What: IRL Meetup

Who: Jhamar + [redacted]

Location: Bar/Downtown NYC

Order: Gin & Tonic (Me) + Whiskey & Ginger ([redacted])

Mood: Vibesss

Introduction

I met [redacted] on Web3 Twitter last month and a few weeks later we decided to meet IRL. We agreed to go to a bar in downtown Manhattan. The reason I suggested this particular bar was because of the Black History Month banner on their website. We entered the bar and that is where this story begins.

Like so many venues in Manhattan, the crowd at the bar was mostly white. And I am not sure if it was intentional but the first conversation [redacted] and I had was about life at a PWI. [redacted] grew up in middle-class North America and I spent the last half of my life socializing and doing business with white people; being the black sheep in most rooms we enter is an experience that [redacted] and I are far too familiar with. So for the first fifteen minutes, we bonded over shared societal experiences but then it happened. And I had been waiting for it to happen.

Prediction 1: a16z Dominates Web3

The question was asked:

“What are your true thoughts on Web3?”

The music was really loud in this place so we used it as a reason to share more passion than we usually would after meeting someone for the first time.

[redacted] thinks Web3 is a cult and it is controlled by scammers. The thesis of this argument is that most of the Web3 projects with utopian roadmaps are funded by investment firms like a16z. And when it comes down to it, a16z will choose profit over the wellbeing of people.

I had no counter-argument because I do see a world where most of the projects we use in Web3 are controlled by venture firms like a16z. As I mentioned before, there is no proof to believe firms like a16z will choose the well-being of people over profits. cdixon.eth seems really cool but he gives me “I was sent on a mission to understand how to make money in Web3” vibes. He reminds me of Taylor Mason from the show Billions. cdixon.eth and I follow each other on Twitter and he supports the movement; we just can not figure out his true end goal.

Prediction 2: Crypto Revolution

*The beat to Teach My How to Dougie by Cali Swag District drops*

I look at [redacted].

[redacted] looks at me.

Together we looked at everyone else. The majority of the room was dancing and attempting to do the Dougie. We were in shock because I knew I had never seen anything like that in my life, a room full of white people doing the Dougie. It was a pretty cool thing to see.

We continued to scream at each other and this time the conversation centered around Drake, J Cole, and Kendrick Lamar. [redacted] has a great appreciation for early Drake, and J Cole but has a difficult time relating to Kendrick Lamar’s musical content and perspectives. This did not shock me because when I was in graduate school I did research on the rivaling perspectives between middle-class and low-income black people. It is a real thing.

Up until I was 15, every man in my life had served time in jail. It was as if I were Ted Kennedy and had experienced all the men in my life graduate from Harvard University; I always felt pressured to continue the legacy. Most children in low-income communities usually become what the people in their life became. So to people like Kendrick Lamar and myself, we believe a revolution is needed to transform the laws that were designed to send black men to jail. But I would not expect [redacted] to understand any of this because of the way they grew up, a first-generation millennial from middle-class North America.

Kendrick Lamar is not the only person in our society pleading for a revolution. Back in 2018 Web3 was dominated by Libertarians and Trump supporters who had angst for both the local and federal government. So I can see a world where radicals of all cultures put their differences aside and join forces in an attempt to create a lifestyle that they would consider to be “more free”. Kanye West is proof that this may be a possibility. His acceptance of MAGA inspired many black voters to be open to a more libertarian lifestyle, a life that is free from government tyranny and oppression.

I guess my point is that crypto will allow radicals to unite and try to transform society the way they see fit. The American Revolution happened before and it most certainly can happen again. You can stop one Ross Ulbricht but I am not sure if you can stop 50 million of them.

Prediction 3: Embrace The Sauce

While at the bar, I did it again and I had promised myself I would stop. I went on another rant about my appreciation for Kanye West’s willingness to fail in public. Many black people are not accepting of his “antics” so it felt like my rant was making [redacted] uncomfortable. But right as things started to get awkward, “Good Life” by Kanye West started playing.

I looked at [redacted].

[redacted] looked at me and we both started to laugh, very hard.

The song that played next was “Heartless” by Kanye West. Then we started talking about Kanye West’s influence on modern music and we noted how “Heartless” could be a precursor to Lil Uzi Vert’s sound.

Whew; I thought my Kanye rant had killed the vibe but it only seemed to make the night feel more special. The music selection throughout the night made my time with [redacted] seem serendipitous. It was as if [redacted] and I were in the perfect place at the perfect time.

