Node.Monster 2025 Infra Trend: The Future of Blockchain Infrastructure
As blockchain infrastructure evolves, 2025 is set to be a defining year for several key trends that will shape the industry. Node.Monster, as a leading validator and infrastructure provider across multiple networks, is at the forefront of these innovations. Here’s our outlook on the major themes that will influence blockchain infrastructure in the coming year.
1. Restaking Maturity: The Rise of Modular and Composable Restaking
Restaking has the potential to unlock structured product opportunities. A financial asset that will allow curated exposure to several networks with economic security and risk adjustments. For this to happen, modularity, liquidity, and composability will play a critical role in restaking infrastructure.
Besides Symbiotic, which introduced the Ethereum composability restaking infrastructure (read more here), platforms such as Ether.fi (utilizing liquid restaking to offer additional services like ether.fi cash ), Byzantine.fi & Mellow (offer curated vaults that create custom risk profiles), Yield Nest (for traders who want to maximize their yield), and Inception LRT (offer diversified exposure to platforms and yield opportunities) are driving these innovations, ensuring capital efficiency and curated approaches to opportunities.
Restaking has evolved from an Ethereum-centric innovation into a cross-chain movement. In 2025, we anticipate the maturation of Actively Validated Services (AVSs) with token launches and expanded ecosystems beyond Ethereum. Notable projects include:
- Exocore (XRP Ledger) – Enhancing XRP’s infrastructure with restaking capabilities to strengthen its security model and create new DeFi opportunities.
- MilkyWay (Cosmos) – Bringing restaking into the Cosmos ecosystem by allowing users to leverage their staked assets across multiple chains.
- Utonic (TON) – Enabling economic security in the TON blockchain and providing an additional security layer for DeFi applications.
- Kernel (BNB Chain) – Supporting modular security for BNB-based applications by creating a trust-minimized staking mechanism.
All of the above, alongside the potential token launch of networks built with the economic security of restaking, will bring the landscape to maturity, providing capital efficiency, decentralization, and security.
2. Ethereum Infrastructure: Pre-Confirmations, DVT, and Pectra
Ethereum remains the backbone of decentralized applications, and its infrastructure is continuously evolving. 2025 will bring:
- DVT Expansion: Distributed Validator Technology (DVT) is expanding beyond Ethereum, with Obol plan to support the Monad ecosystem. This allows for improved validator redundancy and security, reducing reliance on centralized validators while fostering more robust and decentralized networks. We expect that DVT will be the standard for institutional-grade staking infrastructure.
- Pre-Confirmations: A novel approach to reducing transaction finality times by allowing users to receive near-instant confirmations before full block finalization. This improves user experience, reduces MEV-related risks, and enables a more efficient trading ecosystem. Projects like ETHGas and Bolt Protocol are pioneering this space by providing mechanisms that leverage block builders and validators to commit to transaction ordering ahead of execution.
- Based Applications: The introduction of SSV 2.0 revolutionizes how applications interact with decentralized validator infrastructure. Based applications leverage the security and fault tolerance of distributed validators to ensure minimal downtime and enhance blockchain efficiency. This innovation empowers developers to build on Ethereum with stronger validator reliability and composability, unlocking new possibilities for dApps and DeFi protocols.
- Pectra Upgrade: The upcoming Ethereum Pectra upgrade is poised to improve validator infrastructure, significantly optimizing Ethereum’s staking landscape. By introducing new withdrawal mechanisms, enhancements to execution efficiency, increased validator staking limits (32eth -> 2048eth) and further modularity, Pectra aims to reduce validator risks while boosting network performance. This upgrade will have profound implications for validator rewards, re-staking protocols, and the overall staking economy. Learn more here.
3. BitcoinFi: Scaling, Computation, and MPC Solutions
Bitcoin is rapidly evolving beyond its traditional role as digital gold, with BitcoinFi emerging as a new sector focused on scalability, computation, and decentralized finance (DeFi) applications. Historically, Bitcoin’s DeFi landscape has relied on wrapping solutions like WBTC. In 2025, new technologies are emerging to bring yield and DeFi applications:
Bitcoin Sidechains and Bridges
Bitcoin sidechains are independent blockchains that run parallel to Bitcoin, enabling new features, smart contracts, and faster transactions while still being interoperable with BTC. In addition, new bridging solutions are reducing reliance on centralized wrapping mechanisms while enabling Bitcoin-native liquidity across various networks. These bridges support hybrid consensus models, ensuring security and interoperability for BitcoinFi.
Example of projects:
ExSat – A decentralized infrastructure that bridges Bitcoin to Layer 2s, optimizing liquidity efficiency without centralized custodians.
Mezo and tBTC – Functions as an economic layer, using a decentralized bridge to secure Bitcoin-native DeFi applications while maintaining full BTC sovereignty.These innovations ensure Bitcoin remains the settlement layer while still participating in yield-bearing DeFi applications.
