No Web3 experts

Feb 7, 2022

Conversation gobblers make loud proclamations about crypto, the metaverse, and NFTs.

Think kindly of them, though, because they have at least one thing correct. Web3 is coming. It will be debated, exalted, ridiculed, and reviled, but it will become the world’s hottest topic.

Most people become aware of this technological new world through cryptocurrency. Perhaps they heard about it on the news, read about it, bought some, or watched and listened as others engaged with this strange ephemeral beast that has no physical body but plenty of presence.

I launched myself into this cosmos six months ago when I acknowledged my complete ignorance and hit the Internet. Surely it couldn’t take too long to get my head around the whole Web3 concept because, as we all know, someone on the Internet always has the answer.

After a few months of trawling through websites, newsletters, and blogs, I began noticing very similar statements and comments splattered across the Web. Many articles seamlessly substitute Bitcoin for just about everything. Web3 means Bitcoin or cryptocurrency means Bitcoin or blockchain means Bitcoin. It is as though the conversation gobblers have taken to the written word; plenty of noise but not much substance.

What is happening now is very different from what preceded previous iterations of the Web because we already have an interactive Internet. News, ideas, and gossip all proliferate instantaneously.

Finding an original perspective or an authoritative voice on most Web3 oriented topics isn’t easy, but they are there.

Technical wizards, programming genies, child prodigies, and strategic masterminds abound. They speak ‘code’ as a language and live somewhere in the ether. They are explorers, visionaries, and mad people. They hide in dark rooms and stare at screens, but they see the stars. These are the people who are building Web3. I search for them, and they guide my Web3 adventure.

What have I learned? Technological advances are coming thick and fast. Web3 is a backroom-driven phenomenon. Advocates expound the virtues of Web3 in lyrical terms, and naysayers are vocal in their opposition. Business models are experimental, but all the big kids have decided to play.

There are no experts when it comes to Web3. Some people know a lot about a corner of it. Others know something about a few things. No one has all the answers. Most people are not even sure of the questions.

So, don’t worry if you are confused. It is liberating to acknowledge that you don’t know much, which is the first step towards learning because it opens the mind. Do these things: