Gary Vaynerchuk has built an incredible brand around entrepreneurship, marketing, and leadership. Both VaynerX and VaynerMedia have been deeply involved in the Web3 revolution, particularly NFTs.

A hallmark of his brand and advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is anchored around the concept of driving value for other people and the community.

That advice is enormously applicable for the Web3 revolution.

The proliferation of scams in Web3 shouldn’t come as a surprise. Anytime there’s a new technology, particularly in high-growth markets, there is an expansion of scammers that are trying to get a share of the pie.

Just think of it as follows. When an entirely new market forms effectively over night, supply and demand is not yet in equilibrium: people are still trying to figure things out and investors have a tough time vetting what’s real from what’s fake. But, as the market solidifies and information becomes more readily available, an equilibrium begins to form.

When an entirely new market forms effectively over night, supply and demand is not yet in equilibrium… But, as the market solidifies and information becomes more readily available, an equilibrium begins to form.

Crypto and NFT scammers often rely on anonymous profile handles and ridiculous claims. For example, scammers often promise high returns of over 500% annual percentage yield (APY) on new coins, which — even if it were possible for a moment — are inherently unsustainable.

But, scamming is not sustainable.

A scammer might “get away” with a buck in the short-run, but the digital footprints are out there and eventually that person is going to slip up.

That should come as an incredibly sobering reality for everyone in the Web3 space because it underscores the importance of truly putting your best into everything you do — the record of transactions, in general, will live forever on the blockchain. (Of course, we should always do our best and behave with integrity, but the immutability of the digital ledger makes it more real!)

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to interview him for a story in Cointelegraph that featured my research on the effects of airdrops.

Here’s what I learned.

First, the question is usually not “if,” but rather “how.”

Consider the topic of airdrops and decentralized finance whereby tokens are “airdropped” into users’ wallets as a reward for early adoption or loyalty. While there are clearly some people who argue that airdrops are uniformly bad, the world is rarely that binary: rather, airdrops can be effective, but they can also be ineffective — the big question is “how.”

Thinking about situations that way changes the paradigm. No longer are you looking for simple answers. Instead, you ask fundamental questions that help you think through the process and come out wiser and more experienced.

Second, reputation matters more than short-term “wins.”

“When a startup fails in Web3, the audience loses money. I don’t know how to run around the earth when the audience has lost money and think that I can do business again,” Vaynerchuk told me.

Many entrepreneurs, including in the Web3 space, are tempted to get caught up in the short-run objectives of making money that they forget that their reputation is on the line. Ironically, bad behavior in the short-run undermines opportunities for long-run success because reputation will deteriorate.

“When a startup fails in Web3, the audience loses money. I don’t know how to run around the earth when the audience has lost money and think that I can do business again,” said Gary Vaynerchuk.

Third, don’t limit your own creativity.

One of the most exciting features of the Web3 era is the unbridled sense of creativity and potential. Although some have criticized Web3 as just another manifestation of the centralization that is present among Web2 social media companies, that potentially places too much responsibility on the technology.

Technology can never be a panacea — it’s a tool. The difference is that some tools are more effective and versatile than others. Now, decentralized ledger technologies allow us to do things that were previously unimaginable — like converging towards consensus on transaction records through decentralized mechanisms, rather than big server rooms that are dictated by a single entity.

When you realize that the technology is not what saves us or guarantees success, but rather is an enabler, then we are in a position to take more responsibility and be grateful for the opportunities at hand.

Technology can never be a panacea — it’s a tool. The difference is that some tools are more effective and versatile than others… When you realize that the technology is not what saves us or guarantees success, but rather is an enabler, then we are in a position to take more responsibility and be grateful for the opportunities at hand.

Every day is a new day to learn. What habits are you picking up in Web3?

This article was written by Christos A. Makridis, the Chief Technology Officer and Head of Research at Living Opera. He is also a research affiliate at Stanford University’s Digital Economy Lab and Columbia Business School’s Chazen Institute, and holds dual doctorates in economics and management science & engineering from Stanford University. Follow us at @living_opera!