In the world of Web3, open-source protocols are not uncommon, but very few have grown from "lines of code" to become the "ecological benchmark supporting 300 million+ connections." WalletConnect has achieved this—this connection protocol, open-sourced in 2018, now covers 47.5 million users, 600+ wallets, and 65,000+ DApps. It has also built a collaborative network of "co-construction, co-governance, and co-sharing" through the WCT token, becoming a "new model" for Web3 infrastructure. Its evolutionary path is not just a story of technological iteration, but also a paradigm of ecological prosperity driven by "open-source empowerment + token incentives."
Open-source is WalletConnect's 'starting advantage.' From the initial launch of the protocol in 2018, the development team completely made the core code public, allowing anyone to view, audit, and submit optimization suggestions on GitHub. This 'open and transparent' model has attracted the attention of global developers—by May 2024, over 1,000 developers have contributed code to WalletConnect's codebase, including many technical experts from leading blockchain organizations such as ConsenSys and Solana Labs.
The participation of developers not only continuously enhances WalletConnect's security performance but also rapidly expands its adaptability: some have fixed connection vulnerabilities in high concurrency scenarios, some have optimized the speed of cross-chain data transmission, and others have actively developed modules to adapt to new public chains such as Aptos and Sui. After the launch of the Aptos public chain in 2023, community developers completed the development of WalletConnect's adaptation module in just two weeks, allowing users to experience DApps on the Aptos chain without waiting for official updates, utilizing existing wallets. This model of 'collective wisdom co-construction' enables WalletConnect's technology iteration speed to far exceed that of closed-source protocols, laying a technical foundation for it to become an industry benchmark.
The 'technological inclusiveness' brought by open-source has allowed WalletConnect to quickly become a 'blessing' for small and medium developers. For small teams, developing a multi-chain supporting connection tool from scratch not only requires a significant investment of technical manpower but also needs to cope with the technological iterations of different blockchains, which is extremely costly. Based on WalletConnect's open-source code, developers only need to conduct simple secondary development to achieve multi-chain compatibility, reducing the development cycle from 3 months to 2 weeks and cutting costs by 80%. A certain emerging DApp developer stated that their team only has three people, and it is precisely by leveraging WalletConnect's open-source code that they were able to support 10+ mainstream wallets at the early stage of launch and quickly gain their first batch of users.
For large institutions, the transparency of open-source code makes security audits more efficient. Leading institutions such as ConsenSys and Binance conducted comprehensive audits of WalletConnect's open-source code before integrating it, officially connecting only after confirming there were no security risks. A blockchain security company's head indicated that compared to closed-source connection tools, WalletConnect's open-source nature improves audit efficiency by 50%, with a more thorough check for security vulnerabilities, which is a significant reason why many institutions choose it.
However, for open-source protocols to continue developing, it's not enough to just have technology—there also needs to be a set of 'value mechanisms' that encourage all parties in the ecosystem to actively participate and collaboratively build over the long term. In 2022, the launch of the WCT token became a key step for WalletConnect to upgrade from a 'technical tool' to an 'ecosystem network.' Deployed on Optimism and Solana, WCT is not only a 'voting certificate' for ecological governance but also a 'value link' connecting users, developers, wallet providers, and DApp project parties, transforming the 'technical value' of open-source code into the 'cooperative value' of the ecosystem.
In terms of governance, WCT allows every holder to 'voice' for the ecosystem. Whether it is the direction of protocol upgrades (e.g., whether to add support for a certain public chain) or the distribution plan of the ecological fund (e.g., which developer projects to fund), all are decided by votes from WCT holders. In 2023, when WalletConnect planned to launch the V2 version, three major upgrade priorities were determined through WCT community voting: enhanced connection speed, cross-chain identity authentication, and multi-device synchronization. After the final version was launched, user satisfaction increased by 40%, and the connection failure rate decreased by 60%, becoming an important upgrade event for Web3 infrastructure that year. This model of 'community co-governance' ensures that WalletConnect's development always aligns with the actual needs of the ecosystem, avoiding market detachment issues caused by 'developer monopolies.'
On the incentive front, WCT makes ecosystem participation 'profitable.' Users staking WCT can receive token rewards and gain priority participation in WalletConnect's internal testing activities to experience new features early; developers staking WCT can apply for support from the ecological fund for protocol integration development or innovative projects; wallet providers and DApps staking WCT can enhance their priority in the ecosystem and receive more traffic recommendations. A certain emerging DApp secured a $100,000 ecological fund through WCT staking for market promotion, and in the first month after launch, the user count exceeded 100,000; a certain wallet team participated in the V2 version testing early through WCT staking, optimizing the connection experience and increasing user retention by 25%.
As of May 2024, over 200 wallet teams and 5,000+ DApp developers have participated in WCT staking, with the total amount staked accounting for 42% of the circulating supply, creating a virtuous cycle of 'the greater the contribution, the greater the returns.' This incentive mechanism has made all parties in the ecosystem shift from 'passive usage' to 'active construction,' allowing WalletConnect's ecological scale to continue expanding.
More importantly, WCT continues to amplify WalletConnect's 'network effect.' The more users stake WCT, the more diverse the ecological governance becomes, and the more aligned the protocol functions are with needs; the more developers stake WCT, the richer the scenarios for protocol adaptation, covering more blockchain and application types; the more wallets and DApps stake WCT, the broader the user coverage of the ecosystem, attracting more new users to join. In the first quarter of 2024, WalletConnect's average monthly connection count exceeded 30 million, a 50% year-on-year increase, while the number of addresses holding WCT also grew by 60%. This phenomenon of 'ecosystem and token resonance' proves that WCT has become the 'core engine' driving ecological development.
For the Web3 industry, WalletConnect's model of constructing a collaborative network with 'open-source + tokens' provides a replicable experience. It proves that an excellent open-source protocol must not only be 'technically robust' but also have a 'reasonable mechanism'—binding the interests of all parties in the ecosystem through tokens, so that shared technology can be converted into shared value, thus achieving long-term prosperity for the ecosystem. In the past, many open-source protocols fell into the predicament of 'developers fighting alone, and the ecosystem gradually quieting down' due to a lack of effective incentive mechanisms; WalletConnect, through WCT, has complemented the 'openness' of the open-source protocol with the 'incentivization' of tokens, paving a sustainable development path.
Looking ahead, with the continuous expansion of the Web3 ecosystem, WalletConnect's evolutionary path continues. It plans to further enhance cross-chain identity authentication features, allowing users to traverse multiple chain ecosystems freely with a single wallet identity; at the same time, it will explore connections with Web2 applications to lower the barriers for ordinary users to enter Web3. The governance and incentive mechanisms of WCT will also continuously optimize as the ecosystem develops, attracting more people to participate in ecological construction.
In summary, the leap from open-source code to ecological benchmark for WalletConnect is fundamentally based on 'technology as the foundation, tokens as the soul.' It breaks down technical barriers through open-source, allowing global developers to participate in iterations; it activates ecological vitality with WCT, transforming all parties from 'users' into 'co-builders,' ultimately constructing a Web3 collaborative network covering 47.5 million users and 65,000+ DApps. In today's fiercely competitive Web3 infrastructure landscape, WalletConnect's model points to a new path of 'co-development of technology and ecology' for the industry, establishing a solid foundation for Web3 to reach the mainstream.
