๐๐ฟ๐๐ฝ๐๐ผ-๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐น๐ฑ ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ผ๐บ ๐ฎ ๐๐ผ๐บ๐ฝ๐๐๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐๐ป๐ด๐ถ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ฃ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐๐ฒ โ๏ธ
(who is also interested in Economics & Politics)
๐๐ถ๐ฟ๐๐ ๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฟ ๐ถ๐ป ๐ฐ๐ฟ๐๐ฝ๐๐ผ ๐ซ
My crypto journey has started one year ago today (thanks to the @BiLira team for their friendly guidance). It soon got complicated since I realized blockchains' financial, economic and political sides. After getting lost in online articles, academic papers, and using and developing crypto projects; I decided to clean up my mind and share my experience with you. This is also an article on how I approach โcryptoโ as an engineer and a proud member of the digital generation.
๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ฐ๐๐๐ฎ๐น ๐ก๐ผ๐ถ๐๐ฒ ๐ถ๐ป ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ฟ๐๐ฝ๐๐ผ ๐๐ฐ๐ผ๐๐๐๐๐ฒ๐บ ๐
As Shermin told in her enlightening book1, โBuzzwords like smart contracts, cryptocurrencies, and tokens add to the confusion of what is whatโฆ The media keeps referring to cryptocurrencies, even when talking of non-currency tokens while reducing the underlying blockchain networks to objects of speculationโฆโ I notice in the crypto ecosystem all the time that the companies build some community for funding the project by introducing their visions & whitepapers. And since these share-like tokens they offer are tradable in exchanges from day-0, customers trigger a Ponzi-like scheme and the company makes huge profits. This unsustainable process results in terrible losses for new customers or investors as we all see in the media.
Iโm not going to explain to you what a blockchain network is, how they handle security & authentication, etc. All the crypto-communities trying to explain what a validator is or high-level technical details to the customers and they make it sophisticated as possible. I respect their efforts, but no one cared what IP/HTTP is, and probably no customer wants to know how they work. Decentralization, Data Ownership, Transparencyโฆ These are all powerful concepts yet they are meaningless for the customer unless they provide real utility in the long term. That made me realize, that maybe I should focus on something else and I quickly reviewed a lot of projects in the market by focusing on the new digital economies also known as Web3.
๐ง๐ผ๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฑ๐ ๐ก๐ฒ๐ ๐๐ถ๐ด๐ถ๐๐ฎ๐น ๐๐ฐ๐ผ๐ป๐ผ๐บ๐ถ๐ฒ๐: ๐ช๐ฒ๐ฏ๐ฏ, ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฆ๐๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐ณ๐๐น ๐ช๐ฒ๐ฏ ๐ฎ
Reading Token Economy: How the Web3 reinvents the Internet eased my onboarding into the crypto world (thatโs a must-read IMHO) and maybe it had the most accurate Web3 definition: โIf we assume that the WWW revolutionized information and that the Web2 revolutionized interactions, the Web3 has the potential to revolutionize agreements and value exchange. The Web3 changes the data structures in the backend of the Internet, introducing a universal state layer, often by incentivizing network actors with a token. The backbone of this Web3 is represented by a series of blockchain networks or similar distributed ledgers.โ
It is clear that storing any data on a blockchain network, and handling the authentication & authorization process with an incentivized consensus mechanism resulted in many platforms that allow people to communicate, exchange and organize in different ways. Deloitte2 defines โthe digital economyโ as โthe economic activity that results from billions of everyday online connections among people, businesses, devices, data, and processes. The backbone of the digital economy is hyper-connectivity which means growing interconnectedness of peopleโฆโ. Since we already have the cyber-world somehow (actual metaverse for 10+ years), blockchains only provide an infrastructure to build new digital economies by eliminating the need for a 3rd party, initial development cost, and allowing us to reach everyone that has an Internet connection.
๐จ๐๐ถ๐น๐ถ๐๐-๐ณ๐ถ๐ฟ๐๐ ๐๐ฝ๐ฝ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ต โ๏ธ
Engineers are good at spotting problems, modeling them, and solving them with the right tools. More generally, we optimize systems by using Science and Technology. Working in 10+ startups also convinced me that product-market-customer are the main things we should focus on. And it is extremely difficult for a startup to solve the technology, finance, or market problems with limited resources. Also, problems like monetization, funding, reaching customers globally without hassle, offering new revenue models, cross-border payments, and network effects arise through the journey. Since the focus is on the product and market, Web3 seemed a perfect fit in my case; by learning the experimental products, alternatives to the traditional tools, and new perspectives to solve real problems then I decided to use it in my projects and that made me realize the utility value of Web3.
Iโm super excited for the next year and pretty sure that the market will be full of extraordinary projects. It would be cool to hear about your journey and happy to collaborate on challenging problems.
Long live Techno-progressivism! ๐ฆพ
#web3 #newdigitaleconomies #blockchain #finance