What is the final form of Web3? How to unlock the next batch of millions of new Web3 users?

Web3 introduced the concept of digital ownership, but if there is no background, ownership is meaningless. Composable projects that form a rich social product ecosystem are the key to unlocking the next batch of millions of users to web3.

Randomly find someone on the street to ask about web3 and NFT. You usually get one of two responses: either they have never heard of them, or (more often) they yell about Ponzi schemes.

What is the final form of Web3? How to unlock the next batch of millions of new Web3 users?

Incentives for early adopters will not resonate with the public:

Early community (wagmi, cult-like passion to push the movement forward)

Speculation (make some risky bets, you may get gold)

Ideology (democratization of the Internet, replacement of existing power, etc.)

Technical challenges (building new things is fun!)

But ordinary people do not join early enough to establish or speculate on NFTs, unless they are already wealthy and can buy at will. As people say, they say they care about decentralization or splitting up tech giants, but many people still use TikTok for short videos. What can convince them?

Let us re-examine the selling points of web3 for the two typical users of Jessica and Manuel, assuming that normal people do not chat on Discord frequently, and their profile pictures show their IRL faces.

Decentralization and security-Jessica cares a little about this, and may even speak out about it on social media from time to time. However, if you give her a less decentralized but more interesting, easy-to-use or useful alternative, she will quietly choose this alternative every time.

The value of users will increase, not just companies that own most of the network-this should be huge for Manuel, who often broadcasts live on Twitch. But he thinks this is a huge casino-like pyramid scheme because it feels disgusting to have value/money in the center of the new platform.

Asset interoperability and portability-rich experience, can transplant NFT and acquired assets to other truly useful platforms. Jessica was very interested and wandered around. But she soon discovered that the ecosystem was flooded with hundreds of disjointed projects, and none of them were complete enough to beat mature web2 products.

*Incentives and profits have driven everything on the web. For ordinary users, this is not obvious, because they are not the ones who get the best.

Point 2 should be the most compelling reason for the world to switch to web3. It opens up a new economic model that can reduce wealth inequality and reward builders/contributors/creators-this was difficult before because we did not have the technology to encode digital ownership.

However, most people don't even engage in traditional financial activities beyond the basics (buying index funds, owning a 401k-many people don't even do it). Those who are often in a privileged social class have the time and energy to do so. Apps like Robinhood expand the scope of stock trading, but I don’t think it is as ubiquitous as social media (Instagram/Youtube/TikTok, etc.). People don’t essentially seek to optimize their investment, but they do seek community. They want to interact with friends and care about their opinions (status). Social is at the core of the human experience. In addition, people have understood the concept of social networks and how they work in them.

**However, Gen Z may understand finance better.

But why is the social experience on web3 better than on traditional platforms? This is where interoperability comes in. In theory, web3 will make it easy to migrate valuable assets, identities and activities between projects. Your identity on the network is no longer locked on any platform you are active on. Therefore, the project must continue to innovate and benefit users/members/NFT holders. And since the builders and creators behind the project are motivated to contribute, the technical experience produced on web3 should be better. They will also be better compensated.

In fact, for various reasons, the Web3 ecosystem does not yet exist, which I will introduce in the next part of this series. I think the final form of Web3 will look like a multiverse, some of which will serve as the cornerstone of the community. These projects will cover everything from publishing platforms (Mirror) to 3D worlds (Portals), to knowledge-rich NFTs (CryptoCoven), to tools (Mycoverse) to games (many are in development). In these worlds, there will be microcommunities. They will compete with each other because people can pack and leave and participate elsewhere. The important thing is that when people gather to discuss things not directly about web3, but just use the infrastructure to gather around normal hobbies and interests, it will reach the appeal of the public.