In the early days of crypto, attention gravitated toward speculation around coins, charts, hype cycles. But as Web3 matures, the spotlight is shifting to something far less visible: infrastructure. The protocols running in the background are no longer just technical necessities, they’re becoming the foundation of the onchain economy, and increasingly, they’re owned by the communities they serve.

Enter the idea of “invisible infrastructure.” The protocols quietly power every wallet connection, dApp interaction, and transaction approval. These backend systems are the routers of Web3, doing the hard work of making things just work.

In Web2, we don’t think about the APIs connecting your credit card to Netflix. In Web3, something similar happens every time you connect your wallet to a decentralized app. Behind that smooth connection, infrastructure handles encryption, security, and cross-chain messaging.

One standout example of this invisible layer is WalletConnect, a protocol that acts as the bridge between over 600 wallets and 64,000+ dApps. Most users don’t realize it, but if you’ve ever connected MetaMask to Uniswap, or Trust Wallet to OpenSea, WalletConnect was likely powering the session.

It enables secure, real-time communication between wallets and apps across multiple blockchains. Chain-agnostic by design, it supports a vision of the internet where no single ecosystem dominates.

And now, it’s going a step further: WalletConnect has launched $WCT, a native token that brings governance, staking, rewards, and protocol fee utility to its ecosystem.

This move turns WalletConnect from passive infrastructure into a participatory network. With $WCT, users and contributors can now help secure the network, vote on decisions, and share in its growth.

Protocols like WalletConnect represent a larger shift in Web3; from hype-driven platforms to community-powered infrastructure. As the financial stack of the internet rebuilds itself on decentralized rails, the role of middleware and communication layers becomes not just technical, but economic and political.

Instead of relying on centralized backbones, we’re seeing protocols hand power back to the people who use them. Infrastructure is no longer static. It’s onchain, tokenized, and increasingly shaped by those it supports.

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