Why Build in Web3

These digital assets are typically created according to interoperable standards on public blockchains, instead of being privately hosted on a company’s servers. This makes the assets “portable,” in the sense that a user can, in principle, leave any given platform whenever they want by unplugging from that app and moving — along with their data — to... See more

Sharing ownership allows for more incentive alignment between products and their derivatives, creating incentives for everyone to become a builder and contributor. 

Web3 platforms also have the potential to unlock a novel and especially powerful form of network effect through community engagement and social cohesion. 

Making platform backends open and interoperable enables compounding innovation and incentivizes direct investment in building the infrastructure layers.

Building on an interoperable infrastructure layer makes it easy for platforms to plug into broader content networks, thereby expanding the scale and types of value they can provide their users. A Web3 art gallery, for example, can bootstrap off the artwork users have already created on the blockchain, rather than requiring them to upload art to the... See more

Despite all the public conversations around the metaverse and various hyper-financialized NFT projects, Web3, more than anything, is a fundamentally different approach that some developers have agreed to. It’s based on the premise that there’s an alternative to exploiting users for data to make money — and that instead, building open platforms that... See more

Managing digital assets on public ledgers makes it clearer which assets exist and who owns what, which was previously a struggle on the web. 

This trust framework extends to the software that runs Web3 platforms: key operations can be encoded on the blockchain in “smart contracts” that are auditable and immutable. This makes it possible for a platform designer to commit upfront to certain design features, such as pricing rules, royalty agreements, and user reward mechanics.

Indeed, taken to the limit, in Web3, users sometimes have no need to trust the company (or people) behind a project; rather, they just have to trust the code itself.