It took a while, but 2024 is the year bitcoin fulfills the one million year-end prediction finally reaching $100,000. Uncork the champagne if you want, but I believe that bitcoin breaking this historic barrier is the harbinger of something even bigger, and that 2025 will be the long-awaited Year of Decentralization.
The reason has very little to do with the rising value of bitcoin. Anyone who has had even half an eye on the decentralized technology landscape for the past year will have witnessed an explosion in new use cases. Many are weird, some are cool and some promise to solve some of the biggest challenges facing humanity today. Together, they send the utility of decentralization into the stratosphere through measurable impact rather than mere speculation. Above all, they provide many compelling reasons for people to adopt and ride decentralization by 2025.
Then buckle down, as we whistlestop around my top five predictions for the year ahead.
1. Bitcoin takes over the moon.
It wouldn’t be December without a bold prediction about the price of bitcoin. But instead of throwing out another $250K or $500K number like everyone else, let’s explore a more radical possibility: bitcoin becomes the foundation of a global strategic reserve.
The grounds support this possibility. If a major world power (or an unexpected one) officially adopts bitcoin as part of its treasury reserves, the current price predictions may disappear. We’re not just talking about $500,000; $1 million or more could become the new normal, driven by nations scrambling to secure the world’s rarest digital asset.
Even without geopolitical adoption, bitcoin’s mere scarcity makes it a unique asset. There will only be 21 million BTC, a smaller number than 60 million dollar millionaire all over the world. With institutions and now governments potentially buying up large bitcoin reserves, it will soon be a tiny minority who can hope to own just one — that is, unless they are smart enough to invest early.
Add in the continued growth of bitcoin’s utility as a decentralized network and its role as an alternative to the instability of fiat, and we’re looking at exponential growth.
But here’s the wildcard: what will happen when the price of bitcoin is no longer driven solely by markets, but by countries fighting each other in the race for digital dominance? That’s where things get really edgy. In some countries already piloting bitcoin treasury programs, $500,000 could be a starting point.
2. Depinners get rich quick.
One has to admit it: the crypto industry sometimes does a bad job of selling its vision to the world. Phrases like “financial self-sovereignty” mean little to the average person on the street — unless, of course, they’ve had their close the bank account.
So how’s this for a sales pitch? Decentralization allows you to earn money for doing absolutely nothing. No, it’s not too good to be true, because that’s what the Depinners already do. By using and “farming” your computer resources, like the processor in your phone, anyone can earn passive income by contributing to the new paradigm of decentralized physical infrastructure (DePIN).
The DePIN revolution is a great example of how decentralization changes the concept of ownership and puts (perceived) power in the hands of the people. Equally important, it creates incredible new use cases that solve problems from noise pollution in energy grid management in natural disaster alerts. Although it’s still in its infancy, the near-endless possibilities of DePIN applications mean that by 2025 early adopters will soon earn up to 5% of the average person’s income — all without lift a finger.
3. Memecoins are getting serious.
Here’s a guess for what is not will happen in 2025: “serious” financial commentators still won’t accept that memecoins have any use, or that they are anything more than an internet in-joke gone too far. And they will be increasingly, ridiculously wrong.
In some respects, I can’t really blame them: on the face of it, most memecoins like like a joke, especially the quintessential, ubiquitous DOGE. But ignore them at your peril: memecoins are growing fast and they are evolving far beyond their origins. The value of these tokens is driven less by speculation than by their ability to bring people together in projects from playful in political.
In fact, memecoins have a lot to teach us about the nature of community and participation in the decentralized world. In 2025, we will see brands waking up to the extraordinary potential of memecoins to reach new audiences, foster new communities and reimagine the relationship between businesses and consumers. To be sure, there is money to be made in memecoins — but over the long term, their value to forward-looking brands will be far more significant than their token price.
4. Time Magazine chose Android of the Year.
In 2025, I predict that Time Magazine’s Person of the Year…will not be a person. For the first time in its 98-year existence, the annual award will go to what I call “Mrs Humanoid” — a composite character that symbolizes the rise of AI and robotics, and the integration of both into human society.
This humanoid robot (or “gynoid,” as they are sometimes referred to) represents the incredible impact of this twin technology in various sectors, from healthcare to education, showing of capabilities that blur the lines between human and machine labor. . Time Magazine has chosen some controversial characters in the past (see the 1938 “Person of the Year”), but I don’t think there’s anything unusual about choosing a robot. I would even go a step further and say that it would be irresponsible to no put one on the front cover.
The speed with which robots are emerging should prompt global discussions on the ethics of AI, as well as how work, privacy and human identity are redefined. Many of these changes are incredibly positive, some are still gray or murky, and some are potentially incredibly alarming. Therefore, this conversation must take place alongside climate change as one of the defining issues of our century. The placement of Mrs. Humanoid on the cover of Time will be an important step towards focusing minds, especially regulators and legislators, about how we develop new regulatory frameworks to address the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities presented by advanced that AI system.
5. Traditional search is lost to AI.
Will 2024 be the last year we “Google” something we don’t know? With the advent of Gen AI applications, there is every reason to think so.
Tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity represent the biggest change in search since Google appeared a quarter of a century ago. Using the power of AI not only allows more accurate results, thanks to its ability to understand semantics, but also changes the dynamics of the search.
These new applications pass the Turing Test with flying colors, allowing people to have meaningful conversations about everything from cooking to philosophy. As such, they represent a fundamental shift in our emotional relationship with technology, and make “traditional” search — as demonstrated by Google’s long, near-total monopoly — seem prehistoric.
Just as the emergence of the internet sparked an “SEO arms race” with brands fighting for the most important page of Google’s first result, in 2025 we will see businesses begin to figure out how to stay relevant in the age of AI- powered search.
One of the biggest changes we will see is the evolution of websites, which will increasingly respond to AI agents rather than humans. In 2025, we will see web domains take on new importance, with the most successful brands being those that use onchain domains to safeguard consumer data, integrate AI functionality and deliver revolutionary online experiences for their audiences.
Whether all, some, or none of these predictions come true, one thing is certain — as we move into the latter half of the 2020s, decentralization is no longer the future; it will soon become an inescapable, inseparable part of everyone’s present.
