A mature investor must always remain paranoid. Even if you are optimistic about a project, you should regularly examine: is its moat still strong? Are there new and unexpected challengers emerging?
In my opinion, WalletConnect's biggest enemy is the strategic mistakes it may make itself. But looking externally, who are its opponents?
They are not the second-rate projects that want to replicate its code, which pose no threat. The real challengers come from two other dimensions:
The first is the rise of the 'no wallet' experience.
You may have already encountered some dApps that allow you to log in directly with your email or social accounts, and then automatically generate a wallet for you in the background. This kind of 'account abstraction' or 'embedded wallet' solution (like Privy, Magic.link, etc.) greatly lowers the entry barrier for new users. They seem to bypass WalletConnect.
But I believe they are not mutually exclusive; rather, they are complementary. This solution addresses the 'zero to one' account creation problem, but when users grow up and want to truly control their private keys or manage assets across multiple dApps, they will ultimately still need a 'main wallet' like MetaMask or TP that connects via WalletConnect. Embedded wallets expand the user base, while WalletConnect serves all users within that base who have 'awakened' their sense of sovereignty.
The second is the tech giants' 'walled gardens'.
For example, will MetaMask, with its large user base, forcibly promote its own closed connection standard? It's possible. But this goes against the open spirit of Web3. History has repeatedly shown that in the infrastructure layer of the internet, open standards ultimately prevail over closed ecosystems (think TCP/IP vs. AOL). Developers and users will naturally lean towards more neutral and universally applicable choices.
So, what’s the conclusion?
WalletConnect's rival is not a specific product but a kind of 'paradigm shift'. Unless a completely new technology emerges in the future that can fundamentally disrupt the 'self-custodial wallet + dApp' interaction model, its standard status is unlikely to be shaken.
As an investor, I need to remain vigilant, but so far, I have not seen the cloud that could overturn an aircraft carrier.