Web 3 design is a mess. Web 2 may contain the answer
If you spend time exploring Web3—the blockchain-based alternative to the centralized Internet we know today—you’ll likely conclude that it’s difficult to use. Web3 tools like wallet MetaMask or games like Axie Infinity feels clumsy and counter-intuitive, and lacks the elegant design of well-known internet services such as Google or Netflix.
This is a problem. While millions of people use Web3, most are driven by the passion (or greed) of early adopters and are willing to put up with clunky designs to use exciting technologies like NFTs or token-based voting. But for Web3 to be embraced by non-crypto natives – which is most of the population – the design needs to improve dramatically and come to resemble internet products that people already know.
I raised this topic with Kanav Kariya, president of Jump Crypto, the influential investment and trading shop in Chicago that bets heavily on crypto and Web3. To my surprise, Kariya agreed with my claim that Web3 design is terrible. He noted that when it comes to NFTs, he still gets frustrated even though he has been using them since the days of CryptoKitties (a primitive version of NFTs that appeared in 2016).
What surprised me, even more, was Kariya’s prediction about how the Web3 design problem will be solved. He told me that crypto-native companies like Coinbase or OpenSea are unlikely to be the ones to make Web3 widely available—something in the DNA of crypto people, Kariya says, makes them excel at technology rather than design.
Kariya predicted that a design breakthrough will instead come from companies such as Spotify, Amazon or Netflix, which are the giants of the Web2 era. He pointed out, correctly, that these firms are masters of UX (geek-speak for user experience) and entice people to try new products. Kariya says all of these firms are already quietly working on Web3 features, and it’s only a matter of time before they start rolling them out to their tens of millions of customers.
I was surprised by his prediction—mostly because the original leaders of Web3 envisioned the technology as a way to break the centralized, data-guzzling monopolies of Silicon Valley. But Kariya’s claim also makes a lot of sense. If someone is going to bring Web3 technology into the mainstream, it’s more likely to be a giant firm with a mastery of design than a crypto startup that spends its days catering to HODLers and geeks.
The idea that a Web2 company should become an ambassador for Web3 is, of course, full of. Isn’t the whole point of Web3 to crush these centralized Goliaths in the first place? Wouldn’t “Web3 by Google” be a contradiction and a betrayal?
These are reasonable concerns, but there’s no reason to believe that the ideals of Web3 can’t thrive even as the old guard in Silicon Valley adopts the technology. If the tech giants can introduce tens of millions of people to blockchain’s potential, it won’t be long before many of them start exploring the wide and beautiful decentralized world beyond these companies’ gates. And anyway, it will be a milestone when someone solves the Web3 design problem. Although it is a Web2 company.
Jeff John Roberts
[email protected]
@jeffjohnroberts
DECENTRALIZED NEWS
Credits 🚀
Ripple launches crypto payments in Brazil
Crypto takes a few Small banks on the run
Ethereum naming service domains doubled to 2 million
Fraction raising $20 million to simplify joint NFT ownership, rebrands as Tessera
Debits 🐻
The study says: 10% to 25% of Coin base entries show signs of insider trading
Crypto broker Genesis is cutting 20% of its workforce and announces CEO exit
Pharma Bros Crypto Crash after major wallets dump tokens
Matt Damon, Tom Brady Crypto Ads Disappear from TV
THE MOONSHOT CHILDREN
Did you hear about the “cryptogenies that vaporized a trillion dollars”? It is the title of one New York magazine cover story everyone buzzes about. It chronicles the rise and fateful final days of Three Arrows Capital, the hedge fund whose implosion this spring set off a chain reaction that melted down large parts of the crypto market.
The play explains how two private school kids with ordinary skills rode the crypto wave to recast themselves as trading geniuses, running a fund that turned out to be little more than a Ponzi scheme. Highlights include their attempt to buy a $500 million yacht called the Much Wow, and reports they turned to the Mafia as a lender of last resort. Meanwhile, their renowned trading skills proved to be an illusion:
The company seemed quite arbitrary about these games, almost as if it viewed them as a charity. Earlier this year, Davies tweeted that “it doesn’t matter specifically what a VC invests in, more fiat in the system is good for the industry.” Says Chris Burniske, a founder of VC firm Placeholder, “They were clearly pumped and begging.”
FINANCIAL STATEMENT
Zoo auctions orangutan art as NFTs by Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez
Bitcoin miners now make more money selling power than Bitcoin by Shawn Tully
CEO Jeremy Allaire believes Circle’s big moment has arrived by Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez
Skip Crypto to build a new Solana validation client by Jeff John Roberts
Ethereum Miners Behind Proposed Fork Say They’ve Defused ‘Difficulty Bomb’ by Taylor Locke
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IF YOU DON’T KNOW, CRYPTO
If you’ve been around crypto for a while, you’re almost certainly a participant—or at least a spectator—of CT. It is short for “Crypto Twitter.” They NEW Mag piece describes its importance: “In an unregulated space without legacy institutions and with global markets trading 24/7, Crypto Twitter is the center of the arena, the clearinghouse for news and views that move markets.”
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