With the multi-chain world spinning up new chains at an incredible rate, it can be hard knowing which networks to favor – and which to fade. While the proliferation of L1s, L2s, and even L3s has been dizzying to watch, even the staunchest multi-chain proponents will concede they won’t all go the distance.

The blockchains that stand the test of time will demonstrate genuine innovation, solve real-world problems, and have real-world users. The sort of users who are incentivized to stick around rather than extract what value they can before moving on to the next shiny thing. The following L1s meet this standard through a combination of novel technology and genuine utility that can’t be replicated elsewhere. Expect to be hearing a lot more from them this year.

EOS

EOS isn’t new but it has been reborn under the stewardship of the EOS Network Foundation, which has transformed the smart contract chain into a community-centric model. This has not only served to further decentralize EOS, but the introduction of an EVM implementation has brought its eco in from the cold, allowing it to connect to Ethereum and for liquidity to flow both ways.

The high throughput and ultra-low fees that were always synonymous with EOS remain in place. But now, there’s a slew of DeFi protocols taking shape on the EOS EVM, allowing users to participate in staking, lending, and liquidity mining. With a tendency to ship fast and react faster still, EOS Network Foundation has forced the industry to rethink everything it thought it knew about EOS. Expect plenty more surprises and integrations from EOS as 2024 grinds into high gear.

Namada

Crypto badly needs privacy, but the spate of privacy coin delistings by centralized exchanges shows that regulators are still wary of blockchains that enforce anonymity at the protocol level. The solution lies with opt-in privacy, allowing users to cloak specific transactions while publicly broadcasting others. Namada is a new protocol that takes this concept and makes it multi-chain, allowing assets to move between blockchain ecos.

One of the most compelling aspects of Namada is that its tech can be retrofitted to existing chains: no hard forks or protocol upgrades are required. Using shielded sets, Namada enables fungible and non-fungible tokens to be cloaked, providing a way to transfer tokens while retaining on-chain privacy. With its mainnet poised to launch soon, Namada’s take on private transactions is about to be tested in the wild.

SSV.Network

While technically a layer1 protocol rather than a blockchain, SSV is nevertheless live on mainnet and delivering the sort of tooling that’s synonymous with the best L1s. Think open source design, robust tokenomics, and incentives for third-party devs to create dapps that operate on top of SSV.Network. But what does SSV do exactly?

It’s in the staking game, specifically Ethereum staking. As one of the pioneers of Distributed Validator Technology (DVT), SSV is strengthening and decentralizing the staking industry by allowing multiple entities to operate a validator. This provides redundancy, fault tolerance, and reduces creeping centralization. Its tech is already being integrated by staking giants such as Lido, while an array of dapps have been launched powered by SSV’s technology. With its mainnet barely six months old, SSV is just getting started.

Mantra

MANTRA is a permissionless chain for permissioned finance. That might sound contradictory, but there’s rationale in MANTRA’s approach to DeFi. The Cosmos chain aims to provide a framework for compliant financial innovation to flourish. This entails combining the power of open networks and global access with protocols that accede to regulatory requirements, allowing TradFi and DeFi to mix.

The creation of a compliant blockchain supports a much broader range of applications than DeFi can otherwise offer: think RWAs, synths, collateralized lending, and yield-bearing vaults. The benefit to protocols building on MANTRA is reduced compliance costs and regulatory burden, freeing devs to focus on their core product. Users, meanwhile, can enjoy less friction since there’s no need to undergo KYC with each platform they wish to trade on. MANTRA is proving that permissioned finance can exist onchain without impairing everything that makes DeFi so great.

Camino Network

We are entering the era of app-specific blockchains, in which networks are designed for highly specific tasks. In the case of Camino Network, it’s the travel industry being served through a dedicated web3 network that aims to fix many of global travel’s pain points. A combination of outdated tech, siloed s, and pricing inefficiencies have rendered the travel industry ripe for disruption. Camino believes it’s found the formula through an open source network that provides greater transparency, efficiency, and fairness.

As the first blockchain for travel and by travel industry veterans, expectations are high that Camino can utilize web3 to engender change that will benefit not only travel companies, but travelers too. The focus is on B2B, with Camino forming a single source of truth that will connect a range of travel products, from flights to hotels. If it succeeds in this endeavor, the rewards for being the first web3 project to take on the trillion dollar travel industry are huge.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

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