Web3: Breaking the Chains or Building New Better Ones? A Web3 Marketing Founder Speaks Out
Syndicated from Brego.com
Look, I get the vision of #Web3. Decentralize power. Put people over platforms. All that good stuff. Without a doubt, there’s mad potential here. But let’s keep it real. Right now this space is looking pretty **** centralized and exclusionary if you ask me. Just follow the money and control. It’s flowing into the same old pockets and groups that already have influ and access.
For a scrappy startup like us trying to thrive on hustle instead of VC bucks, it’s tough finding partners who walk the walk when it comes to actually spreading power and ownership.
Everyone’s talking about changing the world, but too many are just building the next walled garden to get theirs while the getting’s good. Now I know we’re still early, and things take time to evolve. But if we really believe in this revolution, we gotta have some real talk about building for the many, not the few. About what it’ll concretely take to dismantle the narrow halls of Web2 privilege and construct something equitable and accessible instead.
For example, one of the big promises of Defi was the ending of redlining of Black and Brown communities. Here’s my question: How many founders have actually experienced redlining or discrimination? Dr. Beatrice Berry once said: “The new racist believes they can explain racism better than those who suffer from it.” How can Web3 cure the ills of the world when you still can’t see them because privilege is like water to a fish. Invisible.
Have we created enough opportunities to hear from those facing modern-day redlining? Perhaps meeting with narginalized groups to safely share experiences and co-design solutions would be better than a hypothetical case use. This cannot be understood through focus groups and studies, it is best understood through experience.
We need more involvement, from concept to distribution, more transparency and less 3 card monte on revenue sharing and governance models. We need to have honest conversations about equitable compensation and governance power in Web3 development.
Many enthusiastic young builders are putting in long hours to fuel revolutionary projects. Yet the financial returns and decision-making control seems concentrated in a few hands. For example, platforms that shall go unnamed for now, provide tooling but capture much of the upside through required use of their tokens and fees. The builders taking the development risks rarely gain equivalent rewards or ownership stakes.
Rather than criticize these models as exploitational, I believe the disconnect lies in a lack of proactive policies to decentralize value creation and governance. What security measures exist to ensure builder teams share profits if their dapps succeed? Are contributors earning vested token rights rather than just bounties or fees? Do they have seats at the table influencing platform policies?
This is not crypto sleight of hand; many founders simply inherited Web2’s over-financialized value paradigms.
But Web3 requires its pioneers evolve beyond extraction mentalities to create an ecosystem that benefits all who build, participate and promote.
So here are some questions we gotta grapple with fast:
How do we get more regular folks actual ownership and economic opportunity here instead of just enrolling them as sharecroppers on tech plantations?
What will it take to rip power and influence out of the hands of the Silicon Valley elites and pass it around for real?
Who’s gonna stand up and put their shoulder into opening doors for the historically blocked out and locked out instead of just making new walls with a fresh coat digital paint?
I’m eager to link arms with the leaders who still dare to believe Web3 can unlock real change. But belief without action just makes for empty hype and broken dreams. We need voices and choices that don’t just decentralize the profits but share governing control. If the ethos of Web3 succeeds, there’s enough upside for all of us, and changes to our world will be profound.
