What is Infrastructure? | Delphi Digital

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Infrastructure

Infrastructure refers to the underlying structures and technologies that enable the cryptosphere to exist and operate.

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Infrastructure Sectors

Block Production

Data

Layer 1 / L1

Staking

Cross-Chain

Layer 2 / L2

Artificial Intelligence

Related research

StablecoinsSep 23, 2025

Plasma: Taking Aim at a Trillion Dollar Opportunity

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Stablecoins Plasma: Taking Aim at a Trillion Dollar Opportunity

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Sep 23, 2025

Stablecoins have quietly become one of the largest payment rails in the world, settling more than $18 trillion in 2025, surpassing both Visa and Mastercard. What started as collateral for crypto trading has evolved into flows serving remittances, merchant settlement, and B2B payments. Particularly in markets where local currency instability makes dollars on-chain both more functional and a store of value. Despite processing trillions in volume, stablecoins remain second-class citizens on the chains that host them. Ethereum, Tron, Solana, and others were designed as general-purpose smart contract platforms, not dedicated monetary rails. This fundamental mismatch subjects stablecoin transfers to volatile gas pricing, MEV predation, and fee models denominated in speculative native tokens, creating billions in inefficient user fees for what are essentially simple ledger updates. Plasma flips this model by positioning stablecoins as the network's primary workload rather than just another application. Through its zero-fee USDT transfer model and split-block architecture, Plasma eliminates the computational overhead that plagues other chains. This mirrors how internet companies like Google and PayPal gave away core services to capture downstream value – Plasma uses free transfers as a customer acquisition wedge to attract high-frequency participants like market makers, CEX off-ramps, and remittance operators. Plasma’s flagship product, Plasma One, their stablecoin-native neobank, captures value via card interchange, FX spreads, and yield generation while maintaining full EVM compatibility. With native USDT integration, a Bitcoin bridge, and partnerships spanning from Aave to Binance Earn's $1 billion commitment, Plasma is positioning itself as the purpose-built settlement layer for the global dollar economy. A trillion dollar opportunity.

DataSep 10, 2025

Intuition Protocol: Building the Internet’s Trust Layer

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Data Intuition Protocol: Building the Internet’s Trust Layer

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Sep 10, 2025

Google decides what you discover. Reddit curates what you see. Amazon controls what you buy. These giants operate as walled gardens, trapping you in their echo chambers. Their algorithms act as black boxes deciding your reality. Crypto has nailed moving money without middlemen, but the harder problem – deciding what and who to trust – has been left unsolved. The internet's hardest problem isn't settlement, but judgment. Which claims should we believe? Which identities should we weigh? Which relationships should we trust? That's where Intuition comes in. Instead of heading toward an AI-dominated future where a handful of models decide the "truth" for everyone, Intuition creates a shared, decentralized layer for knowledge and reputation. Users actually own their data, stake conviction behind what they believe, and carry their reputation across apps. The result is a system where information isn't locked away or flattened into a single corporate-controlled answer, but portable, verifiable, and community-driven. With over 244,000 beta users already generating 5.3 million transactions and 5.1 million attestations, Intuition is proving that people want more than "trustless" transactions – they want trust they can see, measure, and build on. It's the next logical step: applying the same game theory that secures blockchains to the messy, human problem of trust and knowledge discovery.

GamingAug 28, 2025

Somnia: Building for the Future of Onchain Applications

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Gaming Somnia: Building for the Future of Onchain Applications

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Aug 28, 2025

Web3 gaming is long past its glory days as an industry-defining narrative. For the last two years, the market has been continuously punishing hollow token first playbooks, and now studios are forced to build entertaining games that can stand beside traditional titles, with blockchain as part of the stack rather than the entire story. However, there is still an opening that Somnia wants to take advantage of: content-driven applications that earn real revenue at scale.

InfrastructureAug 14, 2025

Aptos: The Stablecoin Capital’s Yield Playbook

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Infrastructure Aptos: The Stablecoin Capital’s Yield Playbook

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Aug 14, 2025

Following our previous reports on Aptos' technical architecture and growing ecosystem, this analysis examines the yield opportunities that robust infrastructure and substantial dApp ecosystem have enabled. The sophisticated yield landscape helps explain why Aptos is home to over $1.3 billion in stablecoins, supporting a DeFi ecosystem spanning lending, DEX, and liquid staking protocols. Key insights include how protocols like Hyperion capture substantial yields through real trading volume rather than unsustainable incentives, cross-protocol strategies that enable yield stacking across multiple applications, and growing Bitcoin DeFi infrastructure supporting diverse collateral approaches. We examine mechanics across platforms like Thala, Echelon, and Aries, while covering active points campaigns and notable tokenless protocols. The analysis reveals how Aptos' technical infrastructure and deep liquidity enable complex multi-protocol compositions that would be economically unviable on other chains, offering both conservative approaches and sophisticated strategies for yield-focused capital.

Layer 1 / L1Aug 08, 2025

Sui’s Q2: On-Chain UX Primitives, BTCFi Expansion, Scaling Production

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Layer 1 / L1 Sui’s Q2: On-Chain UX Primitives, BTCFi Expansion, Scaling Production

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Aug 08, 2025

Sui’s Q2 focused on turning past infrastructure upgrades into tools developers can actually use. Frameworks like SEAL, Passkeys, and Remora began to surface in SDKs and product flows, aimed at fixing real gaps around privacy, authentication, and scalability. On the ecosystem side, BTCfi kept growing, DeFi protocols like Suilend and Momentum DEX gained traction, and the Claynosaurz Popkins launch showed what Sui’s core architecture can handle under real demand. Just as the internet went mainstream when complexity became invisible, Sui is quietly doing the same for blockchain.

InfrastructureAug 07, 2025

zkVerify: The Missing Layer in The Modular Era

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Infrastructure zkVerify: The Missing Layer in The Modular Era

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•

Aug 07, 2025

ZK is eating infra, but proof verification on Ethereum is still broken: it’s slow, expensive, and dev-unfriendly. We’ve tracked zkVerify since day one. Our first report covered its architecture: a purpose-built L1 for proof verification. The Q1 memo showed the integration flow. This update zooms in on a core problem: verification costs. The EVM wasn’t built for this, as it lacks universal precompiles, and its fee market treats ZK proofs like luxury goods. Yet rollups and zkApps keep burning millions to play along. Ethereum is going all-in on ZK, across consensus, privacy, and the L1 zkEVM pivot. But none of it scales without fixing how proofs are verified. The ecosystem needs a universal ZK verifier layer, and zkVerify delivers that: prove once, verify anywhere.

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