The Web3 App Summit: Building in Bogotá

For web3 to reach its potential, the community must support new applications bringing utility and value to current and future users. It’s with that goal in mind that Livepeer hosted the Web3 App Summit at Devcon.

The full day of events included talks, panels, and discussions about the path to full web3 adoption through a new generation of killer apps, with a focus on social, creator, and community use cases.

Here’s our summary of what went down at the summit — and what lies ahead for web3.

Panel: Beyond Blockchains — Building for Mass Adoption

• David Hoffman, Co-founder of Bankless (Moderator)
• ​Stani Kulechov, Founder and CEO of Aave and Lens Protocol
• ​Evin McMullen, Co-founder and CEO of Disco

The keynote panel focused on the importance of culture, capital, and control on the road to widespread web3 adoption.

The first question — “What does web3 need in order to make non-nerds care about it?” — drew a persuasive answer from Evin. In her words, the key is pursuing “a sense of belonging and delight rather than web2’s focus on money.”

Stani agreed. “We can’t use DeFi without financial capital, but every single person in the world has social capital.” Currently this social capital is stuck on centralized platforms. The way forward? “To let users secure their social presence, take control of it, have the value from it — and then monetize and trade as you want.”

Panel: If You’re Not on the Web3 Stack, Are You a Web3 App?

• ​Maggie Love, Co-founder and Director of W3bCloud (Moderator)
• ​John Adler, Co-founder and CTO of Fuel Labs
• ​Nader Dabit, Director of Developer Relations at Aave and Lens Protocol
• ​Eva Beylin, Director of The Graph Foundation

As you’d expect from the teaser title, this panel posed as many questions as it answered. What qualifies as infrastructure? How deep in the stack is it? Does every part of the web3 stack need to be decentralized? (Panel consensus: yes!) Do developers need to be realistic about the pressures of scaling, or go for 100% decentralization?

One clear message? Now is the time for developers to consider these issues.

​Blueprint for Web3’s Killer App: Launching a Breakout Social Application

• Doug Petkanics, Co-founder and CEO of Livepeer

Social media has been co-opted by the most profit-hungry web2 elements. In this talk, Doug explains why social is ripe for web3 disruption. But what will it take to make that happen?

Doug lays out a detailed and pragmatic game plan for creating the elusive killer web3 social app. Watch the video to learn more.

Fireside Chat: What is the Role of Government in Scaling Web3 Adoption?

• Shannon Wells, Head of Ecosystem Growth at Livepeer (Moderator)
• ​Diego Fernández, Buenos Aires City’s Secretary of Innovation and Digital Transformation

In this fascinating conversation, Diego shared highlights of a web3 journey that began in 2017 with an introduction to crypto and morphed into a groundbreaking mission: to improve lives and build communities in Buenos Aires via secure digital identities. In a city with three million residents and another four million who pour in each day to work, this is no small task. But Diego believes self-sovereign identities are the key.

“If we were able to use blockchain technologies to ensure trust on a digital basis, the leap that society could take would be amazing.”

With QuarkID due to launch in January, the concept is being actively explored elsewhere in the world. Watch the fireside chat to learn all the lessons this incredible story can teach us.

Solo Talk: Building International Developer Communities to Drive Innovation

• Camila Ramos, Head of Developer Relations at Fuel Labs

Before she kicked off, Cami asked her audience where they were from. Turned out that, beyond a handful from Latin America, the rest were split 50/50 between the United States and Europe. This surprising statistic prompted her to urge everyone in web3 to pay more attention to Latam, where conditions are ripe for blockchain adoption.

Catch Cami’s full talk to learn how to reorient web3’s graph from solving small problems for a few toward solving big problems for many.

Panel: The Future of Web3 Social and Creator Applications

• Dani Osorio, Partner at MetaWeb Ventures (Moderator)
• ​Ben Rubin, Co-founder and CEO at Here Not There
• ​Julien Genestoux, Founder and CEO at Unlock
• ​Haitham Mengad, CEO of StemsDAO

Many creators dream about their content going viral. But what comes next?

If you’re thinking beyond creating the next Discord or YouTube, then this exploration by panelists with substantial creative credentials of how blockchain can bring a new “town square” paradigm to interactive social applications is definitely for you.

