Three Layer 1 Blockchains Focusing on Innovation

It’s easy to get caught up in the “all crypto that isn’t Bitcoin is a scam” narrative. Admittedly, sometimes, I feel the space is a money grab by greedy developers, influencers, and venture capitalists. And sometimes, I see projects that blow me away in terms of their ingenuity, creativity, and application to ordinary life.

Don’t get me wrong. DeFi is great but risky AF, hard to navigate, and filled with shady, anonymous dev teams. And NFTs were cool in 2021, but today, the most successful projects are cashing in with token launches. Memecoins have some validity, but Pump.fun took all the fun out of memecoins by churning unbelievable amounts of garbage.

Virtuals is a pretty cool concept allowing creators to make AI agents, but so far most of the AI agents have been lackluster. Sui is exciting because it’s like a master-planned project led by an efficient team. Liquid staking is about as exciting as an elementary school talent show. And the gaming space is hyper-competitive and hasn’t created anything better than traditional games.

All this said, I meddle in DeFi, own many NFTs, have numerous worthless memecoins, and FOMOd into the AI agent narrative. Sui has been my best performer in the altcoin space, so I’m a big fan of the project.

I wanted to write an article to inspire me about the altcoin space at a time when most altcoin holders are feeling desperate, restless, and frustrated like I am. So, I challenged myself to find three projects that break the mold and introduce new narratives and economies.

The Criteria

I wanted to find three projects that are all moderately sized. I wanted projects with strong communities and teams. And I wanted projects with tremendous financial upside potential if they succeed. So, without more babbling, here they are (in no particular order).

Project #1: $PLUME

If you haven’t heard of RWA’s (real-world assets), you’ve done a great job not listening, reading, or watching anything about crypto. Everyone is salivating about tying the blockchain to real-world assets. Financial instruments such as stocks, treasuries, and real estate can be tokenized and cheaply traded with finality in seconds if they are tokenized.

But RWAs aren’t just limited to the financial realm. Charities can tokenize and increase their credibility because everything will be recorded on blockchain. Concert tickets can be tokenized, and imagine a secondary market where you don’t have to pay crazy fees to Ticketmaster or StubHub. Degrees, medical records, and even collectibles can be tokenized.

Plume is a Layer 1 in testnet that is built specifically for RWAs. I’m excited about Plume because it has a massive, engaged community. It’s backed by big TradFi names such as Brevin Howard, Galaxy Digital, and Haun Ventures. Further, Plume is already collaborating with Ondo (the most hyped RWA project) and 180 other projects you can see on their website: https://plumenetwork.xyz/.

What excites me the most about Plume is the valuation of the token. Today, the circulating MC is only $298M. This token is a steal Compared to other VC-backed RWA platforms, $Ondo ($3.98B) and Mantra $OM ($7.4B). They did airdrop a lot to their community, but it looks like the recipients are holding, which is a sign of a strong community.

Project #2: $DeSo

DeSo is run by the same developer who created BitClout, a controversial creator platform in the last bull cycle. He took everything wrong with BitClout, X, and Facebook and built a Layer 1 blockchain for social media.

The platform, Focus.xyz, is innovative because, unlike traditional social media, Focus.xyz can’t suddenly remove you. Also, instead of paying to use the platform (see $11/mo for blue check mark), you can earn money by posting and creating your own coin with investor-friendly tokenomics.

I wrote more in-depth about Focus.xyz, This Web3 Social Media App is about To Take Off!. I have created my own creator coin on the platform and have fun promoting it. It’s not for money; it’s more about seeing what can be done. If you want to check it out, it’s the $DEBEVIC token (I know it's very original): https://focus.xyz/Debevic/token. It has a $$3,800 market cap in its first week and took me 2 minutes to set up.

I also love the DeSo valuation. $DeSo is trading at a $90M valuation. Previously, it was listed on Coinbase and had a peak valuation of $880M. Usually, this is a red flag, but holders of this token at these levels have strong convictions. If the dev successfully gets 10M daily active users this year, expect the market cap to increase by many multiples.

Buying $DeSo requires a little bit of effort. However, early adopters who take these extra steps can often be rewarded massively.

Project #3: $PEAQ

Peaq is a layer 1 devoted to building a gigantic DePIN ecosystem. For those unsure, DePIN stands for decentralized physical networks. An example of an app built on Peaq is MapMetrics, which seeks to build a Web3 navigation app (goodbye, big brother). Another one, Farmsent, focuses on giving farmers the autonomy not to be controlled by corporations.

A couple of others that stand out to me are Bistroo, which is looking to combine web3 with a food delivery service. I’d love to stop seeing the annoying Uber Eats commercials and support any project looking to relieve the pain. There is also YOM, which wants to enable gaming rig owners to earn rewards and wants to replace Steam, Farewell, and PlayStation.

I’m sure many of these projects will fail, but I’m excited they are being built on Peaq. The possibilities for DePIN are growing with the proliferation of our digital lifestyles. Peaq can be a leader in this space.

Peaq is only valued at $138M. One challenge is their poor exchange listings. I had to use Crypto.com to purchase $PEAQ. Since it’s a Layer 1, I couldn’t buy it on Uniswap, and it’s not listed on the major US exchanges. Nonetheless, a valuation of $138M seems too low. In fact, many projects in the DePIN sector seem undervalued when considering the possibilities…And you know $FARTCOIN probably deserves a much higher market cap.

Key Takeaways

Layer 1’s are some of the best and safest investments. Even crappy Layer 1’s had a huge upside in the last bull cycle. I believe that everyone is concluding that the future will be multichain. Everything can’t be built on Ethereum, Solana, or Sui.

Each of these projects also applies to different categories. I like diversification because if one narrative runs hard, I can experience the upside and be positioned rather than playing catch up.

In a few months, we should know if now is a good time to accumulate altcoins. I’m down quite a bit on a couple of these, so if you decide to invest, be prepared for volatility. But I’m not looking to dump my coins any time soon because it’s easy to have conviction in these projects and recognize that the market may be punishing them too hard.

Let me know what you think about these. Do you own any of them? Do you think one narrative will prevail over the others? Do you think it’s a dumb idea to buy altcoins today?

Also, please clap and comment, as it helps increase circulation. I appreciate you and value you taking the time to read this.

I own all the coins mentioned in this article. This information should not be taken as investment advice. I haven’t been paid to write this article. Digital assets like crypto and NFTs involve risk, so you should always perform due diligence before investing.

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