Ramping up from web2 to web3

From my experience of getting my head around this crazy world of cryptocurrency, blockchain infrastructure, scaling solutions, NFTs, DAOs, and everything else between the metaverse...

“I don’t know much about web3. Will it be difficult to ramp up?”

Often, I hear that question when chatting with people interested in taking the leap from traditional tech companies to web3. The answer is YES, but not in the way you probably think.

For the crypto curious out there, hope this helps you out.

No one is an expert, yet

Bitcoin started in 2009. Ethereum came in 2015. Bored Ape Yacht Club was first issued in early 20221.

There have been early successful projects, but I’d argue a repeatable playbook has yet to be written. We’re all learning at the same time. The standards or the way to do things are literally still being figured out and defined.

So don’t be daunted by ‘starting from scratch’, because most people are on the same boat. New worlds (or metaverses?) are up from grabs.

First tip, just dive in to web3.

It’s hard to keep up, not to catch up

Without a playbook, everyone is frantically racing to write it. Everyday, there’s a new experiment launching—blockchains, scaling solutions, NFT collections. You name it, someone’s probably building it.

If you plan to take the leap to web3, be ready to be reading everyday and keeping up with the newest trend. People who like being the smartest person in the room drown, while the constantly curious thrive.

One piece of advice: you need to love blockchain as a topic. Or else, you’re going to burn out very quickly keeping up with the pace of change.

It’s early, so get started now

Here are some references I found helpful to get some basics down:

• C. Dixon and N. Ravikant chats with T. Ferris - great overview of why crypto and NFTs have huge potential

• How the Bitcoin protocol actually works - explains Bitcoin really well which is the foundation of how all these blockchain things kind of works

• Finematics Youtube Channel - Youtube explainer videos on a lot of blockchain concepts. These helped me a lot

And here’s a Twitter List I’m building to keep up with thinkers and influencers of the space. Fair warning, they don’t always post things that make sense like most of the blockchain scene :P

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I also post stuff on Twitter @nigelwtlee