Workshop: How to Build a Full Stack Web3 Social App

• Nader Dabit, Director of Developer Relations at Aave and Lens Protocol

Nader opened with the telling stat that some 90 percent (or more) of internet traffic currently comes through social applications.

“While DeFi and NFTs are great, vastly more people use applications like YouTube, Facebook and Instagram,” he said.

“The value proposition for making a web3 social graph successful is a lot larger than focusing only on those beginner use cases. When we think of onboarding the next billion users, it’s not going to happen through DeFi and NFTs.”

Nader, who founded Developer DAO and is now at Lens, an open-source tech stack for developers to build decentralized social applications, offered an expert take on how (and why) builders are moving to web3. It covered, among much else, web2’s drawbacks (application silos, lost APIs, platform-first monetization) and outlined the benefits of the decentralized alternative.

Key takeaway? Web3 doesn’t have to be complicated. Developer-focused projects like Lens (and Livepeer) make it easy to get up and running. As Nader says, “You don’t really have to know anything about blockchains.”

A highly recommended resource for current and future developers alike.

​Closing Fireside Chat: Designing for Diversity — Building Blockchain Apps for Everyone

• ​Manasi Vora, Co-founder of Komorebi Fund
• ​Tina, Head of Design at Element.Fi

How do we build crypto ecosystems with diversity at their core? How do we build applications and protocols for everyone? If web3 wants to achieve true global adoption, these issues must be addressed. This was the strong message of the summit’s closing conversation, which covered hiring and retention practices, product design, and the need for clarity and simplicity in user interfaces and experiences.

Drawing on their DeFi backgrounds, Manasi and Tina advocated for products that are accessible to all, not just those with traditional finance backgrounds. Diversity of experience, as well as racial and gender diversity, are vital components of mass adoption. “Let’s do this together,” was the closing affirmation.

Lightning Talks: Flashes of Inspiration

In a series of brief talks, some of the most influential movers and shakers of web3 shared their exciting projects.

Doris Hernandez, Co-founder of Dippi: Ever had a problem with your private keys? Ending the nightmare of losing access to your assets is the mission of Dippi, which builds enterprise-ready APIs to manage private keys. As Doris explains, solving decentralization’s “single point of failure” can bring multiple wins.

Tim Connors, Co-founder and CEO of 101.xyz: “Our top-down education system is failing us and decentralization is the future,” says Tim, who heads a learning platform that’s signed up 250,000 users and works with more than 200 organizations. Communities create courses that lead to on-chain credentials. Customized incentives such as NFTs and crypto sustain interest. Watch to learn more!

Sean Bradford, Founder of The Gallery DAO and Alexandre Lavallée, Founder of Selas Studio: “Always be open” and “Respect your vision” are the twin mantras of these two ArtTech proponents, who met by lucky coincidence and then brought their joint talents to bear on a series of exciting immersive experiences showcased at the summit. Their expertise and enthusiasm will inspire you.

Nicole D’Avis, Co-creator of Seed Club: Helping other builders launch successfully into web3 is Seed Club’s goal. Find out how it’s supported 65 projects as they put down roots in the ecosystem. Then grow your own!

Gabriel Tumlos, Founder of Mochi: Whether you personally find it impossible to stick to long-term goals, or run an organization that’s transitioning to remote working, Gabriel’s talk on how to sustain incentivization will help.

​Gia Castello, Grants Support Advisor at Decentraland DAO: A new grants program to encourage creators to move to the metaverse was so successful it’s now offering up to $240,000 in support. As the program grew, though, it soon became clear support was needed to mentor recipients and assess impact. This is an essential talk for projects considering their own grants program.

Tico Ituarte, Co-founder of Ephere Football: This Latin America-based soccer simulation game is chalking up some impressive player numbers while providing valuable lessons in web3, finance, and empowerment to a loyal community who love the Beautiful Game. Ephere Football has already been played an impressive 100,000 times.

Thanks to everyone who took part in the Summit, whether on stage, in the audience, or watching via the Livepeer-powered livestream.

Now, let’s go build the future of decentralized social, creator, and community apps!