While many crypto ecosystems focus on decentralization as the core tenet of Web3, Aptos is seeing success with hybrid platforms that blend Web2 and Web3 technologies, commonly referred to as “Web2.5.”

In an interview at the Token2049 event in Dubai, Aptos’ head of ecosystem, Ash Pampati, told Cointelegraph that Web2.5 platforms are earning “tons of revenue” within Aptos. He noted that consumer-focused applications, in particular, are thriving in the network.

Web2.5 is a term used to describe platforms or applications that blend centralized Web2 experiences with decentralized Web3 elements. 

These applications avoid full decentralization,

The challenge of attracting the next million users

While Web2.5 applications address some of the user experience problems for crypto and Web3, Pampati said that one of the challenges in the space remains the onboarding of non-crypto natives to the industry. 

“I think the biggest challenge is trying to predict the next catalyst that pulls forward the next million, 10 million users into crypto. I think there’s a lot of tendency to go and refight old wars,” Pampati told Cointelegraph, adding that founders often move back into concepts like memecoins and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Still, he said, finding the next catalyst to spur broader mainstream adoption will require creating something new. 

Pampati added that collaborating and motivating founders to “see through the corners and not just try to recreate what’s already been created before” remains a challenge. He said that founders should be prepared for the next catalyst.

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