Tech Adoption Wave (Google Trends)
Stacked-area of tech concept search ('blockchain', 'smart contract', 'defi', 'nft', 'web3'). Tracks the relative dominance of crypto narratives over 22 years - when blockchain rises, ETH ecosystem dominates; when NFT dominates, speculative phase.
What is it?
Stacked-area of the top-4 most-trafficked tech-concept queries from a 5-term basket (blockchain / smart contract / defi / nft / web3). DB-side `nlargest(4)` selects the 4 terms with highest aggregated search volume - typically DeFi + Blockchain + Web3 + Smart Contract over the post-2014 era. Each band represents the relative share of mind for one technology paradigm. v1.4 architectural extension will expose all 5 terms simultaneously once the schema migration ships.
How to read
Wider band = more search dominance. 'DeFi' (primary, top by global sum) rose 2020-2021 and held mindshare into 2024. 'Blockchain' was the dominant narrative 2014-2018. 'Web3' emerged late-2021. 'Smart contract' is a steady baseline. The 5th basket term (NFT) is fetched but excluded from the top-4 by global sum - its 2021-2022 spike is captured in the aggregate retail euphoria index instead.
Key zones
Each tech term has its own peak history. The absence of a previously dominant tech band (e.g., NFT not visible in the current top-4 stack) does NOT mean the technology is dead - it means retail attention has rotated elsewhere, and the basket's most-trafficked terms have shifted.
What to observe
Watch for two-tech confluence : when 'blockchain' AND 'DeFi' rise together, infrastructure-narrative is broad. When 'web3' rises alone, speculative-narrative is concentrated. Note that NFT is part of the basket but excluded from the top-4 visualization by global-sum ranking - to track NFT search directly, see the Modern Retail Basket which covers post-2020 vocabulary.
Historical context
'Blockchain' was the dominant tech-narrative query during the 2017 ICO mania (its rolling-window high). 'DeFi' rose to dominance during the 2020-2021 DeFi summer and held attention into 2024. 'NFT' is part of the basket (not visualized in the current top-4 stack - see Modern Retail Basket for NFT direct tracking). 'Web3' emerged late 2021 then plateaued.
Expert notes
The shape of the tech adoption wave is asymmetric : adoption rises slowly (years) but fades fast (months). Each tech narrative peaks once and then becomes a baseline category. The total height of the basket = total tech-narrative engagement.
Common mistakes to avoid
A declining 'NFT' band does NOT mean NFTs are dead - it means retail search attention has moved. Actual NFT market activity should be measured via on-chain data (volume, unique buyers) - not search interest.
Programmatic access
REST API
curl -sS \
'https://api.trinityinsights.io/api/v1/narrative-intelligence/narrative-tech-adoption-wave/history?days=90' \
-H 'X-API-Key: $TRINITY_API_KEY'MCP server
{
"tool": "get_chart_value",
"metric_id": "narrative-tech-adoption-wave",
"timeframe": "1y"
}Required tier: pro. See the pricing grid for the tier list and the MCP documentation for multi-client configuration.
Related metrics
Institutional disclaimer
Trinity Insights is an educational and analytical tool. The metric above does not constitute investment advice. Trinity Insights is not a Crypto-Asset Service Provider (CASP) registered under MiCA Regulation (EU) 2023/1114. See the full disclaimer.