Many involved in cryptocurrency anxiously await the adoption of Web3. This is something that was discussed over the last few years. The question on everyone's mind is when we will see mass adoption?
Actually, it seems we have to isolate where this is directed. Is it pertaining to Web3 or cryptocurrency?
I surmise that, in most instances, people are talking about the mass adoption of cryptocurrency. This is what the majority focus upon. It is a curse that affects what many are trying to do.
Hence, my conclusion is most are not interested in Web3. To them, it is green candles and moonshots. Cryptocurrency is the cause of this, perhaps to the detriment of progress.
Generated by Ideogram
Cryptocurrency Cursing Web3
Do not get me wrong: cryptocurrency is a masterful technology in its own right.
The challenge we have is it moves the focus to a level the industry is not ready for. This is coupled with the fact that we have entrants who, quite frankly, are not equipped to deal with what is taking place.
Traditional funding for technological innovation typically comes from venture capitalists. These companies are adept at playing the long game. It is realm they understand, often applying percentages to determine success.
Most things are going to fail. Those that succeed will take years. The payouts come after development, attraction of users/customers, and then monetization.
Not only is there a long timeline, more money is often required. Start ups go through different rounds of funding, establishing new levels of valuation along the way.
It is during these times that we get an idea of what a company is worth. Since the financial reports are private, the public has no idea how well things are progressing.
This is not the case with cryptocurrency.
In this environment, the initiative is mark-to-market every minute of the day. With 24 hour trading, the "valuation" is moving up or down.
The issue with this is market dynamics are driven by insanity. Some believe the market knows what it is doing but history shows otherwise. Actually, it is the exact opposite. Markets are driven by fear and greed. In other words, it is a collective of emotions.
This is not exactly the basis for rational analysis.
Technological Builders
There is something that is standard with every technological success: someone had to build it.
Obviously, the word "build" encompasses different ideas. There is design, research, manufacturing, and scaling. All of these are aspects companies (or individuals) undertake when creating something new.
Those that are successful for new industries.
Web3 is no different. Like its predecessor, the Internet, it will come about as the result of many different types of builders. There will be the technical people pounding out lines of code. Entrepreneurs show up to fill in gaps by funding and establishing companies. These provide the marketplace with products or services to utilize.
Anyone involved in any of these areas knows it is a long process. The creation of a game, as an example, does not happen in a few days. It is a process that takes many hours of development to complete. Once that is done, testing is required to ensure that it is stable. Debugging is a natural part of the process, fixing errors that were missed during the first round of coding.
There is a reason why gaming companies spend so much time (and money) bringing out new games.
The same is true for most things. Technological success is an evolutionary process. In fact, the dependency is often on other rates of advancement. An example of this is streaming. The disruption of DVD could not occur without the progress made by telecommunication companies, i.e. the implementation of broadband.
Patient Versus Impatient
Market watchers, for the most part, tend to be impatient. They want their riches immediately. The overnight hits are well chronicled, with people always seeking the 1,000x move.
While these do happen, they are not the norm.
As we can see, building is an exercise in patience. Without that, the tendency is to give up.
Another issue is that many look to markets to provide validation in their decisions. There is safety in numbers and the masses are to be trusted. This is the mindset anyway. Simply watch how people are swayed by the opinions of others, even when those people have no idea what they are talking about.
This is how markets are.
We already established that markets are driven by the insane, simply run on emotion. How is this a barometer of the viability of a start up or business?
The answer is obvious. Yet, this is exactly what people do. They believe something is failing simply because the market price is not going up. By the flipside, those that have increasing prices are obviously worthwhile endeavors.
Anyone with a lick of sense knows this is not true. We can list thousands of companies, cryptos, or assets that were pumped before failure. Yahoo at $475 per share during the Dotcom boom is a prime example of this. The market had that one wrong.
Alas, while people know it is a lousy metric, they still get emotional when the price drops. When it comes to crypto, the tendency is, then, to apply it to the project or application. After all, the price dropped, this must be a loser.
Public Start Ups
It is tough enough to run a publicly traded company. We can easily see the divide between those who want the stock price to go up as compared to those looking to grow the company. Most CEOs today are really only focused upon the stock price. It is a flaw in the system that often has negative consequences long term.
That said, Web3 is even worse because we have start ups operating under the same premise. How often do you see comments about things that need to be done to get the coin or token price up? These people are not builders. Instead, they are market participants who only care about the short (perhaps medium) term moves in the price.
They can assert otherwise but this is where the focus is.
Is the Ethereum network more valuable if the price goes from $3,500 to $5000? How about $2,000? What changed with the network?
Most cannot begin to answer this since they mostly focus solely on price and likely have little idea about what is taking place with the development or building.
This is a new paradigm.
Starts ups being publicly traded is something we never encountered before. My guess is things are delayed because of this. Instead of focusing upon building products and services that fill needs, many are concentrating on what to do so the token price holds up.
The masses want adoption. What we have to ask is adoption of what?
Based upon most of the social media activity related to Web3, we seem to know the answer to that.