In the landscape of the internet, Web3 has emerged as a paradigm shift, promising decentralized, transparent, and user-centric experiences. But what exactly is Web3, and why does community play a pivotal role within this ecosystem?
What is Web3?
Web3 represents the evolution of the internet, moving beyond centralized entities to a decentralized framework powered by blockchain technology. It’s a vision where users have control over their data, transactions are trustless, and protocols are open-source, fostering transparency and autonomy.
The Significance of Community in Web3
At the core of Web3 lies its vibrant and diverse communities. These communities are more than just groups of individuals; they are the driving force behind innovation, adoption, and growth within the decentralized landscape. In Web3, the community isn’t just a part of the ecosystem — it is the ecosystem.
Why Community Interaction Matters
Community interaction forms the bedrock of Web3’s progress. It’s the catalyst for knowledge sharing, collaboration, and the evolution of ideas. From discussing new projects to troubleshooting technical issues, interaction within these communities is where innovation thrives.
What Are Popular Web3 Tools
The communication platforms serve as the lifeblood of Web3 communities, providing the infrastructure for individuals across the globe to convene, collaborate, and innovate.
Projects leverage these platforms to share crucial updates, roadmap changes, and technical advancements directly to their communities. Some of these platforms offer built-in features for group calls which are usually used to host community calls, online educational events, and open discussions.
So let’s see what are some popular Web3 tools:
Discord
Discord stands out as a versatile platform offering real-time communication features. Its structure enables the creation of diverse categories, channels and subchannels ensuring easy navigation and active participation in community discussions.
Beyond its chat capabilities, Discord is a favored platform for hosting community calls, organizing meetings, and facilitating various online events.
The downside of Discord is that it can get messy pretty easily because of the large number of channels, and it gets quite overwhelming if you are a member of several Discord server communities. The mute ability really helps.
Telegram
Telegram gained widespread recognition for its secure and user-friendly interface, similar to WhatsApp.
It has an intuitive messaging system, allowing seamless calls, group discussions, and the creation of announcement channels.
Its unlimited group size contributed to its popularity within crypto communities, especially with the crypto “signal” groups (quick tips on next to the moon crypto).
However, Telegram suffers from a large number of bots, fake accounts, and unwarranted messaging, which makes it a less favorable platform nowadays.
Twitter:
Despite the controversies surrounding Elon Musk buying the platform Twitter remains one of the most used tools in the Web3 community.
With its concise yet impactful format, Twitter was and still is #1 Web3 platform for sharing insights, project updates, and connecting with the Web3 community. It’s not an educational platform, but a place to get the latest news and connect with others.
The downside of X is that it is difficult to reach masses and a large number of bots.
Post-acquisition the platform has undergone several improvements, and it promises enhanced user-friendliness and more benefits for creators. Let’s wait and see, in Elon we trust!
This platform is best known as a professional networking platform for job searching, recruiting, connecting with entrepreneurs and different companies.
LinkedIn recently became a Web3 hub. You may hear ‘crypto bros’ saying: those who use LinkedIn are not true Web3 people. Well, I would argue that it really comes down to personal preferences. To me, X is still super chaotic and it makes it difficult to consume different information. On LinkedIn I get to learn about Web3, AI, marketing, and pretty much anything.
The downside of LinkedIn is that it’s a platform to “sell yourself”, and if you can do that well, you can be anyone you want.
Discourse
A popular solution for better structured community discussions, updates and guidelines. The forum is pretty easy to navigate, making it user-friendly for different generations.
Reddit holds a significant position within the Web3 community, as well as in numerous other communities. It hosts diverse subreddits specifically dedicated to blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and Web3 projects.
In August 2022, Reddit introduced NFT collections featuring avatars crafted by independent artists, resulting in sales surpassing $32 million and attracting over 10 million new NFT holders to the Web3 space.
Medium
A publishing platform hosting a plethora of articles and blogs, it serves as a space for in-depth articles, educational resources, and analyses within the Web3 landscape.
It’s a popular tool that projects use to publish articles, whitepaper, litepaper, blogs, project updates, etc.
It has a built-in audience which facilitates reach, however, it doesn’t offer great monetization opportunities for writers.
Substack
It operates very similarly to Medium, with the main difference being that it offers monetization opportunities to creators. The drawback is that creators have to build their own audience as opposed to Medium that already has a large community of readers.
Both platforms, Medium and Substack, offer newsletters which makes it easy to reach followers and update them on the latest news.
Mirror.xyz
This platform came as a response to the need to have a Web3-native publishing platform.
It operates similarly to Medium, but the sign up is done through a wallet. Moreover, it offers a built-in feature to mint articles as NFTs. Depending on the settings, a reader can mint an article as an NFT for free, or for a set price by the creator. Pretty cool, right?
Paragraph.xyz
Another Web3-based publishing platform very similar to Mirror.xyz with the difference that it also offers a Web2 sign up — with an email address which makes it more accessible to the wider audience.
Downside of this platform, I would say that one of the initial investors was FTX, so let’s hope the future is bright for them!
Web3 Uses Web2 platforms
While vital for Web3 community interaction, popular platforms like Discord, Telegram and Twitter are centralized social media platforms, posing risks of censorship, data control, and service disruptions.
Their centralized nature contradicts the decentralized principles of Web3, raising concerns about user autonomy and information security. This reliance on centralized governance leaves these platforms susceptible to policy changes or shutdowns, highlighting the need for Web3-native alternatives — decentralized, community-governed platforms — to ensure a truly resilient and censorship-resistant communication infrastructure within the evolving Web3 ecosystem.
Conclusion
In the dynamic realm of Web3, community engagement stands as the bedrock of innovation and progress. Discord, Telegram, Twitter, Reddit, and various other platforms serve as pivotal hubs where enthusiasts, developers, and thought leaders converge. While these non-Web3 native platforms facilitate communication and knowledge sharing, their centralized nature presents challenges to the decentralized vision of Web3. Nevertheless, they remain integral for community building.
As the ecosystem evolves, the quest for Web3-native solutions continues, aiming to align communication tools with the decentralized ethos.
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Aleksa aka Daolexa is a DAO and Web3 contributor with the main focus on DAOs, DAO governance, and Web3 products.
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