Web 3, a Tool for Good?
Welcome to the Summer Series of Culture Factor. I’m Holly Shannon.
When I was speaking and interviewing at NFT NYC I noticed themes that almost every one of my conversations touched.
This new Web3 digital space is made up of artists, collectors and businesses and when we stopped to scratch the surface, these underlying themes all pointed toward our most basic, fundamental, evolutionary need: connection.
Over the next few weeks, I’m going to break down the whys, not just the whats, of this new digital space we find ourselves in.
Hello Culture Factor Family, and welcome to the summer series.During my interviews at NFT NYC, a theme that revealed itself underneath the Web3 technology was the different kinds of user experience.
Technology accessibility, fiat (or, real cash money)vs. cryptocurrency, social media, personal expression, community, and education these are all facets of user experience that I’ve noticed directly affect people’s engagement in this space — both literally and metaphorically.
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Transcript
Holly Shannon 0:02
Welcome to the Summer Series of Culture Factor. I'm Holly Shannon. When I spoke at this year's NFT NYC, I used my downtime to interview the experts about their engagement in the web three space. We've talked on Culture Factor a lot about what web three is and how it's being used. But I wanted to try and understand why. Almost every person I spoke to had a similar reason for being part of web three, they all wanted to help fulfill our most basic fundamental, evolutionary need connection. Over the next few weeks, I'm going to explore the methods that artists, collectors and businesses use to bring about connection. I'll break down the whys not just the whats of this new digital space we find ourselves in.
Hello, Culture Factor family. Welcome back to the summer series. We've been getting into the weeds over the past few weeks. And this is our final deep dive of the season. The rest of the season will comprise detailed interviews that explore examples of how user experience, design, trust, and accountability shaped the web three space. But in this last deep dive into the whys of web three, let's revisit what web three is all about.
Alison Alexander 1:16
I think as we move into web three, which is the beauty, there's so many beauties of web three, but the web three is beautiful, because it can give people anonymity, it can remove bias in the way that people are seeing the power of the blockchain, it can give people that identity, they can secure their identity and carry it with them, they can be in charge of it. So we can give women who might not have access to some of that history, to have that and carry it with them in life. We can give people who are having to flee domestic abuse, we can give people who are fleeing persecution, using the blockchain, they can carry their identity and all their credentials with them. And that's what all of this can give, and they can go forward. So I think it's, it absolutely is what you're saying like we are creating a way to level up the playing field and even when we say level up the playing field, by actually introducing people, women to to NF T's and the whole education that goes with it. Holly Shannon 2:21 Allison knows firsthand what it's like to live in an abusive family and to then grow up in the care system. She also understands the needs and complexities to have people advocating on your behalf. Her work with MetaCampus is to bring equity to the world of web three. What does this really mean and look like on a daily basis for Alison? Well, it means she invests her hard earned cash in women led projects and businesses with NF T's that decorate her walls. Alison uses her leadership skills to bring attention to these issues, and focus on bringing a diverse range of women to web three. In doing so, she's able to show those in need how to deploy the web three tools to their advantage, especially if they live in a place of disadvantage. Blockchain allows those that use it to remain anonymous, your unique digital wallet address provides a place to protect your assets. In this case, the asset being the person at risk versus an NFT with no social component.
Aleyna Dogan 3:30
While it's a still debating topic, I feel like it'd be make interacting with Blockchain it's so easy and seamless. without giving any proper education, then these problems are cared more so because if you don't know how to open your own wallet, or what that entitles, I don't think you should own a noncustodial wallet, but an NFT on it. Because you need to have that knowledge. That's the premise of web three that you know more about your own data, your own assets, digital assets, and have ownership and you can act on on them. Holly Shannon 4:10 Elena has been studying ethics, and those that bridge technology since she was at NYU. Taking that knowledge and applying that to web three has become her passion. Elena essentially said that knowledge is power. Knowing how it all works is the best way to protect yourself in this new space. And like both Aleyna and Alison mentioned, owning your data and assets empowers you to use them how you want to Data is the new currency. So what are you going to do with yours? What can you do with it? Collectively, we have only scratched the surface of web three. So what can we do with it? based on my conversations, almost anything we can imagine?
