Web3 AMA with Jordy Fujiwara: The Good, the Bad and the Practical

Welcome to our AMA with freelance writer, digital strategist and web3 explorer Jordy Fujiwara.

First up, an introduction from Jordy:

web3, can you ELI5? (explain it like i'm 5)

Jordy:

How are we educating businesses to adopt Web3 and what are the challenges being faced while adoption?

Jordy: Great question! Partial answer here:

Jordy: TL;DR - web3 education is a huge challenge and opportunity because it's super technical right now, and you need huge attention to detail and curiosity and tech savvy to navigate.

I have a really hard time wrapping my head around web3. How is this different from open-source software? How is web3 “open” if people own parts of it? How does the ownership aspect stop big conglomerates from just owning large swaths of web3 like they already do (ie same game, different deck of card)

Jordy: Solid questions!

Open source software is not necessarily distributed or decentralized. It lives on servers that can trace back to AWS or Azure etc. This isn't to say this is antithetical to the idea of web3, or better, or worse. Indeed, the core code that runs blockchains and smart contracts are open source by necessity. So open source is a foundation on which web3 applications run.

With blockchain, people don't own parts of it. Certain people (nodes) host ALL of it, and they all keep an identical copy so that no one of them has control (destroy one node, the rest persist). Keeping the copies the same and unalterable is NOT the blockchain ,that's the job of the consensus mechanisms like proof of work (the environment killer, mining) or proof of stake (the newer stuff that doesn't drain)

This is a continues challenge. Right now, it's not clear. "Whales" as we say can pop into ecosystems as wrest control over micro-markets.

However, there's the idea of the hard fork. Say a community is trucking along happily in their web3 zone and MEGACORP arrives and buys everything. The community leaders could decide to hard fork-- create two copies of the chain, leave MEGACORP with one, and continue on in the other. If the value was in the community, the old chain will theoretically wither.

This scenario has already happened once that i know of! It was a fascinating use case of the hard fork. LMK if you want more info on it!

What should I be searching for on Google to dig info up on that?

Jordy: This article should be a sufficient entry to the rabbithole! https://cointelegraph.com/news/hive-hard-fork-is-successful-steem-crashes-back-to-earth

TL;DR: The STEEM chain started around 2016. Focused on blogging, some gaming maybe. Billionaire buys in around 2020. Community is wary... then new owner starts making moves to corral a community fund worth ~9M USD. Community successfully hard forks into HIVE (STEEM clone).

Today, activity on HIVE far outshines that on STEEM.

Are there any practical uses for web3 that deserve hype? Or is that still years away?

Jordy: I believe: yes.

One such case is in the DeFi world (decentralized finance). Digital currencies that are no encumbered by politics and process have saved the financial lives of many in developing countries. Places with insane hyperinflation have turned to cryptocurrencies for stability and a way to save value.

The high level use case: slowly helping tackle inequality between the developed and developing parts of the world. There are people in the Philippines that play crypto games full time because it's a legit income supplement.

There are other use cases in Gaming that I love, and while gaming isn't the solution to the world's bigger issues, it's a massive industry and web3 stuff is DEEPLY sunk in there. If nothing else, gaming will drive web3 adopting IMO

What are a few examples of marketing strategies/tactics that work well for web2 but totally fails to deliver results in web3?

Jordy: oh man this is a tough nut to crack. Did my best!

I understand the crypto and web3 space relatively well, but I am having trouble getting opportunities to contribute to collaborating on content in these areas, other than mirror. Would you recommend any discord or any other communities?

Jordy: Great question.

Discord is the platform of choice for things web3 these days. The term you'll wanna search for generally is "DAO" which stands for Decentralized Autonomous Organization.These are groups of people that are essentially web3 communities, and any of them that are serious will need communication expertise.

I'm affiliated with https://rabbithole.gg which is forming a DAO around decentralized education, starting w/ web3 education.There's JUMP, which you can read about here: https://www.morningbrew.com/marketing/stories/2022/01/11/the-discord-community-where-marketers-learn-about-web3

The TILT is a leading org that's listed on Rally.io and focuses on the creator economy: https://www.thetilt.com/ (they pay a few hundred for articles... but you'll be paid in crypto!)

