Earlier this month, a massive data breach exposed the precise location data of millions of users across popular apps including Candy Crush, Tinder, and MyFitnessPal. The breach was particularly alarming because some of the affected apps were VPNs and privacy tools — apps that people trusted to protect their data.

2024 has been an interesting year, one of the milestones of course being Bitcoin finally breaking and going over $100,000. Between the launch of crypto ETFs, crypto’s impact on elections, and the rise of crypto AI agents, it’s been a wild ride. In this year-end review, we’ll highlight the key Web3 trends and developments of 2024 and explore what they mean for builders, users, and investors heading into 2025.

We’re here with a new Dispatch update: Monitor wallets and contracts for balance activity of any token! While we’ve supported tracking for many assets out of the box, we received many requests for monitoring activity of new assets — more than we can keep up with. Starting today, you can add any token contract to Dispatch and track balance changes and threshold crossings for those tokens immediately. 

As Ethereum's scalability challenges pushed transaction fees to record highs in 2021, Layer 2 (L2) networks emerged as the critical solution. Among these, Arbitrum has become a leader of the pack, attracting thousands of developers who are reimagining what's possible when blockchains become fast and affordable.

Discord has become the hub for communities of all kinds. For Web3 communities, it's the go-to spot for everything from sharing alpha and discussing new projects to getting support for products, marketplaces, and devtools. If you’re into Web3 and use Discord, you've likely noticed the proliferation of Discord bots designed to manage communities, track crypto prices, and alert communities about NFT and DeFi activity. However, many of these bots come with a hefty price tag or require coding skills to integrate.

From Velodrome’s innovative platform for trading future DeFi yield to Farcaster's fresh take on decentralized social media, the Optimism ecosystem is alive with innovation. With major players like Coinbase and Sony building their L2s — Base and Soneium, respectively — on the OP Stack, Optimism is hot. Total value locked (TVL) on Optimism Mainnet has soared past $500 million, with around 570,000 daily transactions. 

Base Name Service (BNS) is the primary naming service on the Base network, simplifying how users link memorable names like "bob.base" to blockchain identifiers such as crypto wallet addresses. As BNS domains grew in popularity, managing the increasing number of domain registrations, renewals, and transfers became challenging. The team turned to Dispatchfor efficient domain activity monitoring and real-time updates.