Emily Drewry 4:54
A lot of people who come over to boys have hesitated to enter this space for one reason or another a lot. Out of that reasoning is around the environmental impact of NF T's, because of our blockchain voice is actually a carbon neutral platform. So we've provided that solution for a lot of people who saw the value in minting, but didn't want to have that negative environmental contribution. Holly Shannon 5:16 Emily Drewry shared her opinions with us in the first episode of the summer series, when we discussed user experience, I'd encourage you to go back and hear that piece. But it's interesting that their platform has handled the problem of negative environmental impacts. by neutralizing their own environmental impact. Voice spreads awareness of how menting MFTs can potentially harm the environment, voice leads by example, and offers an environmentally friendly way to participate in web 3.
Zevi G 5:48
456 Land is an imaginary world. So you could think of it as a cartoon series as well. So it's made up of many different characters. And throughout the different characters, you'll constantly see the messages of love, unity, kindness, or just simply uplifting and to put a smile on your face. So those are all the common denominators between all the characters,
Holly Shannon 6:15
you probably recognize Zevi's voice, he was also featured in the summer series earlier on his 456 collection is by design created for love, unity, and kindness, or just simply to put a smile on your face.
Zevi G 6:30
With this collection. It's that perfect artwork, where artwork, if you're able to document the time in history that's super important for artwork, and having the physical and the digital assets come together does that and I'm able to do that with my artwork with sharing positive, happy messages and talk about all those happy and positive messages.
Holly Shannon 6:53
Art that intentionally add something positive to the world is incredibly valuable. And it is important that this type of work exists within Web three. Earlier on in the summer series, I asked you to put a pin in the conversation around decentralization and deconstruction, and what that means in the web three space. So now I'm going to actually address that a little bit here. I believe the concept of decentralization, which is what web three is being built on, needs to be understood as no entity governing your use of the blockchain, where you keep your assets is sacred, or store your data for anonymity or by NFT's for social good. I look at deconstruction as looking at what did not work well in web two, and not making the same mistakes. Have web three be better, stronger, faster, more considerate, democratized, designed for social good, or to uplift people. Create a movement that leaves web three in better shape, a tool for all.
Tori Madison 8:05
So we are at NFT NYC live at town hall I am in emceeing the event we met backstage super fun. And we're both podcasters. And we're both a woman which is amazing to have more women in the space, talking about web three and FTS and just technology in general. And so I'm very excited to be on the show, but a little bit about my background. I am host of the woman be true podcast and I discuss topics around deconstructing and decentralization. So what I mean by deconstructing it's deconstructing the social norms that all of us have grown up to believe in, whether that be the big pharmacies, big pharma industry, the FDA industry, prison reform. I also talk about centralising centralization and the web three space and with deconstructing that also includes religion. But basically, why do we have these beliefs that we have? And I'm really questioning that
Holly Shannon 9:06
Tori sees that web three has the potential to change minds to challenge collective thinking, to question beliefs. And she uses her podcasting platform to do just that. Remember her work with the physical art gallery. It's even cooler than you thought.
Tori Madison 9:24
I'm working as a business manager for the NFT boutique. And we are a physical art gallery for an empty collections around the world. And so we focus on eco conscious projects, so projects that are saving the planet, such as nemus, for example, they they're helping with the Amazon rainforest.
Holly Shannon 9:46
Aside from all the other reasons we discussed last week. Tori's work with the gallery directly benefits the environment.
Alison Alexander 9:55
I started with buying a group of five that we're buying a female artist that was raising money for charity for children's charity. And I saw them and I was like, wow, given that I was new to NF T's, and I saw them and I was like, I just got to buy them. And to know what they cost, the gas fees cost more than what she got from me and what went to charity, but that's why I bought them that she was doing it for charity. And I loved them. And I keep all of those. And I just have them all the time. Because, for me, that's what I'm passionate about children and charities and women. I clicked him, because I really want to support women who are coming into this world. And by buying them, I can firstly get involved with them, I can then offer them support using my years of experience in leadership or management. But actually, I can, I can have them and share them with everyone. I know by having them on my walls, having meetings and people talking about my artwork all.