Here is a list of the songs I remember hearing that night:

Waka Flaka - O Let’s Do It

GS Boyz - Stanky Leg

Playaz Circle - Duffle Bag Boy

Fast Life Yungstaz - Swag Surfin’

The Dream - Shawty Is a 10

Adre 3000 - International Players Anthem (Andre’s Verse Only)

Yung Joc - It’s Goin’ Down

Lil Jon - Snap Yo Fingers

Drake - Successful

Before I had noticed, the room became more diverse than it was an hour or so before.

“Omg. Is this Webbie?” [redacted] asked.

I have to admit the only song I know from Webbie is “Wipe Me Down” so I ignorantly replied:

“How does a first-generation North American from the middle class know about Webbie?”

[redacted] did not answer my question but replied “And this is a deep cut too!”

This leads me to my final prediction:

[redacted] and I shared different perspectives on many things throughout the night but we both agreed that Web3 is missing sauce. Zora is a promising project but just like Web2, most projects in Web3 today are targeted at a very small group of people. And if we want Web3 to go mainstream, we must embrace sauce.

Whether we want to believe it or not, one of America’s biggest exports is sauce. Our music, our sports, our fashion, and our content; sauce is immersed throughout our culture. Another great American export is technology. And I can see a future where philosophers and technologists work together to create products and experiences that our world has never seen. But technologists may first have to embrace the sauce when designing, describing, and branding their creations if we want Web3 to go mainstream.

I walked [redacted] to the train and our amazing night was over.

Takeaway

I first entered Web3 in 2018 when my app was the first app in Apple’s App Store to allow people to earn and spend crypto. (I need help officially fact-checking this) Back then, Web3 was 99% white men who were trying to break free from our government. When I returned in 2021, I was excited to see a more diverse group of people representing the movement. But when we repeat the talking points claiming Web3 to be a scam we are hurting so many of us newcomers who truly believe we can use this technology to make our world a more comfortable place for all people and not just a select few.

Less than 10% of our society knows about Web3; we are still early. We have an amazing opportunity to redefine what Web3 and NFTs mean to our society. But for us to succeed we need unity, authenticity, and courage. And if we think we are going to onboard hundreds of millions of Gen Z’rs to a sauceless Web3 then we may be in for a rude awakening.

Embrace the sauce!

**jhamar.eth**

But this week Cooper was called out for leaving tweets of him using racial slurs on his Twitter timeline.

IMO, the funniest tweet of the bunch was when Cooper tweeted:

“Gotta give that nigga ray ray some credit #boss”

This is funny because my dad's name was Ray Ray and he died in prison. He actually has been in the prison system since he was 12 years old so I never got a chance to build a sustainable relationship with him before he passed. I have rid myself of that trauma years ago so, unlike most people, I laughed out loud when I saw these tweets buy Cooper. I have reprogrammed myself to not let racist people or actions bother me the way they used to. I have decided to take back my power and instead of getting emotional and stressed over words; I want to use that same power and energy to manifest my future.

However, I do know that I will never be perfect. So I understand Cooper Turley’s reaction to his tweets. I just want to hold the Web3 community accountable for giving me the same compassion and support if I ever reach a low point in my life.

Here are a few tweets that show just how compassionate the Web3 community can be and I hope this continues for all races, sexes, lifestyles, and cultures: ** **

There are hundreds of more supporting messages for Cooper. These seemed like the most compassionate.

KTSE Web3 community, KTSE!

Last week tech billionaires decided to gang up and attack the Web3 movement. And boy am I happy they did because the public faces of Web3 are currently Chris Dixon, a16z, and BAYC/CryptoPunk traders. But there are way cooler people, communities, and projects that the general public does not know about. In Web3 there are many cultures, races, sexes, and ethnicities working together to build a future that is fair for all. It is a beautiful thing to witness and be a part of. Below I will explain two reasons why I think Web3 will help humans make our world a fairer place and I will list 10 people who I think can help us lead this revolution.

No More Free Labor

The American economy was built by the free labor provided by Africans. And today in 2022 the American economy still relies on free labor provided by Africans and citizens throughout the world. Many of the top corporations make their money by acquiring free user-generated content and data.

Web3 is simply a new way to use the internet that allows people to own digital assets. Ownership of our digital assets will give all internet users the individual responsibility to “work” and get paid according to our abilities and needs.

Example: The time we spend creating and viewing content on social media is being used by companies for profit. But what if we owned our digital assets like posts and usage data? That may allow us to work with advertisers to get paid directly and without a middleman.

