Web3 Wednesday: 2022 Predictions, America Onchain, Vitalik On Life After Ethereum, & More š¤Æš¤ š
Issue #5
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My goal is to bring diverse minds together to accelerate our web3 education to build a better future. My hope is that these recaps will be in service of that objective.
Here is todayās roadmap:
Article: Thought-provoking 2022 predictionsĀ š¤Æ
Tweet: Another thread on how crypto is decentralizedĀ Ā š¤
Podcast: Vitalik shares what he wants to do after EthereumĀ š
P.S. If you are new here, take a look through this web3 starter guide to get caught up to speed :)
Article:
What to Watch in Crypto in 2022 - The GeneralistĀ Ā
I try not to give predictions in crypto. Who really knows what is going to happen? I like this piece from Mario Gabriele because he collected insights from web3 leaders on what they are excited about this year. Instead of sharing a vision of which NFT projects will be successful, or what the price of Ethereum will be, this article shares what smart people in the space are interested in the most. Learning this now will help you get ahead of the curve.Ā
Here are a few takeaways:
Wallets become the new identity: I was that stereotypical tech dude at a party in SF last weekend showing off his Rainbow wallet with all of my NFTs and tokens. Donāt worry, my friends roasted me.Ā Itās kind of weird, but I am getting more attached to my wallet. Itās becoming a part of my identity. Showing people my NFTs feels similar to sharing photos from a recent trip; thereās a story behind it and people I experienced it with, so you feel a sense of pride while sharing. In the future, your wallet will not only hold your NFTs and tokens, but also your driver's license, your employment history, and verification of the college you went to. All of this data will live on your wallet for you to showcase, use for your next job, or maybe even get discounts at your local coffee shop.Ā
DAOs will become more useful to society: I am fascinated with what DAOs have been able to accomplish over the past few years. Uniswap is a decentralized exchange with over $500B in trading volume. Friends With Benefits is a social club that has raised $10M from A16Z. LinksDAO is building a community for golf enthusiasts. The ConstitutionDAO raised $47M in 5 days to make (and lose) a bid for one of the copies of the US Constitution. OdysseyDAO is onboarding people into web3. However, I am most excited about how we can use this technology to accelerate cancer research, reduce inequality, and aid other important societal issues. In Gabrieleās article, you will learn about DeSci, an organization that is using the sale of its NFTs to fund scientific research. The web3 tech is here, the valuable use cases of using the tech are coming.Ā
WTF is Data Portability?: One of the touted benefits of web3 is that you can take your data from platform to platform. Imagine if I could take my followers, content, and messages from LinkedIn to Twitter. I would then be able to have a similar following across both ecosystems, and not have to spend time rebuilding my presence (this is analogous to porting your phone number between carriers today). This is just one benefit of āData Portabilityā. Another potential benefit of data portability is because your content lives publically, you can track how that content gets shared, and therefore get paid for every time someone reads that content. In the future, if you find this newsletter interesting, share it on Twitter, and people read it,Ā I can be paid according to how many views or reshares the piece gets. Mirror, Ceramic, and DeSo are early in tackling variations of this problem.Ā
Lots of action coming in 2022, buckle up.
Tweet:
This thread is a continuation of the never-ending āis crypto really decentralizedā debate. As I shared last week, this conversation is nuanced and multi-faceted. In this thread, Dixon does a decent job of separating the centralized and decentralized aspects of web3 whilst explaining their respective importance.Ā Here are a few takeaways:
There are centralized services that power web3 (e.g. OpenSea, Alchemy, Coinbase, etc). These centralized services are important and will probably not go away.
There are parts of web3 that are decentralized. Those are predominantly networks. In web2, these networks are private goods (e.g. Facebook), in web3 these networks are public goods (e.g. Ethereum).
My head is getting dizzy from this debate. Hereās where I stand right now:
There are benefits to having networks decentralized (remember the data portability concept above?).
Those benefits have a chance to win over consumers, but thereās a big chance they may not.
Consumers and creators want products that are easy to use. The question for those consumers and creators is not ācan I own this networkā, but it is ādoes this network provide me valueā.
Like Benedict Evans stated in this tweet, today the value to the creator is the audience, not the ability to leave a platform and own your content. Itās an open and interesting question to see if this changes user behavior moving forward.
On a slightly adjacent topic, I appreciated Dark Starās recent article āAmerica Onchainā. The piece spoke about how web3 needs its āAOLā moment, where a simple and easy-to-use product brings in the mass market of users. In his piece, he shares a few reflections on this debate:
Decentralization leads to difficulty of use which leads to a relatively small number of tech-savvy crypto users which in turn leads to a limited number of use-cases. And, in a context entirely unlike the early Internet, the vast amount of money sloshing around the blockchain compounds this āproblem.ā To put another way, itās lucrative for crypto developers to provide services for the small number of comparably wealthy and sophisticated users already onboard. They donāt need to solve getting newbies āonchainā to be profitable. So itās interesting to consider what the Steve Case, Ted Leonsis and Jan Brandt of today would build on the blockchain.
Every week weāll probably end up commenting a little on this topic. I think itās important and will keep an open mind and dialogue as we hash this out.
Podcast:
Vitalik Buterin on Ethereum and Immortality - Up OnlyĀ
Unlike my other favorite crypto podcast Bankless, Up Only tends to be a bit more fun. The hosts have been in crypto for years, but they arenāt āmaxisā, nor do they seem to be shilling projects they hold. This episode with the founder of Ethereuem, Vitalik Buterin, was an entertaining one.Ā
They spoke about the Canadian Crypto scene, donating $1B of Shiba Inu to the India Covid Relief Fund, important social trends, and more.
Listen to it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Bonus:
That does it for this week of Web3 Wednesdays.
Till next time,
Jay š