It looks like big companies are trying to get into Web3 even though my understanding of Web3 is to stop companies like Google or Facebook being gatekeepers. What's the general reception of any company trying to get into the Web3 space? Are they welcomed, shunned, or something different?

Jordy: I think it depends on how they do it.

They meet resistance if the approach comes from a place of FOMO or hype. Mostly because the community they'll likely attract are the so-called "degens" that are s host of characters that are simply looking to gamble, troll, and prey on the wild west nature of the space.

But if a company takes the time to author a good whitepaper, think through their tokenomics (if applicable), have a plan, a strategy, etc... it's not hard to find extremely talented and passionate technologists, creatives and supporters. And they'll rally around a project!

What's your take on content marketers and their place in web3-land? Where is demand/need now and what do you think it will look like in the near-future?

Jordy: Firstly, check out JUMP - it's new and fast growing community especially for web2 marketers looking to explore the space. https://www.joinjump.community/

More direct to the question: if web3 really wants to be a thing (and lots of people want it to be), it's gonna to need to communicate. Websites will need clear messaging. UX/UI is paramount because the technical navigation is something fierce. Whitepapers need to be authored. Projects need to be marketed.

So it's all still content. Web3 won't kill content. The opposite: it elevates content from this slightly vague thing that means words/comms/pictures/tweets/posts to all that plus a way to tokenize it, put real value on it, trade it as a digital object, etc.

Demand is gaining strength. Supply is "low" because a lot of content creators/marketers don't know the first thing about web3.

Ethereum is supposed to make a historic change to its core operability over the next 18-24 months that, will (in theory) exponentially boost the influx of various web3 projects. Like any startup, 99% will fail, no doubt. But they'll all be competing and savvy content marketers will be able to find ways to deliver value!

What should content marketers says if their boss says, "what's our web3 strategy?"

Jordy: I think the most general advice would be: Keep eyes on it.

I have a strong sense that we're in that nascent stage before some serious paradigm shifts start cascading. It feels like web2 stuff circa 2010.

In 2010, you can imagine a decision maker asking "what's our social media strategy" and the same "why would we even have one?" (And some still say this today, and there are legit reasons not to still!)

I say keep eyes on it because what web3 represents is a natural and somewhat unstoppable (at least near term) evolution of how the digital world even works.

If you use the Internet and computers for stuff, and it brings value to your business, you're better off at minimum being aware of web3 than being blindsided by it.

Depending on the business though, the answer could be "you can safely ignore it"

others could be: "yup this changes everything"

Finance needs to keep on top of it.

Healthcare can probably sit back for a little while.

Gaming NEEDS to understand it, it stands to overhaul that space.

Software development NEEDS to understand it (devs are getting scooped up for one!)

How have you seen content marketers embrace web3?

Jordy: Some have formed specialized communities to help understand it more! Check out the JUMP community https://joinjump.community

Others (myself included) have started getting involved with DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Orgs).

Some are taking their content creation skills and are blogging on web3 enabled social platforms and capturing value in the form of crypto.

Some larger web3 or web3-adjecent orgs are hiring content marketers! Yesterday the head of content strategy for Ripple joined Superpath @kellyb

web3 ventures—from the big and serious to the wild and goofy—want and need content. Some can pay for it! Some will pay you...in crypto. Some will just promise community love. Others are scams It's a wild world

Re: ripple ~ https://ripple.com/

Where can people follow you/your work?

Jordy: Thanks for hosting Jimmy! Time flies when you're AMAing

My web2 eLearning platform: https://www.clearcrossingacademy.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordyf/

My Twitter will likely start getting more web3-y: https://twitter.com/j_fuji

And if you want to see stuff I've written ON a web3 platform (not necessarily about web3): https://ecency.com/@jfuji/blog

This post is about decentralized education tho! ~ https://ecency.com/hive-122108/@jfuji/can-hive-like-curation-play

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