BitVM and Bitcoin Computation
BitVM is a major breakthrough in Bitcoin’s computational capabilities, allowing complex smart contract execution without modifying Bitcoin’s consensus rules. This technology enables:
- Scalable Bitcoin-based applications without requiring a hard fork.
- Trustless execution of off-chain computations for financial applications.
- Enhanced security for DeFi applications without requiring traditional smart contracts.
By leveraging fraud proofs and challenge-response mechanisms, BitVM paves the way for Turing-complete Bitcoin computation while keeping transactions trust-minimized.
Fiamma - Fiamma Layer is the first-ever implementation of BitVM2, enabling ZK use cases to be verified and settled on Bitcoin.
BitLayer - Bitlayer is a Bitcoin Layer 2 protocol that combines several technologies, including BitVM and Zero-Knowledge (ZK) Proofs, to scale Bitcoin.
Bitcoin Native Applications with MPC & 2PC-MPC
Beyond Layer 2 solutions and computation, advanced cryptographic techniques such as Multi-Party Computation (MPC) and Two-Party Computation (2PC-MPC) are enabling private, secure interactions on Bitcoin’s base layer:
Native - Introduce BLISS (Bitcoin liquidity, Interoperability and Secured Scaling) stack to seamlessly connect Bitcoin’s ecosystem. It accomplishes this through zero-trust protocols.
Zenrock – Provides MPC-based custody and DeFi solutions for Bitcoin holders, eliminating reliance on centralized intermediaries.
NEAR Chain Signatures – Uses MPC abstraction to enable Bitcoin-native applications with cross-chain interoperability.These technologies reduce reliance on wrapped assets and custodial solutions, ensuring Bitcoin remains sovereign while interacting with DeFi.
Bitcoin Timestamping
Another key innovation is Bitcoin staking, which allows BTC holders to secure PoS networks and earn rewards without bridging or wrapping BTC. Babylon introduces timestamping and staking proofs on Bitcoin to prove ownership of BTC without moving it from a user’s wallet. This mechanism lets PoS chains secure themselves using Bitcoin’s economic value. Instead of locking BTC in a bridge, Babylon uses Bitcoin’s UTXO model and staked BTC remains in the user’s wallet but is referenced on-chain for staking purposes. So far, Babylon attracted more than $6B staking worth of bitcoin emphasising the need of BTC staking.
4. The Evolution of OG Layer 1s
Several legacy Layer 1 blockchains are undergoing significant upgrades to remain competitive in an increasingly modular and multi-chain environment. Many of these networks are shifting towards EVM compatibility, enhancing scalability, and integrating new features to attract developers and liquidity. The upgrades reflect a broader trend of adaptation to remain relevant in a space that is rapidly moving toward rollups, parallelized execution, and advanced interoperability solutions.Here are some major Layer 1 upgrades and the strategic visions behind them:
- Fantom Sonic – A high-speed architecture optimizing DeFi with near-instant finality, lower fees, and enhanced Ethereum compatibility, making Fantom a stronger Solana competitor.
- IOTA Rebased – Shifting from its DAG-based structure to a more EVM blockchain model, improving DeFi, smart contract, and tokenization support to increase developer adoption.
- Avalanche 9000 – Enhancing consensus, subnets, and interoperability to position Avalanche as the go-to chain for institutions and app-specific blockchains with flexible scaling.
- Tezos Quebec Upgrade – Refining smart contracts, scalability, and governance while reinforcing Tezos' focus on formal verification and on-chain upgradability without hard forks.
5. LLMs and Blockchain Consensus
AI is reshaping blockchain infrastructure, particularly at the consensus layer, where Large Language Models (LLMs) introduce non-deterministic, adaptive decision-making. Traditional blockchains rely on deterministic execution, ensuring every node reaches the same result. However, AI-driven consensus can optimize network efficiency, governance, and security by processing real-time data and adjusting dynamically.
GenLayer is at the forefront of this shift, introducing AI-enhanced infrastructure:
- AI-Optimized Consensus – AI refines block validation, fraud detection, and on-chain analytics, reducing inefficiencies in decentralized networks.
- Non-Deterministic Smart Contracts – AI-integrated contracts can adjust execution logic based on external conditions, enabling real-time governance, adaptive fee structures, and self-improving economic models.
- AI-Driven Validator Coordination – AI enhances node synchronization, optimizes resource allocation, and mitigates network congestion for better scalability.
- Smarter Oracles & Data Integrity – AI-powered oracles ensure accurate, tamper-resistant real-world data for on-chain execution, improving lending, pricing, and cross-chain interactions.
As AI-native blockchains emerge, consensus mechanisms will evolve beyond rigid rule enforcement, enabling dynamic, self-optimizing networks that adapt to market conditions and security threats in real time.
