We catered for the first Web3 travelers. From litepaper to action within a week.

It all started with our core contributor, Jaka, shilling the Non-Fungible Dinner in the Mintbase Discord channel - in the channel meant for shilling, of course. The community managers at Mintbase quickly responded and after a short conversation, Regina mentioned that she will be visiting Slovenia soon.

We immediately thought, what a great opportunity to take care of a fellow Web3 contributor that is coming to Slovenia for her vacation and test our concept of a Web3 traveler. You can read more about it in our litepaper. 

The main premise of tourism as we understand it is that we need to align the interests of travelers and hosts to achieve a “5-star experience”. The concept of the 5-star experience derives from the categorization of hotels, but it is much more complex. For some, seeing the Mona Lisa is a transformative experience; for others, it's just an overpriced work of art. This is because we have to build up certain knowledge and interests to be truly moved by art or anything else.

And if we spend most of our day thinking and working about Web3, then surely we would be interested in having Web3-related topics/experiences on our journey.

In the simplest form, this can happen when we bring together two Web3 contributors, a traveler and a host. And that's exactly what we did. Jaka from Web3 Travelers took Regina from Mintabse and her partner to a cocktail evening at the most beautiful viewpoint on the Slovenian coast. A very touristy place. But the difference was that we were probably (honestly we can guarantee it) the only table talking about NFTs, decentralization and Amazon AWS service at this view:

But do not get us wrong. We are not here to make the whole trip about Web3. Our identities are much richer than a single concept. We are interested in many topics and areas. We have explored Slovenian and Portuguese culture and simply enjoyed the delicious wine we produce in the Slovenian region of Istria. Nevertheless, we must say that the common interest in Web3 has made our connection easier, faster, and more meaningful - and these meaningful interactions are what we are looking for with the Web3 Travelers community.

Coincidentally, thanks to the Hi-Festival team, we also had a Web3 conference in Hrastnik that weekend. There was no other way than to invite our Portuguese Web3 Travelers colleagues to the conference. You had to buy the ticket as NFT - which also made this a unique experience.

This conference was also the first time we presented Web3 Travelers  in public. Yay for us :). We also announced a cool NFT project that we will be releasing on Mintbase and Near soon.

We shared the stage with awesome people building even cooler stuff:

• Luka Kačič and Katja Škorjanc from KatieShock
• Martin Petrič aka. tinosestric.nft
• Jure “JJ” Jakomin from Charify.art
• The Miha Artnak
• Kristjan Bajuk from Qvrse.io 
• Anuša Kovačič from Near Balkans
• Regina Nogueira from Mintbase

Yes, you read that right. Regina did not just attend the conference. She ended up co-creating the conference with us. She shared her knowledge and presented her work at Mintbase. For that we, the Slovenian Web3 community, are really grateful. A real Web3 traveler, combining work and leisure ;)

While we had a fantastic time together, the problem is how to offer these kinds of experiences to the whole Web3 community? Or even just to our community members. This is a problem that we encounter in travel all the time. These events happen at a specific time and place, and it's really hard to replicate them (that's why we used a cultural mapping method at our NFT workshop to preserve the culture and experience of the event). We can standardize the offering, but then it loses its charm and authenticity.

If random community members turn into hosts a few times a year, maybe our community can provide a very unique, authentic and decentralized offering each time?

Time will tell … Join us and build a new Grand Tour with us.

You can support us by:

• collecting this article as an NFT
• joining us for a Non-fungible Dinner on 26/8 in Žiri, Slovenia
• travel with us to a hidden Greek island in September

Regina’s testimonial:

Community is key to Web3. Everyone says it. And yet, sometimes it’s hard to understand what that actually means. Well, meeting Jaka & Web3 Travelers, first online, then in IRL, was as close as I got.

From seeing supposedly tourist places with different eyes and talking NFTs over Istrian wine to actually changing my itinerary to go to a Web3 conference and learn about all the amazing projects the Slovenian Web3 ecosystem; to actually have a chance to participate in the event myself and talk about Mintbase, meeting them completely changed my experience of Slovenia. Not only was it about traveling and exploring different cultures but also a sense of belonging. It was a chance to truly find community 2600 KM away from home and make meaningful connections around shared interests and world views.

Also, community lasts beyond the trip: we’re keeping in touch and already thinking of ways to collaborate 🚀👀