Editor's note: This article is based on BFF's Twitter Space, Getting Everyone (And Their Mom) to Care About Web3. Listen to the full recording.
Picture a 1960s board room filled with suited men and briefcases. They speak in a language riddled with complex jargon, effectively shutting out women and anyone who doesn’t speak their secret code. They get rich, but they don’t tell anyone else how they did it. They climb the ladder, and then pull the ladder up on those below them.
Now, imagine tiptoeing into the mysterious realm of Web3 in 2021, risking excommunication from conventional tech and finance industries (especially if your boss or colleagues learn about your “degen” persona and secret crypto wallet). You take the leap anyway, learning new acronyms like NFTs and ERCs, but then find yourself bombarded with scammers peddling Ponzi schemes who DM you malicious links.
While many Web3 early adopters believe in financial inclusivity, it’s worth doing some self-reflection to consider how the conditions of the industry make it unsafe for most people. Once a person invests their time, energy and, eventually, money into crypto, can the space really foster a safe environment to build wealth?
In a recent Washington Post article, columnist Michelle Singletary wrote that crypto is being pitched as a ticket to long-term wealth for historically marginalized groups, even when stats prove the industry is more volatile than most consumers are prepared for. The investors who have seen a return on their crypto investments are more likely to fit the demographic of that 1960s board room above than someone new to wealth building.
“Wealthier and more savvy investors in crypto, who are disproportionately White, have been able to get in and out at the right time,” wrote Singletary.
So it's natural to wonder: Why should general consumers care about this Web3 thing, anyway? If the space is still in its early stages, can’t people just wait until it's more palatable to participate?
Journalist Peter Kafka last year summed up the paradox of Web3 when he called it both the future and rife with scams. It’s sort of a catch 22: Getting into any industry early comes with inherent risks that savvy investors are better prepared to navigate. But waiting until Web3 is already mainstream means missing the chance to participate, shape it, guide its direction.
Thankfully, there are many ways to participate in Web3 without investing a single penny. For starters, you can simply learn within an educational community like BFF, SheFi or others. And learning, of course, is free.
Secondly, you can participate through your chosen career, whether as a marketing professional, software developer, C-suite executive, researcher or policy analyst — you name it. You don’t have to invest in order to have your hands in the clay; you can simply gain mastery through your occupation, building your career skills, networking and improving your long-term hireability along the way.
And if you’re an artist, you can experiment with Web3 technologies and platforms as complementary sources of revenue without abandoning your tried-and-true methods.
“I got into the Web3 space back in 2020,” recalls musician and Zoratopia founder, Latashá Alcindor. “I was deeply searching for sovereignty, deeply searching for ways to push forward my music career without having a middleman or someone telling me what my work is or what I deserved.”
It was the rising popularity of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that eventually gave Alcindor a taste of this sovereignty. Her historical music video NFT, released on the Zora marketplace in 2021, was one of the first of its kind to be minted.
Yet despite her success, Alcindor has reservations about widespread mainstream adoption: “I have a spicy take that I'm not a fan of mass adoption,” she said. “I believe that we still have a lot of work to do. There's just a lot of drama … and I think we gotta do some cleaning up before we get there.”
But don’t confuse her concerns for gatekeeping. Rather, she believes early adopters must first improve the user experience and make Web3 a safer place to interact before inviting newcomers. She also believes that regulation guidelines must be more clearly outlined before we can safely enjoy the benefits of Web3.
Web3 is not a silver bullet, and it won't magically solve all the problems overnight. But dismissing it as a scam or a passing fad would be shortsighted. We need to engage with this technology, ask tough questions, and hold the early adopters accountable. By doing so, we can shape the future of Web3 to be more inclusive, diverse and equitable.
This is not financial advice. If you don't want to spend money investing in crypto or Web3 — you don’t have to. The intent of this article is to help others educate themselves and learn.
Megan DeMatteo is BFF's Editorial Partner.
