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When announced in October 2021 that Facebook was rebranding as to reflect its growing investment in the metaverse, many looked on in confusion and amazement, asking what was this dystopian-sounding sci-fi universe he referred to, and what would that mean for the human race?

Those inside the technology, meanwhile, rolled their eyes: Notions like the metaverse and Web3 are long-established concepts, only just rolling into the public consciousness in recent years before taking the world by storm in 2021.

Understanding Web3 principles

To some degree, Web3 is just a rebranding aggregation of crypto, blockchain and virtual reality. It鈥檚 a conscious move away from the murky world of crypto鈥攚hich is often cynically characterized as a Wild West of drug dealers and scammers鈥攕howing how the technologies have matured and increased in utility as they continue to soak up more money and attention.

There鈥檚 more to Web3 than just hyperbole and hideous ape jpegs: Scratch the surface and you鈥檒l find a group of vibrant, blue-sky optimists discovering, experimenting and remixing each other’s ideas and technologies.

There鈥檚 one main guiding principle that collectively drives them, and that鈥檚 the potential of new decentralized tech stacks to create novel network effects. Web2 was characterized by a winner-takes-all model.

Many early founders and VCs have long feared the potential “kill zone” found adjacent to the products of the FAANG behemoths. Web3 is different. There鈥檚 a totally new ownership dynamic, and the ability to port your data between Web3 projects via your wallet means that the killer Web2 network effects no longer apply.

It can be hard to get used to the occasionally impenetrable lingo and frenetic speed of Web3 hangouts like and . It’s good, however, to get familiar with the essential ideas that underpin blockchain technology itself.

First, it’s a tamper-proof log of prior events. Secondly, it’s trustlessly distributed and enables the easy compensation of participants. Finally, the rewarding of early adopters and other contributors that allow Web3 players to take on spaces previously too close to the FAANG kill zone while enabling entirely new ones.

Further reading

• Funding Starts To Cascade Into Web3 Startups

The success stories so far

Understanding these fundamentals allows you to understand some of the early examples of Web3 success stories. is one such company, a user-owned talent network competing with the likes of It’s already seen freelance talent jumping ship from places like and , drawn in by the appeal of sharing in the growth of the entire organization.

has had a similar impact: It鈥檚 a distributed data storage system taking on the likes of and , and is now one of the most widely used Web3 applications.

is one company I like to point out, demonstrating a truly novel and utilitous Web3 application. It has adopted a fresh take on gamified edtech by rewarding users for learning about and trying out existing Web3 tools. The key鈥攊t鈥檚 all done on-chain to prove how far down the 鈥渞abbit hole鈥� you鈥檝e gone.

Looking to expand into Web3?

Many existing organizations, like Facebook鈥攕orry, Meta鈥攚ill now look to get into Web3. For these companies, you have three routes.

Acquire. Use your capital to purchase Web3 applications, just like Nike when it NFT studio RTKFT.

Partner. Build relationships with Web3 projects and incorporate them into your existing product, like how New York City worked with to into its tech stack to share public data more widely.

Experiment. Try out novel uses of Web3 technology, like London agency has by creating to incentivize the building of its unique Web3 community of experts and creators.

Building in any nascent space isn’t without risk, but this is amplified in Web3. Most technologies typically follow a standard adoption S-curve. But the incentive structures of the blockchains that are so key to Web3’s ability to grow their networks and hypercharge growth, mean that high-quality projects often share the same pyramid scheme-style features of trashy crypto scams. It’s unfortunately a feature, not a bug.

While the lack of regulations is currently allowing for rapid development and growth, in the long term, the space needs more oversight to be widely adopted. There鈥檚 also significant resistance to blockchain鈥檚 environmental impact; you only need to see the pushback against popular brands鈥� cryptocurrency or NFT partnerships to see the debate around energy usage rumbling along. We鈥檙e still waiting for ethereum to move to the more energy efficient 鈥榩roof of stake鈥� mechanism鈥攗ntil then, expect to see further pushback, and make your own informed choice.

It’s no surprise that Web3 is often described as the Wild West. If you’re brave enough to venture out into this new digital unknown, expect to meet bold adventurers, dangerous bandits and brave lawmakers on your journey. There’s gold in them hills. Hope you find it.

is a venture designer at leading company builder , which recently launched ,聽 a new knowledge sharing community exploring the power and potential of Web3.

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