Stripe Product Manager: After a month diving into the Web3 rabbit hole, I have many experiences to share
From the exploration over the past month, my biggest takeaway is that we are still continuously exploring the range of use cases that this technology can achieve — this may be my biggest mindset shift.Author: Theodora Chu
Compiler: Perry Wang
A little over a month ago, I took a road trip in Utah. If you've been to Utah, you know that the mobile signal isn't great, especially when driving between national parks. I downloaded some podcasts to pass the time, one of which happened to be Bankless's "Defining the Metaverse." So, I tried to explore the Decentraland project, created a wallet, and started playing with various DeFi protocols, which also led me to join some DAOs, and I began learning the Solidity language. Fast forward to today, somehow I've spent almost an entire month exploring Web 3.0.
To be honest, I had no interest in the crypto world before. I always disliked the stereotypical impressions of people in the cryptocurrency space: I thought they were just in it for quick riches, pumping and dumping, and exploiting others—I've held onto this stereotype about the entire crypto field. However, over the past month, I've learned different things:
- Ordinary people in the cryptocurrency space do not fit this stereotype, even though those who are the loudest in the field may indeed be like that (more on this later);
- There is very reliable value embedded in crypto technology. I will share the insights I've gained from this exploration through this article and invite everyone to engage with me (I'm still a newbie! I'm sure there are various errors in my writing).
Some Thoughts on Web 3.0
It’s hard for us to naturally enter the mindset of Web 3.0 because its attributes differ greatly from the core of our current world. For example: In Web 3.0, by default, almost nothing is public unless you choose to make it public; of course, everything that happens on-chain is public. However, it is precisely because of these characteristics of Web 3.0 that we can do many things that were previously impossible. For example:
We can create digital tokens that allow us to design financial incentive structures for network products. In the past, if you wanted to take a programming class, you had to pay the teacher's fee, which was entirely determined by the teacher. However, these prices did not necessarily reflect their actual value. Maybe your teacher didn't do market research, and all the students were willing to pay more. Perhaps your teacher has now recruited more students, and the class has grown a bit, but they still haven't changed the course price. In Web 3.0, you can imagine: a teacher mints tokens based on the number of students they want to admit. Suppose the teacher mints 10 tokens and puts them on the market, meaning they plan to enroll 10 students. To take this course, students must purchase the tokens and return them to the teacher. Then the teacher puts the tokens back on the market for their next class, and this cycle continues. In this way, the teacher's course doesn't actually have a stable price: its value is based on what people think the course is worth. If the teacher mints more tokens but people believe the quality of the course will decline as a result, the token price may drop. If the teacher adjusts their course and students believe the quality has improved, the token price may rise. Because this token is not fixed to a specific fiat currency price but is linked to the course's value, the token's fiat price will fluctuate based on the changes in that course's value.
We can transfer contexts from one application to another, creating a shared pool of online states. In the past, you had to create a new account for each service. Unless two companies collaborated and established a partnership, the activities you undertook on a conservation nonprofit's website would not be shared with the outdoor retail organization REI. However, in the Web 3.0 world, it is global, not tied to any specific software, and anything that happens on-chain is shared with everyone. Suppose REI wants to create a limited edition tent exclusively for those who donate to the conservation nonprofit; in the Web 3 world, REI can completely use on-chain data to achieve this.
Groups of strangers can come together to make decisions without needing to trust each other, excluding intermediaries. In the past, if you wanted to donate $100 to a scholarship fund, part of that $100 would go toward the foundation's management costs, such as paying staff salaries and office space expenses. Suppose you and another group of people are willing to voluntarily spend time reviewing scholarship applications and promoting the scholarship to minimize costs and increase the percentage of funds awarded to recipients. However, because you are all strangers, you have many concerns—what if someone runs off with the money? In the Web 3.0 world, because on-chain operations are public, you can run code on these outcomes. You can imagine a scholarship fund where donors lock their donations in a smart contract. Then, each of you votes on who should receive the scholarship, and based on the voting results, funds are automatically allocated and sent to the scholarship recipient without anyone needing to interact with other donors, verify votes, or wait for others to finish voting before manually writing checks.
Because we are accustomed to our original way of thinking, we are still exploring how to apply these new capabilities. This means that many projects emerging from Web 3.0 may seem like they don't actually need to be built on Web 3.0, or they may even feel less useful or efficient when built on Web 3.0. I used to roll my eyes at these projects—"Not everything is a nail when you have a hammer!"—but now I actually think this is part of our society's collective learning process. We are still figuring out the parameters of Web 3.0, and with each attempt, we learn more.
