What is Web3?

Before the New Orleans Entrepreneur Week evangelized me on the metaverse and Web3 (learn about NOEW here), I’d hear terms like “metaverse” and “mixed reality.” Two things happened:  one, I would roll my eyes, and two, depending on how much sleep I did or didn’t have, my mind either went everywhere, imagining all of the things the metaverse could accomplish, what it did or didn’t look like, the gaps it could fill . . . or my mind would go completely blank. Although I co-authored a fintech newsletter years prior and had dipped my toes into the world of cryptocurrency, there was something about the concept of “Web3” that I couldn’t wrap my head around.

Shocker: I was not alone. Web3 is a relatively new concept for many folks; consumers, policymakers, and established industries are just now figuring out how to get their piece of the pie, but we have members who have been in this space for years. As the world begins to learn more about the world of Web3 and its innovation potential, we held a “What is Web3?” webinar to help policymakers get ahead of the curve in understanding how innovators are leveraging Web3 and preview the kinds of issues likely to invite debate in future tech policy discussions.

During this briefing, we heard from member companies in verticals across the app economy. Panelists included: Dele Atanda, CEO at MetaMe, Stephen Forte, managing partner at Fresco Capital, and Thomas Gorczynski, co-founder at Devscale. As our speakers discussed the potential of Web3 and current use cases, including digital assets like cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), and virtual and augmented reality environments like the metaverse, one thing became clear: this technology can fill so many gaps, and policymakers have an opportunity to empower the small businesses driving innovation in this field.

Watch the webinar in its entirety below or on our YouTube channel. You can also get a tl;dr in our Twitter thread here.