"web3" and "crypto" are different things. they often go hand in hand, but they are different things. stop conflating them, and explaining the importance of what we're building to other people gets WAY easier.

"crypto" is a technology. decentralized peer-to-peer payments at the core. ethereum adds much more on top with smart contracts and programmability. at the end of the day, it's a financial tool.

"web3" is an ethos. it's the ethos of self-control over your funds, your data, your identity, and on and on... web3 means the locus of control is within yourself. you have true decision-making power about what you have and what you create, and no one can take that away.

crypto has the web3 ethos at its roots -- bitcoin's white paper makes this clear -- but it's extremely common for it to lose that ethos today. FTX may have been "crypto," but it was crypto as a web2 financial instrument.

just as you can have crypto without web3, you can have web3 without crypto. mastodon's ability to port your profile between servers is web3, even if it has nothing to do with crypto.

the greatest good comes when crypto is used to enable the web3 ethos. NFTs that allow creators to get royalties and continuously benefit from the value they're providing to society are a great example. using a wallet to sign in online is a great example. @LensProtocol is a great example. i could go on here for a long time!

at the end of the day, make sure you're building for the ethos and not the technology. it's about outputs, not inputs.

🤝

[fin]