The bear market in the blockchain sector is often a challenging time, but it is also an opportunity for projects with long-term vision, resilience, and strong financial resources to demonstrate their value.
Below are some notable major projects built or developed significantly during recent bear market phases (e.g., 2018-2019, 2022-2023), along with an analysis of Altius as a promising project: 1. Ethereum (Developed in the Bear Market 2018-2019)
Overview: Ethereum, having launched in 2015, went through the bear market in 2018-2019 with a significant drop in ETH prices. However, during this period, the Ethereum team focused on developing important upgrades like Ethereum 2.0 (transitioning to Proof-of-Stake) and improving scalability.
Spirit and resources: Vitalik Buterin and the team persevered in research despite market pressures. Funding from early investment funds and the community helped sustain the project.
Achievements: Ethereum became the leading smart contract platform, with thousands of dApps and a thriving DeFi, NFT ecosystem flourishing post-bear market.
2. Chainlink (Built in the Bear Market 2018-2019)
Overview: Chainlink launched in 2017 but thrived during the bear market of 2018-2019. The project focuses on providing off-chain data (oracles) for smart contracts.
Spirit and resources: The Chainlink team, led by Sergey Nazarov, has continuously expanded partnerships with major blockchain projects. The ICO fundraising round in 2017 ($32 million) provided the financial resources to continue development.
Achievements: Chainlink became the leading oracle solution, integrating with Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and many other blockchains, playing a crucial role in DeFi.
3. Polygon (Developed in the Bear Market 2018-2019)
Overview: Polygon (formerly Matic Network) was built during the bear market of 2018-2019, focusing on Layer 2 scaling solutions for Ethereum.
Spirit and resources: The Polygon team, led by Sandeep Nailwal, persevered in developing Plasma technology and later moved to zkRollups. The funding round from Binance Launchpad provided financial resources.
Achievements: Polygon has become one of the leading Layer 2 solutions, with a thriving DeFi, NFT, and gaming ecosystem.
Altius: Prospects and reasons to trust
Altius is a blockchain project focused on optimizing the execution layer, built in the context of a challenging crypto market. Below is an analysis of why Altius is seen as promising, what the project promises, and why it is trustworthy:
Reasons to trust Altius
Strong financial resources:
Altius raised $11 million in a Pre-Seed round from top investment funds like Pantera Capital, Founders Fund, along with other investors like Digital Currency Group, Amber Group, and angel investors from Berachain, Solana Foundation, etc. Successfully raising funds in a bear market shows significant confidence from venture capitalists in Altius's potential.
This funding ensures that the project has sufficient finances to develop technology and expand its team during difficult times.
Spirit and long-term vision:
Altius focuses on addressing the core issues of blockchain: execution speed, scalability, and multi-chain compatibility. In a bear market, when many projects chase short-term trends, Altius opts for a deep technical approach, similar to Ethereum or Chainlink in previous bear phases.
Altius's blogs and whitepapers (e.g., Altius Whitepaper) demonstrate a serious investment in research and development, aiming to create a high-performance execution layer that is VM-agnostic.
Quality team and partnerships:
Altius attracts participation from angel investors from top blockchain projects like Berachain, Movement Labs, and Ethena, showcasing a strong network in the industry.
Altius's posts on X (@AltiusLabs) highlight events like the 'Pit Stop' with participation from Archetype, Pantera Capital, and Founders Fund, demonstrating support from major funds and community-building potential.
Breakthrough technology:
Altius uses three core modules to improve blockchain performance:
Parallel Scalable Storage: Distributed storage reduces congestion.
Instruction-Level Parallelism (ILP): Instruction-level parallel execution.
Application Code Assessor (ACA): Encourages optimized smart contracts.
VM-agnostic capability allows Altius to be compatible with EVM, MoveVM, CosmWasm, WASM, and future virtual machines (zkVM, BitVM), ensuring flexibility and sustainability.
Compared to traditional scaling solutions (rollups, specialized hardware), Altius offers a modular, decentralized architecture that does not require special hardware, reducing costs and increasing accessibility.
The bear market is an opportunity:
Like Ethereum or Chainlink in previous bear markets, Altius is leveraging the quiet market phase to focus on product development and community building. Posts on X like the 'Paddock Club' Ambassador Program show that Altius is actively attracting builders and creators, laying the foundation for future growth.
What does Altius promise?
Web3 performance on par with Web2:
Altius is committed to delivering a smooth user experience (UX), with fast execution speeds, low latency, and no congestion, similar to Web2 applications. This is particularly important to attract mainstream users to Web3.
Multi-chain compatibility and sustainable future:
With VM-agnostic design, Altius can integrate with any blockchain, from Ethereum, Aptos, to Cosmos, ensuring that the project is not limited by a specific ecosystem. This ensures Altius remains relevant as blockchain technology evolves (e.g., zkVM, BitVM).
Decentralized scaling:
Altius emphasizes maintaining decentralization while improving performance, avoiding the centralization risks of rollups or specialized hardware. Sharding architecture and parallel execution allow for horizontal scaling without slowing down the network.
Multi-chain interoperability:
Altius is developing 'cross-chain calls' solutions that do not require bridges, reducing friction and increasing composability between dApps across different chains. This promises a seamlessly connected Web3 future.
Development ecosystem:
With the 'Paddock Club' program and support from major funds, Altius is building a strong community of developers, creators, and users. This sets the stage for attracting dApps and projects to build on the Altius platform in the future.
Why is Altius trustworthy?
The bear market filters out weak projects: Altius stands out in the bear market due to its fundraising ability, quality team, and advanced technology. This is similar to how Ethereum, Chainlink, or Axie Infinity have navigated previous tough phases.
Addressing practical issues: Speed and scalability are the two biggest challenges facing blockchain today. Altius directly addresses these issues with an innovative approach that aligns with the needs of DeFi, GameFi, and SocialFi dApps.
Support from major funds: The participation of Pantera Capital, Founders Fund, and other funds not only provides financial backing but also brings prestige and a network of relationships, helping Altius reach strategic partners.
Long-term vision: Altius does not chase short-term trends (like meme coins or NFT hype) but focuses on blockchain infrastructure, a field with sustainable value in the long run.
Conclusion
Projects like Ethereum, Chainlink, and Polygon have proven that bear markets are opportunities for teams with a strong spirit, solid financial resources, and long-term vision to build game-changing products. Altius, with advanced technology, a quality team, and support from top investment funds, is on a similar path.
The project promises high performance, multi-chain compatibility, and decentralized scalability, laying the groundwork for a fast, smooth, and connected Web3 future. Resilience in the bear market and a systematic development strategy make Altius a project worth watching and trusting.