fatigue
Crypto’s going to have a love/hate relationship with loyalty programs. Loyalty program fatigue will set in as it will seem like every blockchain startup will be targeting this category. However, we will see major implementations from major brands and artists. We’re going to hear the words NFC and customer engagement a lot in 2024 so get ready (sorry we’re not sorry).
Photo Cred: IYK x Decrypt
5. Rentabile Digital Collections
Digital artists and collectors will try to rent their collections a la “rent the runway”. Borrowers will be able to outfit their avatars, display collections in galleries or places of business, and hell, maybe we’ll see some digital works rented and placed in a major Las Vegas hotel. We’ve seen this with virtual real estate in decentraland, let’s see if it plays out in the art/fashion world.
Photo Cred: Artnet x KAWS
6. Money ain’t cheap
(I hope I’m wrong here) Interest rates will not go down because of further supply chain instability and political unrest concerns. We may see funding for AR/Web3 start ups continue to rise from the bellows of 2023 but it won’t be to the tune of 21’/22’ levels. Fellow founders, easier cash may be a 2024 mirage, austerity and core principles still remain supreme.
Photo Cred: Xinhua News Agency
7. Royalties are key
This prediction is subjective, though it was one of the core value propositions that moved Tim (my business partner) and I into the blockchain space. Speculators and inefficient markets have stifled this particularly unique blockchain feature but I believe 2024 will see a demand from creators that minted works honor fully the royalty structures and builders will be focused on creating systems that foster this uniquely blockchain value prop.
RIP MF DOOM, On-Chain Royalties Enforced through Illust.
For shits and giggles:
Felt like having a little fun here. We shall see but wouldn’t be surprised if:
Steve Aoki will give fans on the receiving end of a cake to the face a POAP that tokengates his A0k1verse.
On-chain pyramid scheme will claim to be parody/art to avoid legal problems.
Art Basel Miami 24’ will ditch Solana as their sponsor for the highest protocol bidder (as they did to Tezos in 23’). I’m going to guess 24’ will be another protocol, let’s go with Avalanche FTW.
And with that, I want to thank y’all for checking out my predictions. Just about de-plane so windows are back up and it’s time to get back to building.
