My prediction is that at some point in the future, those folks who have historically loved IRC (and there's nothing wrong with that!), will eventually begin to prefer matrix as opposed to, say, slack, mattermost, etc. Not necessarily for tech superiority, but for what I'll call the coziness factor; they'll just feel cozy using some matrix client, as they felt comfy using an ol' irc client. (Yes, yes, i know there are numerous existing irc-bridging apps/services natively supported by matrix protocol. ;-)
Disclosure: I used to love irc in the 90s, then stopped using it in the 2000s (aughts?), and now am a superfan of matrix.
Disclosure: I used to love irc in the 90s, then stopped using it in the 2000s (aughts?), and now am a superfan of matrix.