The current Web3 ecosystem is fragmented and marred with a poor user experience. The existing landscape prevents Web3’s potential from being realized, one dominated by NFTs.
This article is part of a two-part series to discuss the current NFT ecosystem. Part two focuses on how DTTD is building to make the Web3 future possible.
We believe in the NFT future
The Covid-19 Pandemic and the preferences of Gen Z and Millennials have created a fundamental shift in how people interact. Online and digital spaces are the norm, with NFTs benefiting from this transition to a more digital world. Much of the early use cases of NFTs have focused on collectibles, games, membership, memorabilia, and art. This is only the beginning. Long term, we believe there will be greater adoption with NFTs becoming a staple of our daily life as a new way to interact with gaming assets, membership for digital experiences, and ticketing. The future applications are endless.
We believe NFTs represent the third phase of Web3’s development. The first focused on mining and altcoins and the second brought decentralized finance.
A lot of pain points. A lot.
Despite the promise of NFTs, the ecosystem is disparate and challenging to navigate. This creates an unpleasant experience for both crypto natives and the mass market.
The greatest pain points in the market we see are:
1. Product and service fragmentation — The current Web3 stack was built in a piecemeal approach. Innovation and changes occurred quickly, so pain points were addressed and solved as they emerged. The problem is this created a band-aid-like system for Web3, with different products solving issues in isolation. Users need to use multiple services from different providers every day for every facet of the ecosystem. However, the average person doesn’t want to use ten separate solutions to manage their NFT collection. Users want a seamless, one-stop solution.
2. No focus on social elements of collecting — The thing we love most about Web3 is the community and social interactions you get at meetups. However, online, there is no easy way to find or chat with other NFT lovers or find the owner of an NFT you want to buy. There is no way to share your collection, see the NFTs of your favorite KOLs, or check what your degen friends are doing. To be honest, most wallets feel more like a banking or stock trading app and not a place to socialize. We shouldn’t accept an inferior user experience because it’s Web3.
3. Endless spam and bots with no filter — In the current Web2 framework, there is no way to stop the endless spam you receive or filter which advertiser most values you. Attention in Web2 is owned and profited by the platform. Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google sell you to the highest bidder and you receive nothing for it. Web2 platforms have no incentive to stop or prevent bots from messaging you. In fact, it’s against their interest to do anything. The larger the number of users on their platform, regardless of if they’re genuine, translates into a larger ad revenue premium for them to charge corporates. Separately, and equally important, users have no way to know how much an advertiser values their attention or how much they would pay to capture it. How can a company reach a customer that might benefit from its service?
4. Difficulty onboarding for newbies — The existing system is prohibitively difficult for many to enter the Web3. If you disagree, ask your mom to set up a MetaMask account and then purchase her first NFT 😆.
Does the crypto world need another wallet? Yes, it does.
While often underappreciated, the wallet is the most important part of Web3. It is our gateway into the ecosystem. Wallet’s custody assets, connect into dapps, and are the basis for our Web3 persona. While tools such as MetaMask are great, they were built to custody cryptocurrencies and were not designed with NFTs in mind. It’s cumbersome to manage a collection across wallets, typically only supports one protocol, and there is no good interface to share a collection.
Building what’s next
Have we captured your attention and do you agree with what we’ve written? In our next post, we’ll explore how DTTD is building to make a Web3 for everyone. Follow us on Medium for part 2!
We are also beginning our soft launch soon and would love for you to be a part of our journey. Fill out our Google Form to join our soft launch whitelist.
If you haven’t already, please follow us on Twitter to keep you updated on our latest announcements!
WAGMI!
