7 steps to transition to web3, for non-technical folks.
It can be daunting to make a career shift to web3, especially for those who don’t code.
There are new roles that don’t exist in other industries, and recruiting seems informal and network-based.
A mini-guide 🧵
1. Start by learning blockchain fundamentals.
a16z crypto startup school, which @jessewldn spearheaded, is a great resource for understanding the foundations of crypto and web3. a16z.com/crypto-startup…
Don't skip this step because it clarifies the how & why of web3!
2. Immerse yourself in the industry by consuming the top information sources:
For those not looking for a full-time role, resources like @rabbithole_gg, @layer3xyz, and @dao_exchange aggregate earnings opportunities across DAOs.
There are also groups like @MetricsDAO, @ScribeDAO, or @Pub_DAO that offer users opportunities to do work & earn tokens.
Fin. You’re in web3!
Some other tips throughout this process:
Reach out to non-technical web3 folks in the space to learn about their journeys. Most people in the industry are extremely welcoming to newcomers and keep their DMs open.
Find ways to give value to them and proactively offer to help.
What non-technical skills are in-demand in web3?
- Community building: Manage socials, foster engagement, make connections
- Content: Write explainers, tutorials, documentation; refine narrative
- Governance: Create proposals, engage on governance forums
More in-demand web3 skills:
- Data analysis: create on-chain analytics dashboards
- Tokenomics: design tokenomics based on the specific nature of the project
- Project management: take notes, summarize community calls, be “a glue person” (h/t @0xJim)
Web3 projects are also hungry for all of the traditional non-technical startup roles:
Product management, design, BD, finance, recruiters, etc.
Excel at any of these skills and you're extremely hireable!
Transitioning to web3 may seem like a herculean effort at first—it's like a parallel universe, and it's hard to know how one's past experiences translate.
Two projects can have the same “amount” of attention in terms of time spent, but command vastly different valuations due to the *quality* of users' attention.
Like @cobie's post said, attention is the scarcest resource.
That's true not only in crypto, but in the world -- our time on earth is finite, we can mass-produce goods, but no more attention can be produced.
Web2 and web3 are going to co-exist for a long time. New business models & technologies does not mean the complete supplanting of what already exists.
Instead, there are now new tools in the toolset for builders & creators, which means more choice and possibilities.
...and for users, web3 brings the opportunity to participate in the ownership & wealth creation of a new generation of products that distribute value via tokens.
To completely dismiss either web2 or web3 is a mistake.
CT runs on Twitter—it's good at its "job to be done," which is disseminating information broadly.
Millions of creators *are* monetizing through advertising and subscriptions and other web2 models.
This is the story of how the web2 internet broke the business model of media, and how web3 holds promise to tilt the scales in favor of creators. every.mirror.xyz/y_WLA-Tk3VF5uP…
Written in collaboration with @kplikethebird and @every, this essay is available as a collectible NFT on Mirror!
25 years ago, Bill Gates wrote an essay, "Content is King," that predicted a flourishing of user-generated content on the internet, but challenges in monetizing it.
Music monetization on the internet is unquestionably broken. With a payout of $0.003 per song stream, a musician needs 6 million plays annually to earn $18,000.
I'm so excited to support @soundxyz_ in their quest to let 1M artists live off their music, leveraging NFTs & web3.
This ability to decouple audience size from monetization is one of the most powerful effects of web3 for creators.
Creative industries, by definition, are those in which artists incite love from fans; to-date, there has just been no ways to capitalize on that on the internet.
Web3 applications lack some traditional sources of defensibility, but have a new powerful one: tokens.
Let’s explore “token network effects” ⬇️
There are roughly two stages in building a new network:
1 - Bootstrapping & attracting new users (the cold start)
2 - Retaining users & maintaining network effects
Tokens are helpful for both stages, but for the purposes of this thread I’ll be focusing on (2).
Defensibility in web2 comes from proprietary data network effects. Each application is a walled garden, and a bigger user base translates into more utility vs. competitors.
The social network with most data, content, users, etc. is more valuable.