IRL<URL

According to Dr. Claude Anderson IRL (In Real Life) wealth, power, and resources in this society have been frozen since 1790. Dr. Anderson says ~82% of the wealth in America is owned by white men. This leaves the rest of us to compete for the remaining ~18%. In our society white men control an overwhelming majority of all the wealth, income, power, resources, privileges, businesses, and the government.

It is clear that white men control the power IRL but I see a future where the people are in control of the power online/URL. And I think the American elites are afraid of Web3 because it reminds them of the C-word:

Communism is a political theory advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs. And we all know how much money was spent and how many lives were lost trying to eradicate Communism from our world .  .  .

We have an opportunity to remix Capitalism by adding a little bit of compassion and love. White men got ahead by being compassionless and hoarding information and wealth. In Web3 most of the information is open-sourced which allows anyone with an iPhone and internet access to join or create their own economy.

Regardless of what the mainstream media says, Web3 is needed, and here are 10 people I would love to talk within 2022 to push the culture forward:

Pauly - @Pauly0x

Pauly is the anonymous leader of the CryptoPhunks. I would love to chat with Pauly about the importance of being fearless and having integrity in Web3.

Sonia Syngal

Sonia Syngal is the CEO of GAP. In 2021 we saw Gucci partner with Superplastic, Adidas partner with BAYC, and Nike acquire RTFKT. In 2022 I would love to chat with Sonia about possibly collaborating with our NFT project, Freedom Flowers.

Chris Dixon - @cdixon

Chris Dixon recently followed me on Twitter so I reached out to him. I think Chris is a pioneer and very brave for helping bring attention to Web3. I think Chris Dixon and a16z need to work with more altruistic Web3 projects that prioritize creating value for people first and making money second. His firm a16z is being attacked by a majority of the Web2 community; maybe a partnership with us will help ease those attacks?

We are currently looking for funding. If you know better financiers than Chris Dixon and a16z, let me know. If not, I will be waiting patiently for CD to reply to my DM.

Vitalik - @VitalikButerin

The dude is a legend. I am sure I will learn a ton from him.

Oprah - @Oprah

I would like to chat with Oprah and onboard her to Web3.

Nas - @Nas

Nas is friends with Ben Horowitz, who owns a16z, and who can get us a meeting with Chris Dixon or Kathryn Haun.

Russ - @russdiemon

Russ’s tenacity and his “get it from the mud” energy and mindset are what I need if we are not able to get funded. Web3 allows artists like me to make a living without needing the assistance of famous names and brands. Russ is proof that hard work, being resilient, and believing in yourself work well in the digital world.

Sadhguru - @SadhguruJV

Sadhguru changed my life and I would love to thank him by onboarding him to Web3.

50 Cent - @50Cent

I need a business mentor and I love the way 50 Cent does business.

Kathryn Haun - @katie_haun

We need a Web3 mentor and I do not know who is more qualified than Kathryn. She and Rachel Horwitz are about to do something cool in Web3 and we would love to be a part of it.

Sending you all tons of love and positive energy; HAPPY NEW YEAR!

In this think piece, I plan to present you with three ideas that can change the way Web3 is introduced to the general population of our societies. The title “Move Fast & Break Habits” is a play on the famous quote “Move fast and break things” that is widely attributed to Mark Zuckerberg. Here is a video of Zuckerberg at TechCrunch Disrupt explaining the “move fast and break things” philosophy that he promoted at Meta.

In the context that it is used in Silicon Valley, “move fast and break things” simply means that making timely mistakes is necessary if you want to innovate and be a leader in the technology industry. And to be fair to Mark Zuckerberg, we must admit that he is not the first entrepreneur to adopt this business philosophy. Zuckerberg was doing what most entrepreneurs were doing in the 2010s; taking orders from their investors. But what made Meta different is when they moved fast they were not just breaking “things”; they were breaking people. Like most Web2 companies, the goal of Meta was to maximize revenue at all costs and both the finance bros (investors) and techies (entrepreneurs) were in on it. Meta’s early investors turned board members Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen both encouraged controversial values at Meta and under their tutelage, Mark Zuckerberg went on to move fast and build a $100b business on the backs of exploited citizens throughout our world while simultaneously “ripping apart the fabric of our society” as ex Meta employee Chamath Palihapitiya once said.

