You are reading 3Bits & Change, Joseph's weekly email about building a direct to consumer business on the internet and the occasional Web3 issue. Today’s email was written to KCRW’s Metropolis from last weekend. Follow @josephrueter on Instagram or Linkedin. Follow Vivront.com on Instagram and Facebook. If you haven’t already, subscribe!
Good afternoon,
I’m going to track my learning process in Web3 here. This substack was set up for flexibility by way of titling it under my name. It’s time to expand the topic focus.
Why SusWeb3 for these posts? Two reasons. 1) In the last few months people are tossing about “Web3” like we’re all supposed to know what that is. But it’s only a few months old on podcasts and such from what I can tell. Seems to have roared forward after NTF.NYC this year? But don’t quote me on that. And 2), because my middle schooler says “Sus” to most everything that’s new and suspect. That’s a similar reaction in the media and among most of my analogue social network. “NTF what?” “So silly,” they say. Therefore, SusWeb3 posts will flow in along the other thread and be about Web3 things - Crypto, NFT, Blockchain et. al. TBD on what that actually is. Meta?
I was also reminded this week of the post Scott Adams made in 2007 about being very good (top 25%) at two or more things. Two of mine may just be knife sharpening and Web3? Lots of work to do in both cases.
I’ll stick to the same Three Bit format for the Web3 posts. It’s a simple constraint that works well for me. I hope it does for you too.
Bit #1
Building initial momentum.
Back in the early part of the year, about 10 months ago, I saw the Ringers project go live and was immediately captivated by it. It was the first project that proved an interesting utility beyond the suspect nature of a new currencies or the theoretical nature of solving the Byzantine General’s problem with decentralized ledgers “on chain.” The notion that art was created by constraints applied at the of time coding and then of minting was a really mentally curious construct. I’m still wondering what else can be done with that dynamic. Also, I like simple colorful shape art.
Alas, I had not set up my decentralized stuff 10 months ago and I missed the initial run up on ringers. So, I sat on the sidelines and allowed myself to continue to be distracted by work. But I kept reading occasionally.
Fast forward to a tweet by Dmitri Cherniak, Ringers founder, on Dec 2nd where he was aiming to sell #0 for $20 and I thought… hum. Is that like Banksy in NYC recently?Is that even real? Is it a new one? If it’s not in the original 1000 it won’t likely have value. The bids are under 1.0 WETH. Also, it was transferred to another wallet 2 months ago. That may or may not be Dmitri’s. It has his name and includes “vault.” Who knows, right?
Anyway. Maybe, even if I don’t have the know how now, there is an off chance I could figure out my wallet structure and transfer enough cash to just make a bid on Opensea. That would be learning and meet my goal.
So, I resolved to do just that. The goal is to simply make a bid.
I then started the process of resurrecting a wallet I had started with the anticipation of getting in on the VeeFriends launch in May. It now has a floor of ~$26k. I missed the early days on that one too. I wish it were not so. The conference is even in MPLS. I could go on with stories of things missed. This week it was this now with a floor of ~$12k.
So, I resolved to simply focus on being curious first. Then on setting things up and being ready for the next one.
Bit #2
Transfering cash. It takes way longer than I had anticipated.
I started in Coinbase. I bought things and then learned I needed a wallet. Coinbase has one. So I got that one and learned I needed to transfer to it.
Now, I’m figuring the transfer to Metamask connected to my browser connected to Opensea and upon success I’ve found that my ETH needs to be WETH.
This is where I tossed my hands in the air and started writing this post instead. I’ve since learned that Coinbase has a pro account. I should use that. Goodness.
Bit #3
This is reminiscent of Web2, but this is different too.
I remember the early days of social, er - Web2, to be more friendly and with less at stake. It was your profile and there were likes and you could post stuff and link. That’s really it. And it seemed to grow more slowly. Maybe there was a live feed. Remember those? Now there are drops from big brands at a whim (Pepsi this week) and the FOMO is real in a totally different way.
In Web3, from the start, bank accounts and 12 word secret codes ratchet up the playing field, aggressively. There are stories of people losing cash and people making wild amounts of it. Those stories are all over media and message boards including in the service aptly named Discord. Certainly there are persons trying to get you to transfer them things you don’t want to transfer to them in there. Just look at the name. Also, you don’t have to go far reading posts to see others warning about what not to do.
The friction levels in the transactions as well as the emotions and the social structures are much higher this go around.
Sum
So, there you go. I’m aiming to build momentum by just getting to the point where I could make a bid on an NFT. I got hung up going from ETH to WETH today. Transferring and converting is taking much longer than anticipated, like by weeks longer. And finally, while this is similar to the Web2 early days there was much less at stake in that wave.
On Your Way
May you find easy paths forward to your first NFTs. I’m aiming for uninterrupted time to just concentrate and be curious. The goal right now is to both learn by doing and rebuild the mental map.
Cheers to learning.