By: Mike Morgan
Getting started in Web3 is confusing & overwhelming
Web3. Blockchain. Cryptocurrency. Your nephew who won't stop talking about their latest NFT. It’s a lot.
Believe me, I know. I probably have less patience for it than you – and I’ve been working in the space for a long time. I'm not an evangelist, I believe in the tech – but not the hype. I love the work that I do and the opportunities I have in the Blockchain space, but I’m reticent to bring the topic up with friends and family. The interest, followed by confusion, followed by the glazed-over look. There’s no bite-size, eureka moment for explaining the technology, from the college student to the retiree.
For all the interest there is in the space, there’s a cyclical trilemma we see time and time again for why individuals can't get over the hill on learning about the technology.
“Where do I even start?”
“It seems like too much / it’s too overwhelming.”
“But how can I use it / how is it relevant to me?”
If anyone thinks these are reason enough to bury your head in the sand, I’d invite them to watch the now-famous 1994 Today Show clip, “What is the Internet, Anyways?”.
It’s early – BUT – it's important
There’s a bubbling demand in the broader market to grasp these concepts and understand the ‘why’ behind all the noise. Blockchain technology is not an end in itself, the same way we don’t think of Google, Facebook and YouTube as just ‘The Internet.
Blockchain and Web3 are about record management, ownership rights, and access, but to make this work you still need application layers (how users interact with it). This is where the opportunities present themselves for organizations to best serve the needs of their users. As with any product or service, the most important aspect is serving the customer's needs.
Perhaps one of the most important aspects of our work at TF Labs is figuring out how Web3 and Blockchain technology fits into a company's overarching goals – it’s not a ‘click and install’ type of interaction. Your organization didn’t wake up one morning and decide ‘our company is going to "Internet now."' Through the same lens, your community, constituents, customers, and students won’t wake up one morning and "decide to Web3 or Blockchain." That being said, just as your business is seamlessly integrated into the ‘World Wide Web,’ the time is coming for your organization to build into, and exist with, Web3.
Lessons for Educational and Non-Profit Organizations
Herein lies the excitement for educational and non-profit organizations. Over and over, organizations who have engaged TF Labs are looking to sell NFTs to their constituents since "hey, if there’s all this money in the industry, why shouldn’t we be offering them to our members?" For as many times as we’ve been reached out to in that way, we’ve helped educational organizations realize the real value is in becoming the authoritative, comfortable source for their members in learning about Web3 and Blockchain, while supporting their members in what is likely to be their first experience with the technology with the main goal of making as simple as possible.
Knowing what we all know now, if our companies had been around prior to the Social Media / Content Streaming / Information Highway ecosystems we’re all incredibly familiar with now, wouldn’t you have wanted to be the source of learning, exploration, and experimentation for your member community for the then-emerging technologies? What would it look like if your organization had been the place that your constituents started interacting with [any new technology], eased them into it, and demonstrated how it was relevant to them?
Blockchain is emerging to be a serious hidden gift to educational and non-profit organizations. The space is the Wild West, and your constituents are on the Oregon Trail whether they know it or not. At TF Labs, we firmly believe that every educational and non-profit organization has the incredible opportunity to be the caravan driver on that journey. What’s particularly exciting for organizations is to introduce the technology in ways that are complementary and synergistic to the organization’s overall goals.
Schools? Blockchain 101.
Non-Profit? How to donate in Crypto and earn NFTs.
Research? Content distribution and accessibility.
Learning about Web3 and Blockchain technology, integrating it into your organization in a way that is both beneficial to your members as well as the company, and pushing your members into those user experiences that are one of the greatest opportunities for stewardship enhancement and constituent expansion in recent history will allow your organization to grow just as those have who were early to previous technology waves.
Blockchain, Cryptocurrencies, NFTs – it’s a lot. But everything is a lot. What’s important for you and your organization is to figure out which pieces are important to you, now, and what’s next. There’s something that’s worth learning, and soon it will be second nature to your members – as seamless and engaged as anything else.
TF Labs is a Web3, Blockchain, and NFT Management Consulting Firm and Startup Studio
founded in 2018. Since its founding, TF Labs works with businesses across multiple verticals to establish its Web3 and Blockchain Product Strategy, conduct and plan large-scale conferences and events, and has spun out two companies directly related to Web3.