Web3.0 Three Musketeers: Discord, Reddit, and Twitter Accelerate Integration into the Crypto Ecosystem

Original Title: “The Web3 Three: Discord, Reddit and Twitter Tease Crypto Integration”

Author: Brady Dale, The Defiant

Translation: Linqi

Large social networking companies outside of Facebook, such as Discord, Reddit, and Twitter, are conducting more in-depth and serious research into crypto technology. This could mean that the blockchain party will become much larger in a short time.

The question is, can they leverage their scale and influence to connect to decentralized networks? Or will they accelerate the development of crypto-native projects like Decentraland and Bored Apes at a reckless pace? Or, in hindsight, will all the efforts of the traditionalists in decentralization ultimately turn out to be as insignificant as AOL keywords?

The "Web3.0 Three Musketeers," Discord, Reddit, and Twitter, have all signaled their embrace of decentralized networks. Each of these companies has around 300 to 400 million users. According to the latest statistics from ConsenSys, Ethereum has 300 million registered addresses, which is relatively fewer users. Therefore, if these companies officially adopt decentralized networks, it could potentially become a significant event in the crypto space.

Brett Gibson from Initialized Capital, an investor in Reddit, stated, "I think the mobile phone is a direct analogy." If large applications start giving people ample reasons to use crypto wallets, it will put pressure on computer hardware manufacturers (especially mobile phone manufacturers) to compete in making wallets user-friendly. "It's not just about people having wallets; it's important to have wallets, and eventually, Apple will have to get involved."

Iteration of the Web

Let’s first clarify our understanding of the changes happening: Web1 was an early internet with text pages, basic open protocols, and minimal costs. Web2 is typically defined by social media and mobile internet, such as the iPhone and Facebook, where companies have monetized online activities in various ways, leading to the rise of the advertising and surveillance economy, making the online world quite unpleasant.

At this point, we are still uncertain about what Web3 really is, but its ownership may be more distributed between users and builders (for example, see all the airdrop projects of governance tokens since mid-2020). Additionally, the underlying data will be more open, and multiple entities will build different businesses based on the same underlying data set. Now, any website can easily connect to Compound or Aave and allow its users to obtain loans from there as needed.

This is completely different from Web2. Aside from Facebook's backend personnel, no one can access Facebook's data. Recently, Instagram even prevented users from posting photo previews to Twitter. It feels like the internet is open, but the invisible gates are indeed everywhere.

Web3 Three Musketeers

So how are these obstacles gradually being removed? Here are some of the progress made by the Web2 three giants on Web3 so far:

Twitter. Twitter, one of Jack Dorsey's two companies, was the first to make a significant response to Web3 by announcing that it would authenticate NFTs used as profile pictures by users.

Discord. Discord has only hinted that it will do something. We learned two things: its CEO tweeted that Discord is considering using Metamask for user logins. It also surveyed some users about merging NFTs (which led to some protests).

Reddit. The front page of the internet may have done the most and been discussed the least. The company created a points system for several large communities. These points are now located on Ethereum's Layer 2, Arbitrum. There are rumors that Reddit Karma will be tokenized, but these rumors have not been confirmed by headquarters (the tweets related to these rumors have been deleted).

Moreover, Discord and Reddit have refused to elaborate on their plans.

Scott Lewis, co-founder of Hyype and DeFi Pulse, stated, "Discord's integration makes sense because its lack of Web3 user authentication is a major vulnerability exploited by scammers on its platform." This is very evident.

In other words, scammers can easily impersonate those lurking users on Discord (which has also been a long-standing issue on Telegram). Therefore, when Web3 authentication is applied, it can greatly improve the user experience.

Web3 angel investor Santiago Santos is optimistic about Twitter's efforts: "I think NFTs resonate here and make cryptocurrencies super relevant. The process of adoption and development has been accelerating."

Gibson mentioned that he sees some of these companies helping themselves grow while also helping to build the infrastructure of Web3. For example, if Twitter builds the best NFT authentication process, they might open it up for use by other websites. Brayton Williams from Boost VC stated that these three companies might be irrelevant. A little-known news item is that Stripe has brought Matt Huang from Paradigm onto its board, which may indicate that this company, which has made payment methods easy across the internet, will also quickly apply to cryptocurrencies.

Stripe allows websites to integrate payments with just a few lines of code. What if it makes purchasing some cryptocurrencies to access different Web3 communities just as easy?

Will There Be Airdrops?

But crypto often grabs a piece of news and then jumps to conclusions about the next steps. This is a natural leap: the tokenization of all these websites is inevitable, leading everyone to anticipate massive airdrops.

Matti from Zee Prime Capital is skeptical about whether large entities need tokens. "When can we stop thinking that tokens are meaningful? Discord, Reddit… then Apple, Amazon… and then Burger King? Fundamentally, these retrospective airdrops offered to users are a user acquisition tool."

However, the Web3 three giants and other similar companies already have a large user base. Can tokens increase user stickiness? He believes we have not yet truly seen loyalty to products driven by tokens.

Are these companies, which have established well-defined ownership structures, willing to share control through DAOs, handing over significant power of their companies to users?

However, that is precisely what Reddit might be doing. Owning the entire company is one thing, while owning the output of users on its website or app is another.

Andrew Steinwold, who invests in NFTs through the Sfermion fund, stated, "Allowing users to own their 'stuff' online is attractive for both sides. Companies get more invested users, and users gain ownership, which means potential benefits (and downsides)."