This leads me to the crux of this piece. With the rise of smart contract developers and crypto/NFT traders; the techies and finance bros are in a perfect position to continue the exploitation they mastered in Web2. And as we begin to onboard millions of newcomers to Web3 in 2022, we must audit the current culture of Web3 and decide if this is the culture we want leading us into the future. Below I present three habits we must consider changing before the mass migration to Web3 begins:

Techies Are Not Our Only Leaders

Back in 2004 when Mark Zuckerberg first designed the user experience for Meta he had only a few people in mind, he and his friends at Harvard. What followed during the next two decades were billions of people from all different cultures trying to use software that was specifically designed for ~.000000286% of our global society. And once again to be fair to Zuckerberg, I do not think he knew the massive impact Meta would play in shaping world opinion. But we as a society are to blame as well. We became lazy. We never read the terms and conditions and we trusted everyone who pretended to care about us. But what if Web3 gives us a second chance to reshape the role technologists play in our society?

Many people believe most of the breakthrough innovations of the next 25 years or so in computer science already exist. Moreover, as the world becomes more connected online which allows us to network with developers from all over the world, and as more “no code necessary” tools enter the Web3 market, the time and resources needed to build tech products will drop significantly in the upcoming years. This means we need to break the habit of thinking “techies” are the only people who can build digital products because the reality is that anyone in the world with access to the internet and a profound understanding of current technologies and culture can build amazing products that will make our world a more comfortable place to live in. The theory here is that designers, communities, and community managers are just as important as techies because the challenges of today require us to think more deeply and strategically in an inclusive manner as opposed to techies only building products for themselves and their friends as Zuckerberg did with Meta.

Politicians Can’t Protect Us

I highly doubt that our politicians know what Web3 is and who knows when they will be forced to learn. I hope that by the time they wrap their heads around what’s happening, we will have already been united and worked on solutions to solve many of the problems in our government. I fear that if we spend the next 10 years fighting with each other it will leave us with less time designing and manifesting a world that is fair for all people. And when it is time for politicians to make decisions on Web3 they will side with the corporations because we are so divided as a community. In more simple words; if we are united then we as citizens will influence politicians. But if we are divided then corporations will continue to control our government as they have been doing since the modern founding of America.

If the Constitution DAO can raise $42m to buy the Constitution then we can create many public goods to support politicians who care for freedom for all and not just a select few. The habit we need to break is believing that politicians are here to protect us when the reality is the only people who can protect us in Web3 is ourselves.

Community Culture>Top Down Culture

In Web2, a company’s culture is created by investors and the company’s executive team. For example, Meta’s culture was designed from the top by Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, and Mark Zuckerberg. But in Web3 things are different because culture is created by the community. For example, do you think the creators of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) created this dance?

The founders of Bored Ape Yacht Club did not create this dance, it seems to be created by collectors as a way to signal their membership in the BAYC community. We do not know much about the Bored Ape Yacht Club founders because they are anonymous. But we do know that the founders of BAYC have been accused of lacking social awareness and being culturally insensitive.

My favorite Web3 podcast right now is On The Other Side by Chase Chapman. In episode 20 Chase featured Yana Sosnovskaya. Yana is the head of brand marketing at Zora and she runs press relations at Friends With Benefits. The highlight of the episode for me was when Chase asked:

“Why is it important to think about the cultural context for people who are outside of Web3 or in Web3?”

Cultural context refers to the values, beliefs, attitudes, meanings, customs, ideas, and norms that are learned and shared among communities. And Yana mentioned that she hoped people did more research on the founders and brands before joining communities and jumping into projects. If Jimmy Fallon, Post Malone, Von Miller, Lil Baby, Steph Curry, Adam Draper, Steve Aoki, Mark Cuban, Timbaland, Shaquille O’Neal, and Rich The Kid all knew BAYC was associated with Nazi’s and Imperialism would they have joined these projects? The answer is probably yes because BAYC seems to be a great investment. But thinking about money first and cultural context second is a habit that must be broken in Web3.

So back to the BAYC dance. This community does not care about their anonymous founders being culturally insensitive. Many of them seem to only care about rising floor prices and being invited to private parties. This supports my idea that culture is not created from the top; it is created by the community. BAYC is cool not because the founders said it is cool but it is cool because the community is coming together to do cool things. Check out Ape-In Productions, it is an “Ape-owned major label of the metaverse where Apes are the artists”. That is pretty cool.

In summation, Web3 gives us a chance to restructure the core values of our societies. We all can be leaders of this revolution. We must think about new ways to govern ourselves before the corporations like Meta create the rules and norms of Web3. And lastly, financiers and technologists are not the creators of culture in Web3. Culture in Web3 is created by the community. But creating a culture without context will have you unknowingly supporting Nazis and Imperialism on a yacht in Miami which is not a bad life for most people.

I am not judging at all but . . .

Let us go move fast and start breaking some of these habits before all of the corporate dollars and more Web2 techies enter the space.