Navigating the Dark Side of Web3
The longer you spend in a particular space, the more you start to see its darker side. Whether that’s because you are slowly drawn into a negative way of thinking, or perhaps fall victim to the many kinds of unethical and destructive behaviour human beings are unfortunately capable of.
Web3 is no different. In many ways, it can be a lot worse than other creative and community-driven spaces — because the profit motive is so dominant that it brings a lot of corrupting influence with it. For this week’s session of R Planet Together (held as a Twitter Spaces every week at 8pm GMT), I wanted to explore some of these darker sides of web3.
By doing so, I hope that we can help create a space where these things can be discussed openly and our experiences shared. We can then start to recognise some of these behaviours in ourselves and do what we can to mitigate them — while supporting those projects that are operating as positive influences and helping to evolve Web3 as a whole.
Scammers, Scammers Everywhere
The first and most obvious dark side of Web3 is how infected it is with criminals looking to steal your digital assets. There are so many variations of scams in the space (and in crypto as a whole) that it’s difficult to keep up. Pretty much everybody has been a victim of one — whether getting accounts hacked, OTC trade scams, buying into a rug or even a full wallet drain.
Every single day, on every project server, there is someone who says they have been a victim of one Web3 scam or another. It’s disheartening, because so much hard work can be gone in a single lapse of judgement. It’s also something that will hold back any mainstream adoption. As much as we love the freedom of self-custody and the innovation that emerges from unregulated spaces, people aren’t interested in having their assets stolen or worrying about being scammed of their time and money from every single website and project they look at.
Navigating the vast sea of scams in Web3 requires a lot of education, patience and looking out for one another. Even those who have been here for a long time can become complacent, or think it ‘won’t happen to them’. The best way to avoid many of the scams is to just slow down. You don’t need to catch every wave or make a trade every day. Take your time and learn how to avoid reacting to FOMO — because often it’s FOMO that leads you right into the hands of those looking to steal from you.
The Used Car Salesman Effect
Perhaps one of the more benign behaviours found on the darker side of Web3, inauthentic dialogue and the constant shill is still a huge issue. It’s a difficult one to escape from, because we all become passionate about our holdings and want to see them do well — but there’s a difference between being passionate about a project compared to stretching the truth and/or lying to people. Unfortunately Web3 is filled with a lot of the latter.
There are different forms of this. The worst are closely linked to the scammers, but it also comes in seemingly more innocent, but still corrosive, forms such as hyping up buyers so that you can use them as exit liquidity. Knowingly doing this, as opposed to getting caught up in the hype yourself, is a clearly unethical and predatory behaviour that is unfortunately far too prevalent in Web3.
Digital Dependency
Web3 requires us to engage with digital environments. It is an additional layer to our concept of day-to-day relationships, ownership and participation that draws us deeper and deeper into our technology and digital realms. However, like we have seen with the internet and smartphones over recent years, there are some real challenges that can arise from digital dependency and we need to be aware of how they are impacting us on a daily basis.
The first issue is that we can develop a kind of tech-induced Attention Deficit Disorder. The constant stimulus; different platforms, project servers and markets to check in rotation; and physiological pull of a potential dopamine hit, all combine to bring us into patterns of behaviour that can make it difficult to focus on any one task for extended periods of time.
The second issue, that arises over time, is that if we don’t have a plan for where our time spent in the space is going then we can end up spending a lot of time with little new skills to show for it. It’s too easy to get caught into the dopamine feedback loops and not push yourself to learn new things, or take on responsibilities that can lead to professional opportunities. It’s easy to waste our time in Web3 while convincing ourselves we are being productive.
Taking a break for a few days every now and then is a good way to take stock of everything and make sure you aren’t neglecting other areas of your life.
Gambling Addiction
Perhaps the most difficult dark side of Web3 to talk about, gambling addiction is rife and most of us are affected by it in some way. Indeed, the space has such a problem with gambling that a new term emerged to help obfuscate the issue… Degen. Behind this term lies a complex web of motivations and compulsive behaviour, led primarily by the dream of quick monetary gain.
Everything in how the space currently operates encourages a gamblers mindset. We’ve seen 1,000x gains on a regular basis, setting the bar for returns as high as can be. We have markets that operate 24/7 and are driven by alpha and FOMO. We have an attention-based economy that encourages flipping assets quickly and without the patience required to be an informed investor. People chase gains and hide the truth of their losses. The warning signs of gambling addiction are rife in Web3.
How we overcome this will be a difficult path. Largely it comes down to the profit motivation being de-emphasised and replaced with a desire to participate in communities that help build towards a specific purpose. It also requires a lot more education; accessible addiction programmes and helplines; and more open spaces in which we can honestly talk about our motivations, losses and opportunities to be better and act more carefully.
If you or anybody you know might have a problem with gambling addiction, there are resources available to help.
Outspoken Entitlement
Wen roadmap? Wen announcement? Not that announcement, the other one I had in my head… It’s a familiar experience we’ve all had in Web3 chats and servers across the board. So much so, that it has become a running joke. But behind the joke is something more destructive. A degree of expectation this high is not sustainable and, in most cases, not even really achievable in the first place. It’s also closely linked to some of the other issues, such as gambling addiction, as the demands are almost always tied to floor price as the main targeted outcome.
Good projects require time to build towards their purpose. Successful businesses need to act carefully and purposefully — and enter into various contract, partnership and deliverable negotiations and procedures that can take months to play out properly. It’s also one thing to have individuals demand unreasonable things, the whole variety of personalities are going to be part of any project, but when a community as a whole leans into the ultra-demanding mindset it often leads to poor decision-making and toxic behaviour that turns away any newcomers that might be interested in joining.
Recognising when we might be doing this in ourselves is the first step to mitigating this issue, but ultimately it also requires us to focus efforts into more creative and fruitful outlets with our time spent in any Web3 community.
Conclusion: Step into the Light
As in all walks of life, there are many dark corners and destructive behaviours to be found in Web3. How we navigate these depends a lot on the way in which we equip ourselves with knowledge, patience and a good circle of people (friends, even) that we trust. From there we can start to build out the brighter sides of Web3, that encourage a more positive and beneficial future for us all.
Taking onboard a notion of ‘stepping into the light’ when it comes to our Web3 activities is an important bridge to cross. Not only does it mean that we start to reconsider where our own motivations are leading us (something which does often lead to a better bottom line), but it also means that we start to think about how we are impacting others in the space.
A lot of the dark side of Web3 comes from a self-centred, profit-obsessed mindset that is willing to do anything to come out ahead by a few ETH. This causes many people to lie, cheat and steal their way through Web3 — leaving a destructive path behind them that holds back the potential of this growing landscape of technologies and platforms.
Overcoming these negative motivations within ourselves is the first step, then we can help others achieve their goals in an optimistic and creative way too. Once we begin looking after one another in this way, we can create spaces within Web3 that uplift the best of humanity and collectively help overcome our darker and more selfish sides.
