It’s December! Where does the time go?
December in and of itself is rather like a taffy pull of stretched periods and relaxed periods. There’s a lot of rush and bustle as people prepare for various winter holidays, but there’s also plenty of lull periods. It’s in the periods of quiet where I find myself pushing past the present and looking ahead to start feeling out what next year is going to bring.
I’ve found that years that have been especially hard make it harder for me to stay present during the holiday season. Instead of enjoying the lights, family, and food, I end up just wishing it were done already so that I can pivot to what I hope is a better year than the last.
I don’t know what’s more bifurcated right now, the economy or me. I’m ready to pivot into some other direction. You never know; it could be easier to pivot when you don’t have a dime to stand on.
With that in mind, I’m ready to fight the current stasis that comes from both sides of the rubber band getting pulled simultaneously.
There’s only two ways that scenario can play out realistically; either the rubber band gets loosened and things slowly come to center, or the rubber band snaps. Which way will it go?
Nobody knows.
To be honest… either of those outcomes is better than 2025. There’s only so much progress one can make when stuck on a treadmill.
So! It may be early December, but let’s talk about some positives unfolding for next year.
StackR 2 - AKA The Collect Chain
There was a lot of speculation about why Ecomi didn’t appear on Kraken right away, and maybe it was due to regulations. But maybe the reason is because Ecomi is slated to get moved to a different chain and doing it now would be very, very messy.
Why it’s a good thing:
A good crypto chain solves a problem. In this case, it solves multiple problems. Does anyone remember the fallout when OpenSea decided that they wouldn’t honor royalties any longer? Yeah, that burn is still real, and it gave closed digital collecting systems who protected IP owners royalties a very good reason to stay closed.
These rights aren’t hard coded into any of the other chains; early adopters found this out the hard way. Not only that, but having to be on a closed system complicated popular ideas such as possible partnerships with game companies to allow certain collectibles to be used as game skins, or provide certain in-game perks or special moves. It limited the adaptability and all of the use-cases that come with ownership outside of just keeping them locked in the app.
Kraken
Thoughts as to why this matters are dependent on one's perspective. To someone outside of the U.S., maybe the first thought is for better recognition and adoption of the Ecomi token. Some are hoping for an initial pump, and others may be Kraken users that just want to buy it on the platform. Personally, anything that can help how bad the spread is when trying to buy Ecomi on other exchanges is a plus.
Do you know what I’m looking for the most? Better charts. The charting for Ecomi drives me nuts. I’ve been spending my downtime the last few years trying to learn chart basics and crypto basics, but because Ecomi has been moved around so much and is only featured on Bing and OKX where I can’t even trade. Just having charts and orders in the same spot and not having to swap with a wing and a prayer would be good at this point.
More IP Diversity
Yeah, okay, this is more of a wish and hope rather than reality. I realized I have some very eclectic tastes, but the vast majority of pop culture titles I’m interested in aren’t on the platform in any shape and form. Even if we play the “we’ll just stick to 25-50 year old adult men like” game into next year (which I’m not, obviously) there are still a lot of titles out there that aren’t on the platform yet.
In short, I’ll say the same thing that I did last year.
And the same thing I said the year before.
My favorite things to collect aren’t on the platform yet.
And since that’s the case, I can only hope that if we get some new IP of any kind next year… one of them might be one of my favorite things.
Until then, I’ll stick with my uncommon comics, and pray they don’t stop making the only thing keeping me on the platform at the moment.
On Time Surprises
Signed, sealed, delivered. Probably the biggest and most positive thing about 2025 is VeVe’s improved follow through. They have been announcing things when they’re done, giving a timeline, and meeting the timeline. I would put this as the most bullish development of 2025, and hopefully it will continue next year, along with continued improvements in communication.
Unexpected Surprises
We had a few of these in 2025. We had so many right after DesignerCon that I had to push myself to get it all into my last snarky post! I really like that they gave us so much time to absorb the Omi to Gem change, and I like that they're giving us time to absorb moving to a dedicated chain. But during the wait times when we’re just trying to figure out how things are going to work and when the next announcement is coming out, I really struggle with what to talk about on my blog. Unexpected features suddenly rolling through every now and then is just as rewarding, so I hope we get more of these in tandem with the big stuff.
In General:
Overall, the outlook for 2026 is positive.
While the underlying macroeconomy has struggled and crypto in general has failed to keep momentum over the last year, both VeVe and StackR have been making some great steps forward. I suppose only time will tell if all the effort pays off; I’m sure we’ll have a clearer picture by my next end of the year report.
