Reality defeats ideals, the crypto community is being torn apart
After soaking in and building within the crypto community for over four years, and communicating with many friends in the community, it is very evident that everyone feels the "right turn" of the crypto community in this cycle. Therefore, I attempt to explore the current development stage of the Web3 community, how to respond to this shift, and the future direction of community building through a series of three articles.Produced by: Web3Future
Author: CryptoBrave (X: cryptobraveHQ)
Web3 Community Building Under the Wave of Crypto Rightism (Part One)
In the world of Web3, what is a community? This question seems simple, yet it contains profound changes in the crypto industry. From early technological idealism to today's financialization and capital centralization, the Web3 community is undergoing a significant shift from "left" to "right."
Having immersed in and built the crypto community for over four years, many community friends have expressed a clear sense of this "right turn" in the current cycle. Therefore, I attempt to explore the current development stage of the Web3 community, how to respond to this shift, and the future direction of community building through a series of three articles.
The Multiple Identities of Community
From different perspectives, the definition of community varies:
From the viewpoint of tech-driven project founders, developers are the community, as they are the core of ecological expansion and application innovation.
From the narrative-driven VC coin teams, whoever can provide liquidity for exit is the community; for example, Binance, whose large user base provides liquidity for projects.
From the price-driven meme teams, KOLs and traffic distribution are the community, as they can attract attention.
From the perspective of project teams that have already conducted TGE, Builders and Holders are the community, as they are the core force accompanying the project through cycles.
These different definitions actually reflect the core driving forces of the Web3 community at various stages of development.
The Evolution of Web3 Community
Early Crypto Community
Born from a culture of technological idealism, emphasizing privacy, anti-authoritarianism, and decentralization, closely aligned with leftist liberalism.
Mid-stage Crypto Community
Gradually evolved into a financial speculation community dominated by developers, exchanges, retail investors, and early institutions, becoming more pragmatic.
Current Crypto Community
Has begun to financialize, with capital and power centralization, as institutional and government investors accelerate their entry, becoming closer to right-wing conservatism.
Of course, this shift is not unrelated to the global rise of right-wing movements, such as the re-election of Trump, a representative of new populist right-wing politics, and the emergence of far-right president Milei in Argentina, which will not be elaborated here.
In the previous cycle, technology was the core of projects, and development teams focused on long-term construction, with community members willing to pay for technological idealism. However, in the current cycle, the importance of narrative has surpassed technology itself; the success of projects no longer relies on technological innovation but revolves around price and capital operations. The rise of memecoins further proves this point, as technology is no longer the focus of attention.
The Tear in Community: Only "Extreme Right" Can Surpass the Right
Taking Ethereum and Solana as examples, the points of contention in their communities are very clear. The Ethereum community focuses more on technological idealism and decentralization, while the Solana community emphasizes efficiency and capital operations. This divergence reflects the tear in the Web3 community under the wave of rightism.
Looking at the comparison between Ethereum and BNB Chain, it is not difficult to find that the current BNB Chain is "more right" than Solana. This is because BNB Chain must compete with Solana through ecological strategies like meme and AI Agent, which can only lead to greater centralization, injecting more powerful capital and operational resources (such as linked investments, listing, market making, etc.), and uniting the community more closely.
The Compliance of Exchanges
The same trend is reflected in the centralized exchange sector. In the previous cycle, most exchanges operated under the logic of regulatory arbitrage in different global markets, with compliance being a "get on the bus first, pay later" approach. Now, most exchanges pay more attention to compliance, striving to operate within a compliant framework.
A similar logic of left and right extremes can also be compared among different DEXs and Bots (such as Uniswap, Jupiter, GMGN…), market makers (Wintermute, GSR, DWF, shadow market makers…), etc. This will not be elaborated here; readers can judge based on their own standards.
Future Community Building
In general, in the past crypto circle, everyone paid for technological narratives, pursuing decentralization and fairness, with founders emphasizing long-term construction without caring about prices, creating an idealistic leftist atmosphere. However, as the market trends right, the focus has shifted to price and short-term returns, emphasizing corporate management and strong operations, with projects closely cooperating with regulators and centralized interest alliances supporting each other, where making money is the most important.
I believe that whether leaning left or right, it is an objective result of market choices under the trend of industry evolution, a reflexivity that emerges after the peak of a trend—after idealism, realism has taken the lead.
In the next article, I will continue to share how to effectively build the current stage of the crypto community under the wave of rightism. For example, building developer communities, liquidity communities, KOL marketing, and the growth of social media data. I welcome everyone to engage with us.