Holly Shannon 11:03
Alison collects pieces to support artists who use their platform to make change. Both Tori and Emily use their web three businesses to take environmental action, because that is something they deeply care about. As an artist Zebby does the same thing for a different purpose. He works to uplift others to make people feel good, they may have different roles. But all four of them use web three in a similar way. They own their data, and they choose to use it to directly benefit things they care about. These people and so many other individuals are using web three to make the world a better place. If they are making such an impact. How can larger companies use their influence,
Alison Alexander 11:48
what we need to do is have more people in the room. And you only get more people in the room when you open all those doors. And then when you have more people in the room, you get a different culture. When you only have men develop in the board room, you only get a culture that accommodates them. And actually, the more we've had women come into that, the more that we're happy with disabilities, women of color that come into that, the more we see what the new culture is, is reflective of all of those people as opposed to one sacred. And that's really important.
Holly Shannon 12:24
Alison's perspective as a collector gives her a unique insight, she can look at things from the outside and the inside of web three, she can see that it is early in the game. And if we start with diversity, equality and inclusion in mind, that is what the rest of web three can be built from Aleyna, who we heard from earlier works for Vayner3, the brainchild of Gary Vaynerchuk. It is a web three consultancy built by NFT, enthusiast, crypto native strategists, degens and creators. Their goal is to guide the world's leading enterprises and intellectual property owners in the next iteration of consumer behavior.
Aleyna Dogan 13:06
I believe that ever since you know, I was young, that these platforms, while they provide such beautiful, seamless experiences, it was clear that because they're becoming billion dollar companies, they're not necessarily aiming towards sales. And the more I learned about it, the more it was, it was scary to me. So that's why I wanted to focus on that and, and figure out what went wrong, but that two companies and how we approach them and how they approach making a product, and how can we make sure to not repeat those same mistakes and creating different applications for rev three. And one thing that's important for me is, you know, instead of trying to rush through the new iteration of this web, and building stuff, I think we should have more conversations and we'll have more voices, so they build better products that is built by diverse teams.
Holly Shannon 14:08
Gary Vaynerchuk takes his role as a leader in web three seriously. And people like Aleyna keep them accountable. Aleyna understands Vayner 3's impact on web three, that they are leading the way and need to keep everyone in mind, not just those with the highest level of social privilege. Vayner 3 is trying to build the type of web that Alison wants to see. Tori Madison 14:32 There's so much opportunity and it's absolutely incredible. And so my focus and being until it is about conscious crypto and what is conscious crypto, what is consciousness? What is elevating human consciousness mean? And and it's like, yes, we're all excited about this new space. But how can we actually like bring it back to humanity in real life and like build projects that will continue to allow us to evolve to grow and to change for the better.
Holly Shannon 14:59
Web three is the evolution of the web, and we get to decide how it evolves. So what do you want the web to be? What do you want the big tech companies to do? What do we value? Deeper human connection is the purpose of the web, and community design, trust, and accountability make up web three. We build communities. We implement design strategies, we trust our communities and those who lead and we can hold leaders as well as each other accountable. I can't help but be reminded of when the internet first began. It was this crazy time where anything could happen. It felt like we were creating our new reality as we went, like we were collectively building our future. It reminds me of that time a lot. Because right now, nothing about web three is concrete. But there is this strange awareness that we are actively changing our reality and our future as we go along. But this strange awareness, the meta ness of the metaverse means that we can make it great for everyone. I really believe we can. So what do you think? Do you think we can make significant social change using web three?
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Hey, Culture Factor family I have been enjoying Rosae over this very hot summer and harmony wine has been my newest addiction. My friend Matt Harmon has not only created this delicious rose from Provence, but it has these beautiful notes of strawberry and floral and it's dry and super yummy. And he put it in the prettiest of cans that you can take to your picnic or a barbecue. Matt and I agree that the best rose comes from the south of France. It's probably why we're friends and he is going to be giving you my Culture Factor family 20% off your Harmony wine link is in the show notes. This summer is coming in hot. Please share this episode of culture factor now and listen with your friends. It's always more fun that way. And don't forget the Harmony Wine rose.
On behalf of the team of Culture Factor, thank you for following along for the past few weeks to consider these important questions. And we hope we've broadened your thinking around the user experience, design, trust and the value of art.
Season Four of Culture Factor is produced by paleblue studios