Things I’ve learnt in web3… so far

Bit of a quick backstory here and it may be slightly shocking to learn for some that my own personal journey into blockchain and web3 only started last year. Yet within that period, I’ve been part of a crew that’s consulted on projects (GameFi), we’ve started the Australian DeFi Association, we created a web3 venture studio called NotCentralised and, more recently, a few of us are on the journey towards the creation of decentralised commerce platform called TradeFlows that we think will change the way we do business (and improve the typical view of NFTs and blockchain tech along the way).

It’s been a heck of a journey and the party ain’t stopping yet but here’s a list of thigns I am loving about the space so far (in no particular order)

• The similarity between how I’ve done business and what works well in web3. This space is far more about collaboration than competition and you see it so clearly when instead of similar groups trying to compete against each other, they realise they’re better off growing their piece of the pie and collaborating. There is a great videon on this concept (below) and it’s fantastic for us because myself and other partners I work with here, have pretty much operated in this way even before we got into web3 work

• The way that when you boil it down, blockchain tech, when used well, is all about efficiency and improvements. I work in data consulting for a living having worked for others, doing it within mostly financial markets and also running my own business and partnership consultancy now. There’s a lot of crossover between what I’ve done before and what is going on in web3 considering we both use tech to improve existing workflows, data or otherwise
• My colleague Arturo (@NumbersDeFi to those on Twitter and Numbers on our Aus DeFi Discord) pointed out that in web3, the role of those in data becomes even more important. It’s true because financial and business decisions will be even more impacted by the abundance of data we’ll get to see from all these public (and even private) ledgers. From corporates to regulators, the need to translate raw data into insights and actions is key and with blockchain tech, data professionals move up the pecking order.
• Web3 and blockchain is still so early… and for that reason there’s still so many opportunities. Just as those who came before us laid the foundations for those who came after them (e.g. blockchains and layer 1s laid the foundations for the layer 2 ecosystems we see now), so too will whatever we build or help build now be built further upon in future. There’s so many opportunities and despite the various hiccups going on out there, we’ve still got a long way to go.
• The open source nature of this industry is a key feature and a driver of the speed of innovation here. Because of it, the ability to take an existing project and improve upon it, has led to very fast turnaround times in new projects coming to life. It’s also meant many projects die just as quickly, but we need this fast-fueled iteration and experimentation to occur so we can figure out what works and doesn’t work. It’s interesting when people highlight failures in this space and some use that to try and tear the space down, but others see this and view it as opportunities to improve and make better. The transparency of these failures when they happen is what helps the system improve. The concepts of antifragility (from Nassim Taleb) bode well here.
• Web3 truly is for everyone. Sure it started off with those who knew code and software engineering as the only ones who could build. But, as the industry matures and we see large companies being built, we’re seeing other web2 professions come into web3 in sales, marketing, HR and more. We need more of this to occur so that it’s easier for people to bridge the gap.

There’s plenty more lessons and learnings but these are some of the main ones. Who knows where things will be in future but whatever happens, hopefully we’ll see more success than failures and we’ll have more people join in on the action.