Communities are the foundation of the new internet.

Unlike traditional online platforms that rely on advertisements to reach a large audience, Web3 enables communities to create and define their desired future together. However, there’s no existing playbook for Web3-native teams to attract, maintain and activate users. With rising competition and the technology still in its nascent stage, building and growing an engaging community is an extremely tough nut to crack. There’s usually a massive disconnect between the community and the team, or, worse still, an unhealthy transactional and adversarial relationship. Why, then, even with so many passionate teams and innovative new projects solving critical global problems with immense public utility in Web3, is building communities still so hard?

Web3 Community Building: The Challenges

Hype culture and the speculative trends surrounding cryptocurrencies remain one of the biggest incentives for current users to join new communities in Web3. The reach of this phenomenon is so far and wide, that it’s quite rare to find a strong community that shares a project’s long-term vision and has meaningful connections with the team. How does one assess this, you may ask? Simply go to a project’s Discord or peruse their Twitter engagement and find out for yourself.

As a user, evaluating the culture, plan, and potential of a project is a challenge in itself, as the most important information and resources about projects are often fragmented, unverified, and difficult to find. It leaves users to navigate the space based on ill-suited factors and hype, therefore reducing the ability of Web3 teams to attract dedicated, passionate, and informed community members.

On the flip side, there are a number of inspiring projects with a dedicated community base, and the common denominator among these projects is the presence of trust, transparency, and meaningful connections. When community members feel connected to the team behind their favorite projects, they naturally act as ambassadors for their community and bring new members into their fold.

There is an urgent need to reconstruct the idea of community building in Web3. And it needs to happen in a way that shifts the narrative focus from short-term, speculative activity to long-term, trust-based connections.

Link3 was born with the idea of creating a space where people can discover, engage with and learn about their favorite new projects, all in one simple place. This is where people can feel safe and receive reliable information, where their contributions and interests are properly recognized, and most importantly, where they are surrounded by a sense of belonging and shared identity.

Positively Empowering Web3 Communities with Link3

Link3 is a Web3 social network and community hub for discovering and building meaningful connections among communities. Within 5 months of its beta launch, over 1000 top projects, including BNB Chain, CoinMarketCap, Zerion, Galxe, and more, are utilizing Link3 to engage more meaningfully with their communities.

One of Link3’s core features, W3ST(Web3 Status Token, pronounced as West) is a powerful instrument for users to find their tribe in Web3. W3ST is a non-transferrable NFT with on-chain issuer reference built-in and in practice, acts as a digitally verifiable indicator of status to the rest of the community. Many organizations use W3STs to recognize their most engaged and loyal supporters as proof of participation, role, endorsement, or status in the communities, therefore building a digitally verifiable and contextually meaningful identity layer from the bottom up. Used to consistently acknowledge and reward their community members, W3STs can help create a shared culture and value system among the members of the same community.

W3ST is also instrumental to further growing communities because it helps identify people with similar interests, affiliations, and past experiences. There is also the added layer of trust offered through W3ST’s on-chain issuer reference which helps vet imposters and fake endorsements.

With its Web3-native event feature, Link3 also helps communities power their existing Twitter or Discord programs in ways that encourage and incentivize meaningful and verifiable participation. Link3 event planner has carved a new way of building community in Web3 while utilizing the reach of Web2 platforms and keeping blockchains and the promise of decentralization in the center, all at the same time.

Link3 is still invite-only. If you’re a member of a Web3 project and would like to use Link3 to build and grow your community, you can get in touch with us via our Twitter DM or Telegram here. Attending events on Link3 does not require a Link3 profile.

Head to Link3.to to learn more yourself and see how exactly it is empowering Web3 communities.