As the deadline for Solana @SuperteamNG bounty draws closer, this thread will serve as my entry.

Before I start, I'll like to establish two things:

1. It is important to understand decentralization from a beginners perspective.
2. This thread is titled: Playing the Long Game.

In a January 2022 Forbes article, Bernard Marr explains how “Web 3 is currently a work-in-progress and isn’t exactly defined yet. However, the main principle is decentralization- rather than control by governments and corporations, as is the case with today's internet”.

Here is a simple analogy:
The Independent National Electoral Commission( INEC ) collated votes during the last election and declared results at the end. Despite efforts to ensure transparency by tracking every step of the voting process, the final results were vulnerable to manipulation because the people in charge retained the power to have the final say. This scenario is the defining principle of centralization.
An evolution of this scenario will be the use of technology to record and verify activity in such a way that every single step of the voting process is recorded and represented on a register known as the block chain -An online register on which information stored is openly available to everyone and can also not be mutated. This is the defining principle of decentralization.

In such a setup, everyone has a good reason to play their part correctly because everything is transparent and verifiable on the blockchain. Just like light, that takes away darkness by making sure everything is in plain sight and there is nowhere to hide and manipulate outcomes

Playing the Long Game:

According to Bill Gates, Most people overestimate what they can achieve in 1 year and underestimate what they can achieve in 10 years.

The past few years have offered the world a glimpse into the future. This is a future where alternatives can get the job done just as well as the existing infrastructure can. A practical application was the use of cryptocurrency to fund and ensure the success of End Sars as a movement. This use case and many others around the world served to finally command the attention of the centralized finance industry and venture capitalists who up to that point had viewed the blockchain as hullabaloo and noise.
Unfortunately, decentralized finance, the blockchain, and every other thing that constitutes Web 3 is still in its early stage with regards to infrastructure, innovation and regulation. For this reason, it was unprepared for the investments that poured in as venture capitalists pumped in money, hoping to grab a stake in the next big company. The consequences of this mismatch of expectations and existing infrastructure led to failed projects and ventures, loss of investors money and loss of trust thus leading to the current bear market.

The central vision for the original Macintosh in 1984 was to provide creative people with the tools they need to create. Today Apple is a trillion dollar company simply because the founders intention was to make it easier for the next generation to be creative. Presently, developers are contributing to the blockchain using personal computers which are products of that original vision.

The companies that will thrive and blossom in Web3 will have a mission rooted in the same purpose: to make it possible for the next generation to solve their problems by providing them with viable decentralised alternatives like payment and social media alternatives but to mention a few.

Having established its utility and importance, I strongly believe the future of Web 3 can be likened to the vision the Leaders of the United Arab Emirates had before they built it out. There is a large expanse of land on which a lot can be built.

However , this will require the recruitment of visionary entrepreneurs who will conceive the ideas that will be turned into infrastructure by designers and developers. Data and business intelligence talent will also be needed to build things that will stand the test of time.

Simply put; the optimal route to mass adoption is the long road which involves recruiting builders who will then go on to create profound consumer-facing products.

These products will then attract a lot of customers resulting in the the long overdue mass adaption of Web 3

This is the reason why I’m a big believer in what the Solana foundation is doing with super teams spread across different countries of the world. By nurturing these communities, they are repeating the process that birthed people like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Wozniak.

My prediction for the future of web 3 is hinged on the concept of time as the ultimate filter.
Companies will rise and fall, winds of economic cycles will blow and flush out /expose the charlatans and opportunists.

A decade from now, only the essentials will still be around.

Thanks for reading.