Author: ChainCatcher
Finding inner strength in the clamor and sowing hope in the cold tide. As a "newcomer" newly entering the Web3 industry, I was fortunate to participate in the "2025 Hong Kong Web3 Carnival" jointly hosted by Wanxiang Blockchain Laboratory and HashKey Group - my first time attending such a large-scale industry event.
In early April, by Victoria Harbour, with spring winds still shallow, the exhibition hall was surging with heat. When traditional cultural imagery and cutting-edge technology intertwined, I felt the temperature and pulse of Web3 more tangibly than ever before. It was not just an exhibition, but more like a journey from the margins to the core, allowing me to touch the real texture and spiritual undertone of this world.
The four-day carnival featured nearly 40 themed forums, covering multiple dimensions such as technology, compliance, and culture; over 400 experts, scholars, and industry leaders engaged in in-depth discussions around vertical tracks including finance, security, infrastructure, and entertainment.
Combination of "Four Seasons" Theme and Eastern Aesthetics
This carnival used the "four seasons" as a context, depicting the changing of spring, summer, autumn, and winter as a spiritual scroll of the Web3 world. I saw that Web3 is not just a stack of code and protocols, but more a cultivation of culture and spiritual inheritance.
Early Spring Budding, Peach and Plum Competing. The main venue's inscription "A few peach blossoms beyond the bamboo, spring river warm before ducks know" is like the new shoots of the Web3 world breaking through the ground, with the intuition of the bravest first sensing spring. Where the wind rises, some have already ridden the waves.
Scorching Summer, Resolve as Solid as a Rock. "Biting the green mountain without letting go, roots originally in the broken rock" - the summer exhibition area reflects the most solid power of the industry. Amid the noisy and changing market waves, builders still bite tightly to their technological roots, working silently.
Autumn Deepening, Ginkgo Turning Golden. "The world full of joy, only ginkgo not letting down autumn" - paying tribute to those who work silently in the cycle of seasons. Like autumn leaves, steady and never breaking from frost, instead becoming more brilliant when cold approaches. Persisting through cycle fluctuations, moving forward calmly, ultimately blooming the light of harvest in the cold winter.
Winter Approaching, Plum Bones Unyielding. "Swords need to be polished, plum fragrance comes from bitter cold" - the finale of winter pays the deepest respect to all Web3 practitioners. This is a path destined to be full of thorns, with unclear systems and distant users, but it is precisely through every moment of hardship and persistence that the light of the future is nurtured. True builders are tempering their edge in the wind and snow.
Diverse Topics, Demonstrating Web3's Breadth
The most direct feeling upon entering the exhibition area was the continuous expansion of Web3's boundaries. From crypto finance, on-chain infrastructure, and public chain ecosystems to AI, RWA, PayFi, and other technological frontiers, and then to traditional financial institutions' involvement, regulatory compliance, security privacy, digital entertainment, and industrial implementation, Web3 is directly colliding with the complex texture of the real world.
In terms of hot topics, PayFi remained the focus. Traditional financial institutions like HSBC and ZABank discussed Web3 payment practices in roundtables, with the Shanghai Data Exchange and Bosera Fund also exhibiting. Traditional capital's interest in new financial paths is no longer just observing, but substantially landing.
The TON ecosystem had an exhibition area with over ten projects showcasing, covering on-chain transactions, e-commerce, and small games. Compared to last year's high point of having a dedicated forum, this year's more low-key presentation perhaps more realistically reflects its ecosystem's contraction and adjustment in market cycles.
As for RWA, it undoubtedly became one of the most heated keywords of this carnival. The exhibition gathered rich speeches and displays around topics like asset chaining, tokenization paths, and regulatory adaptation. In the forum "RWA Connecting Reality: Anchoring Assets and Digital Galaxy", guests like Plume CEO and Co-founder Chris Yin, Pharos Network CEO Alex Zhang, and Liu Xiaoyu from the Data Asset Management Center of the National Engineering Laboratory for Big Data Circulation and Trading deeply explored possible paths for RWA and digital asset integration. Their thoughts not only provided direction for the industry but also injected intellectual weight into building a trustworthy and efficient digital asset ecosystem.
Newbie Gains: An Immersive Web3 Crash Course
The four-day carnival was like an intense yet inspiring Web3 crash course for me. Whether it was the in-depth speeches by guests on the main stage or one-on-one exchanges with project teams in the exhibition area, each encounter was like opening a new window. What impressed me was that at the crowded exhibition, I met many college students like myself - who came at their own expense, just to personally feel the industry's pulse. This enthusiasm emerging from spontaneous participation might be the most vital annotation of Web3.
The carnival made me truly experience that Web3 has never stood still; it evolves and grows through cycle after cycle. Those truly building this future world are not the hyped concepts or momentarily hot tracks, but the builders who continuously root themselves in technology, seriously consider compliance paths, and deeply understand user needs. Every discussion, every demo makes this industry more real and substantial.
For any newcomer hoping to understand Web3, participating in such an industry event is not just about "obtaining information", but an immersive cognitive update. The strongest feeling is that the density of information and the tension of viewpoints far exceeded expectations. Web3 is not a distant technological revolution; it exists in the current of our era, waiting for more brave individuals to join and co-build.
As the four days of clamor gradually subsided and the exhibition hall's crowd dispersed, the intense discussions and intellectual collisions still echoed. In this carnival full of energy and creativity, Web3 builders transformed their ideals into seeds rooted in the earth through passion and persistence. The budding of spring, the steadfastness of summer, the settling of autumn, and the grinding of winter - each seasonal change witnesses the writing of this era's transformation.
This spring's departure, for me, is both an expansion of horizons and a reshaping of belief. In every future step, I am willing to move forward with more like-minded companions, continuously finding new directions in this world of variables, and bravely facing the wind when it rises.