Future Evolution
Because we are still exploring these parameters, and there is so much exciting stuff in this field, it feels impossible to keep up with everything in Web 3.0 as new things seem to be released every day. However, due to its unique characteristics, the evolution of Web 3.0 differs from the existing world.
Product Level:
Product functionality is not a moat: the moat is the community and brand. The more open-source a product is, the easier it is to fork. Protocol products are essentially open-source software. This can be clearly seen from OlympusDAO, which, as of the writing of this article, has at least a dozen forks. Although the forked projects do very similar things, the community and strong brand of OlympusDAO defend its position as a primary crypto-native reserve asset.
Web 3.0 is a primitive combination game. Because anything that happens on-chain is associated with identity, new products can and will be built on existing products. In other words, everything is a primitive that can be combined into something new. A typical example here is the Loot project, which creates NFTs that contain a collection of adventurer gear. Because these game items are public, anyone can now build games that use these Loot NFTs, assigning powers or roles to players who own specific items. Loot Dungeon is doing just that, and a complete tool ecosystem is being built around the Loot project to make it easier for others to integrate Loot NFTs into their products.
Persistent on-chain products will measure twice and cut once. While blockchains do not necessarily have to be related to finance, today's market has priced almost every token, contract code is public, and the future of crypto regulation remains unclear. Because of this, products that can withstand waves of scammers/hackers, token value crashes, and potential legislative restrictions must prioritize security, build real use cases, and look to the future. The "move fast and break things" theory promoted by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg may not be reasonable in the Web 3.0 space.
Cultural Level:
- Crypto enthusiasts are often game theory nerds. Because tokens have monetary value, the incentive structures of protocols dictate how their users behave. Therefore, people in this field often discuss incentive design.
- There is also a prophet culture in the cryptocurrency space. Money is about belief; because money only has value when everyone thinks it is worth something and it is actually used, people are incentivized to persuade others to use cryptocurrency. This brings me back to the original perspective of "the loudest voices in the crypto space" vs. "who is actually participating in the cryptocurrency field." I would categorize cryptocurrency participants into two camps: (1) profit-driven prophets, and (2) positive-sum prophets. I will start with the positive-sum prophets—they are the optimistic beacons who believe that cryptocurrency becoming mainstream is inevitable, and that everyone who holds cryptocurrency will benefit. They work to lower the barriers to cryptocurrency adoption and teach others how to participate. I've even seen people from this camp genuinely giving away money to help others get started. Then, I want to talk about the profit-driven prophets. These are people who focus solely on short-term gains—they may not necessarily believe that crypto represents the future, but they do believe that if they can persuade others to believe that crypto is the future and that everything is currently undervalued, they can more smoothly sell tokens for profit. Every coin has two sides. No matter which camp you are in, you can find your people.
Absolute Timeline
Crypto continually disrupts my perception, making me realize how primitive our current world is on the timeline of Web 3.0 development. Someone once told me that if you've been in this field for three months, you're considered an expert. That's crazy.
From my exploration over the past month, my biggest takeaway is that we are still constantly exploring a range of use cases that this technology can achieve—this might be my biggest mindset shift.
I've said it before, but I'll say it again. I was skeptical about whether there were any real crypto applications because I had seen many products that didn't actually need to be built using blockchain. However, there are indeed some practical use cases starting to form, and we are still figuring out how and specifically at which nodes to apply these principles to the existing world framework. Sometimes we make mistakes, and sometimes we apply these principles in places where they are not actually needed, but with each attempt, we learn where these principles are useful and where they are not. In this sense, the term Web 3.0 is somewhat misleading: crypto does not need to be applied to everything, but it will be applied to many things we can't even begin to imagine today.
My second major takeaway is that if you believe there are real use cases, we will eventually evolve from the "collective learning" phase to the "everyday adoption" phase, using Web 3 applications in daily life. You will also realize that our current crypto ecosystem still lacks a lot of meta-components or formations to truly realize the future vision. First, the mobile experience is virtually non-existent, almost every application's UI/UX is unfriendly to outsiders, there is almost no entry-level education, and regulation is very strict. No one really knows if what they are doing today will be legal tomorrow. Web 3.0 is a whole new internet economy, and economies of scale require infrastructure. But that's also what makes it cool—because it is still in its infancy, there is so much to figure out, there is a lot of optimism in reality, and many people are excitedly thinking about the future and, frankly, building it.
