WCT’s Role in the Onchain Economy

Every interaction in the onchain ecosystem starts with a wallet. Whether signing transactions, managing assets, or accessing apps, wallets serve as the critical gateway to digital ownership. But a wallet alone isn’t enough. It needs a way to connect, communicate, and function without friction across an expanding ecosystem, from gaming, finance, marketplaces, social and payments.

This is where WalletConnect comes in. More than just a communications network, WalletConnect is the foundation for onchain interactions, ensuring wallets can operate securely, reliably, and at scale. As onchain activity grows, so does the need for decentralized, efficient, and permissionless connectivity. If you have engaged with the onchain economy you have used the WalletConnect Network.

Wallets and WalletConnect: The Invisible Infrastructure

Since its inception, WalletConnect has served as the backbone of onchain connectivity. Originally an open-source protocol for connecting wallets to apps, it has evolved into an essential piece of infrastructure. Today, WalletConnect enables millions of wallet connections, supporting everything from finance and digital assets to gaming and enterprise applications.

Wallets rely on WalletConnect to establish secure connections, enable multi-chain interactions, and improve UX with transaction signing and execution. The WalletConnect Network is taking this a step further by decentralizing how connections are made, ensuring that no single entity controls the flow of transactions between wallets and apps. This shift is necessary as onchain activity scales, relying on centralized relays is not a sustainable path forward.

The Role of WCT: From Past to Future

What It Was

Since its inception, WalletConnect has played a critical role in the onchain economy but it lacked a mechanism to sustain itself independently. The WalletConnect Token (WCT) was introduced to make decentralization possible, moving beyond a centralized model to a network where incentives drive participation.

What It Is

Today, WCT powers the WalletConnect Network by enabling network participation, governance, and long-term sustainability. Node operators earn WCT for relaying messages, ensuring decentralized and censorship-resistant connections. Token holders shape the evolution of WalletConnect’s infrastructure, ensuring the network remains aligned with the needs of the ecosystem. WCT also establishes an economic model that incentivizes developers, wallets, and apps to contribute to the network’s growth.

What It Will Become

The vision for WCT extends beyond what exists today. Over time, it will expand participation, bringing more wallets, apps, and relayers into the ecosystem, beyond the already huge adoption WalletConnect has seen. It will enable additional use cases, such as staking, reputation systems, and service-level guarantees for network reliability. As the WalletConnect Network matures, WCT will be the foundation for ensuring that wallets and apps remain interoperable without reliance on centralized systems.

Underlying Infrastructure of Onchain Connectivity

Wallet infrastructure is often overlooked, but without it, the onchain ecosystem would not function. As the industry moves toward an onchain-first future, WalletConnect is cementing itself as the essential connectivity layer, ensuring wallets remain the entry point for billions of users.

The WalletConnect Network, powered by WCT, is more than a network, it is the next phase of decentralized infrastructure, designed to meet the demands of the next era of onchain applications. Every wallet connection, every signed transaction, every seamless app interaction reinforces this vision.

With WCT, the network moves beyond reliance on a single entity, ensuring it remains permissionless, scalable, and sustainable. This is the path forward: to become the underlying infrastructure of connectivity.

This content is sponsored and does not serve as an endorsement by Blockworks. The veracity of this content has not been verified and should not serve as financial advice. We encourage readers to conduct their own research before making financial decisions.

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