The current crypto winter, like others before, has ushered in sweeping changes in the web3 playbook and lexicon overnight. While most big ideas remain in play in a roundabout way, there are terms like “metaverse” should be thrown away. Founders, investors, and consumers should understand that the frame on many concepts has already shifted to reflect fear or blame for current conditions.
At 2B3D, we are evolving as fast as paradigms shift. After every downturn, the space is examined for flaws and corrections are made in preparation for the next upswing. A new lexicon for success in crypto and NFT spaces is needed. We need new terms, not to simply reframe the industry in a more positive light, but to separate the 21st century wheat from the chaff. There are great ideas in this space, necessary concepts and much-needed solutions waiting to be explored.
Now is a good time to grow towards mass adoption with newer and more accurate terms for what we do and also to show how we stand out. “Metaverse” cannot be the name of 10,000 projects with as many functions. 2B3D is now developing what is more accurately described as an Actionverse with our virtual medical environment (VME) at its heart. This is a space to take action medically online to overcome roadblocks that lead to inaction and unwanted outcomes in the real world. Around that heart, we are creating an actionverse where everything from mountain top meditation and Northern Lights viewing to surfing and extreme sports will be possible.
“Metaverse” was the big tech 2020 buzzword like “DotCom” in the 90s. Anything associated with these terms saw a sharp spike in value. When you see 100 metaverses pop up and only 10 seem to have discernable value, it becomes difficult to navigate. We love the Metaverse as a concept and some of the projects in it are showing great promise, but at the end of the day, success is measured by innovation and utility above all else, and our goal is to make our space one that isn’t just a diversion from our realities but a place for significant help and value for its users. In the case of any project, the “action” part of the term actionverse is great because it implies impact, such as our mission to impact humanity positively by being the first project to treat PTSD in military veterans live and for free 24 hours a day, anywhere in the world. It’s also a better term for us given the fact that we’ve recently incorporated more action sports into our therapy environments.
Look at the innovation at conventions. The metaverse is not a one-stop shop, but an entire sector hosting web3 projects. People are making their own contributions to the future. In response to this momentum of talent and passion, 2B3D knows we should not waste time recreating the wheel when we can team up with other innovators to create the tools and terms of the legitimate future today. But I digress: First let me kill your bored apes:
“Non-fungible tokens” are out, “unique digital collectibles” are in
We need to stop talking about NFTs. They were never explicable, not in a few minutes or years. Everyone tried and failed miserably so let’s move on to words and concepts that make sense. The vast majority of the world cannot explain how the Internet works in any technical detail, but they can explain what it’s good for without sounding like a pump and dump pyramid scam. NFTs will remain an important concept in the background, but going forward it serves our purposes better to talk about unique digital items for many things from digital collectibles to legitimate online documents.
Is staking dead? Yes and no. The term “staking” will die, but we will still have programs that pay us rewards for holding supported tokens. “Tokens” itself has become another bad word in the space because of too many bad faith actors and schemers pushing boundaries e.g. too many pop-up tokens.
Initial coin offerings (ICOs) are a popular way to raise funds for products and services usually related to cryptocurrency. ICOs are similar to initial public offerings (IPOs), but coins issued in an ICO can also have utility for a software service or product. Although ICOs are considered unregulated and carry with them risk, a few smart investors have been able to yield good returns and avoid fraudulent or poor performance. Overall, our market will continue to evolve and so will its crypto funding models, and with each new model may come unforeseen risks. As these models evolve and mature, investor confidence will be regained as previous risks will be resolved and investor success rates rise.
The most recent offerings model is the Initial DEX Offering (IDO). The IDO is a crowdfunding technique that allows cryptocurrency projects to launch their native token or coin through a decentralized exchange (DEX). The IDO model is the infamous successor to ICOs, which allows projects to raise money for growth and development and launch on their own. A blockchain startup no longer needs to create infrastructure for selling its tokens nor register with the cryptocurrency stock exchange listings as DEX now does all that for them.
Business Transparency. There is a fine line between business transparency and giving your competition a roadmap to copy your ideas. However, in this new bear market web3 blockchain ecosystem, transparency is not only important, it’s almost required.
Web3 businesses are still in their early evolution, and how we do business is in some ways completely different from the days when businesses had to be more wary of industrial espionage. Assuming they want to gain any traction in this rapidly evolving space, projects today are not only encouraged, if not almost required, to have their roadmaps listed on their websites along with whitepapers. Blockchain is open source therefore the days of hiding what, when, where and how money is spent is now visible for everyone to see if they know where to look. While this is a catastrophic change for many institutions that thrive on shifting, hiding or delaying tax transcripts detailing expenditures. Companies that build out transparently can earn the trust of investors as well as users of their products.
The world has had its fair share of deception by the likes of Charles Ponzi, Bernie Madoff or institutions like Enron. While there are some bad apples in the crypto arena as we’ve seen of late, the web3 sector has the potential to be molded into a much safer and more transparent future.
This old language extinction event is just the next step in the process.
