FORBES CHINA
WEB3.0
Many people are addicted to finding independent meaning and value
longing to isolate from the great inheritance of mankind
so they fantasize about entering a golden age
but fell into a cesspool.
—— George Orwell
The history of modern computers is a detective novel that is repeatedly interpreted between decentralization and centralization.
The invention of the first computer in humans has obtained the convenience and benefits of centralized analysis and processing of information. In the 1980s, the emergence of personal computers was to disperse computing power to individual users, thereby releasing greater productivity. Subsequently, Microsoft provides efficiency to ordinary users through the operating system while also regaining some of its power, which is very similar to the prototype of today's platform companies. After
, the decentralized counterattack of was coming in full swing, and open source software gradually appeared in the market. In the early days, we saw PHP, Linux; in the mobile Internet era, we saw Android. Although the rights of users have been amplified again, in the end, these diversified Internet equal rights applications are once again controlled by a few technology giants because of cloud computing or data centers, such as Google, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, etc. While the social efficiency improvement brought about by extreme centralization, the side effects of data monopoly also profoundly affect us.
In the future, ""privacy", "security" and "fairness" have become the keywords of the entire Internet industry. Today, the Web 3 we see is the most controversial and threatening "revolution" to centralization in the past 10 years.
Will this information technology change eventually go out of the short and critical adolescence as before, pulling out of the three clues of efficiency, universal value and human nature , so as to reach a new reconciliation with the world?
The complex and traditional social problems created by new technologies have always been an inevitable part of the human history process. The lies and fallacies that appear in the meantime make it difficult for the public to distinguish between idealists and liars.
The new column "Web 3 People" specially launched by Forbes China is intended to sort out and review the huge failure and heritage created by the blockchain industry over the past decade, whether this failure comes from overly ideal technical concepts, lack of constraints, or an immature market environment. But we still hope to use this to bring some inspiration to today's Web 3 innovators.
WEB3People's Travel
Looking for those failed
Before this column was launched, Forbes China conducted a small-scale survey, and the questionnaire was 6 senior investors and entrepreneurs who are now active in the blockchain field, 4 of which are from China and 2 from overseas. The companies they founded or managed blockchain investment funds are mostly far higher than US$1 billion.
We have raised a question to them: If you ask you to tell 10 most representative failure cases in the blockchain or Web 3 fields, who do they all? The names provided by respondents to Forbes China are perhaps the most representative Web 3 companies that have experienced huge setbacks or failures, and can also serve as a unique perspective to observe changes in the overall value consensus in the blockchain field.
In those Web3 companies that have experienced failure, we will more or less find the following major categories of common problems.
For example, the technology route of expanding Ethereum at the infrastructure level has buried many companies. Some of them are hindered in the advancement of new layer1 projects in communityization or are not progressing smoothly in more development directions that have homogeneous competition with Ethereum. In addition, the asset technology on the privacy chain has been abused by the decentralized black forces and faces criminal pressure from centralized supervision in various countries.
At the application level, more problems arise in the product economic model moving closer to Ponzi scheme . There is an air marketing or death spiral at the user operation level. At the smart contract level, there are unlimited leverage problems such as serial arbitrage.
Through the above, we seem to see that in addition to the challenges that traditional Web2 companies such as technology and operations will also encounter, there are still many things that Web3 companies need to summarize from failures.Part of it comes from the technical path, part of it can be summarized as human nature. What is inevitable in the future diffusion of technology is how to better communicate with emerging technologies and regulators, thereby reducing the potential damage brought about by innovation.
The above problems will have insurmountable risks for the Web3 field to high DAU applications and large-scale implementation of manufacturing. However, just like startups in the early Web2 era, great companies are always based on the failures of their predecessors.
We want to find those questions that are truly worth facing.
WEB3People's
Content preview
"Web Threesome" season 1 content will meet readers after the 11th. We will focus on the mistakes made by failed companies and their common characteristics.
In the first season of
, we will invite 3 Web3 investors and entrepreneurs in each issue to discuss some typical failure cases in layer1, layer2, middle layer, tool layer, application layer (NFT, games, defi, etc.), and deeply explore the experiences and lessons left by these failure cases from the perspectives of technology, human nature, supervision, values, governance systems, etc.The following are the topics that the content in the first season is focused on:
#TOPICS
Bottom competition: Race about Layer 1
Did the American Layer 1 startup win the world? What will happen afterward?
Get out of adolescence:
From CODE IS THE LAW to CODE IS NOT NECESSARY THE LAW
Once the belief that Bitcoin gave people was that all the rules and rationality of the blockchain world originated from a few lines of code, but today with the merger of Ethereum, has the belief built on "code" collapsed?
DAO: DISRUPT OR SELF COLLAPSE ambiguity
DAO hopes to disrupt the company. But the fact is that since the industrial revolution , the human business society has been moving towards centralization, and has produced many CEOs who are just like stars and have huge power. The contradictions and fallacies between the inheritance of corporate governance and the DAO that makes the tower are obvious, but where has the new consensus already appeared?
Season 1 logged in the guest list:
#GUESTS
JAMES WU
Microsoft Direct Investment Fund M12 Bay Area Head. He led M12's investment in Arkose Labs and served as a director at the company, and also jointly promoted M12's investment in Pachyderm (the fund's first investment in open source software) and SuperAwesome (acquired by Epic Games).
BARON GONG
One of the few OGs in the past decade of distributed technology, blockchain to today's Web 3 changes. As an advisor and venture capital partner of several US$1 billion in management Web 3 investment institutions, he has led many investments from web3 infrastructure to application layer, including Polygon, zkSync, Starkware, Uniswap, Chainlink.
STEVEN LI
Synergis Capital Asia Pacific Partner. He has worked in the strategic investment department of listed company 360 Financial (NYSE:QFIN), and is mainly responsible for the investment and mergers and acquisitions of financial technology projects. Before that, Steven also worked for the Chinese fund of French risk agency Ventech.
About "Web3 People"
"Web3 People" is Forbes China's first observation column focusing on innovation losers. It aims to discover failure cases in the Web3 field around the world and analyze its deep inner causes and commonalities.
Each issue of "Web3 People" invites three Web3 investors and entrepreneurs around the world to discuss related failure cases and the legacy left to the world behind them.
Content cooperation and Insghtml provide contact email:
sigrid.liu@forbeschina.com
Forbes China exclusive article, please do not reprint
header image source: Visual China
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