How to Get Involved in the Web3 Community
The web3 community is growing rapidly as more people become interested in the potential of decentralized systems and blockchain technology. Getting involved allows you to connect with like-minded individuals, learn about new innovations, and contribute to building a more open and empowered internet.
Key Takeaways
- Join social platforms – Follow hashtags and accounts discussing web3 on Twitter, Discord, Telegram etc. Interact, ask questions, and share perspectives.
- Play around with tools – Get hands-on by setting up wallets, trading tokens, minting NFTs, scouting virtual lands, and more. Learn by doing.
- Find ways to contribute – Everyone has something to offer – provide testing and feedback, create educational content, organize events, develop apps, and more.
In 2024, here are the top ways to immerse yourself in the web3 community:
Join Discussions on Social Platforms
Many web3 enthusiasts convene on major social media platforms like Twitter, Discord, and Telegram. Following relevant hashtags like #web3, #blockchain, #crypto, #NFTs, and #DeFi surfaces the latest conversations. You can also identify and join specific community servers and groups focused on your interests.
On Twitter, find and follow prominent web3 accounts, developers, founders, and community members. Engage in discussions by commenting, asking questions, and sharing your perspectives. Using Twitter Lists helps you organize the accounts you want to track.
Discord and Telegram groups related to specific projects or topics offer more real-time discussion. The environment tends to be more welcoming to newcomers looking to learn. Don’t be afraid to introduce yourself and be curious.
Additional Places to Connect
- Subreddits – r/web3, r/blockchain, r/cryptocurrency, r/NFT, and project-specific subreddits.
- Forums – Ethereum Research, BitcoinTalk, and Hashnode for developer talks.
- Newsletters – The Defiant, Bankless, and CoinDesk’s Money Reimagined.
- Podcasts – Epicenter, Unchained, and Zero Knowledge for blockchain topics.
- YouTube – Channels like Finematics, Whiteboard Crypto, and Naomi Brockwell.
- Events – Online and in-person conferences like ETHDenver, Solana Breakpoint, and NFT.NYC.
- Facebook/Metaverse Groups – Decentraland, Cryptovoxels, Sandbox, and others have active communities.
Get Hands-On with Tools
Beyond just talking about web3, using the actual tools will accelerate your learning. Here are ways to start tinkering:
- Set up a crypto wallet (MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet) to hold digital assets. Learn how transfers work by sending testnet crypto or NFTs to friends.
- Explore basic DeFi protocols by lending, borrowing, staking, and providing liquidity on platforms like Aave and Uniswap.
- Mint an NFT on OpenSea, Rarible, or another marketplace. Observe listings and sales to understand valuations.
- Try out early web3 social platforms like Lens and Alessia. See how decentralized identity, content moderation, and incentives function.
- Browse marketplaces for avatar fashion, virtual land/experiences, crypto art, domain names, and other digital goods.
- Dive into the metaverse by creating accounts in Cryptovoxels, Decentraland, or The Sandbox. Attend events and explore what others have built.
Hands-on participation demystifies web3 faster than simply reading about it. Start small with test assets so you can experiment comfortably.
Contribute to Community-Driven Projects
One amazing aspect of web3 is the spirit of open collaboration. There are many ways both technical and non-technical folks can pitch in to help build this new ecosystem.
- Testing and providing feedback on new products and protocols helps improve the user experience for all. Be thorough and constructive with any issues found.
- Creating educational/marketing content like explainers, reviews and interviews raises awareness about promising projects to potential new users.
- If you have artistic skills, designs for NFTs, avatar gear, and metaverse environments are always in demand.
- For writers, contributing to documentation sites, composing social media posts, and moderating forums are impactful.
- Developers can find bounties, part-time and full-time roles building the core protocol, products and integrations.
- Translating apps and content into other languages helps strengthen global inclusivity in web3.
- Organizing or assisting with in-person meetups creates meaningful bonding opportunities for those in your city.
There are fulfilling ways for every skillset to help move web3 progress forward. Check sites like Gitcoin, The Phthalo Blue Company, and individual project Discord roles for opportunities.
Invest in the Future You Want to See
The web3 space also thrives thanks to a broad base of investors and token holders supporting the platforms they find most promising. There are a few ways you can provide financial support:
- Buying and staking governance tokens for protocols and DAOs allows you to shape future decisions. Do ample research first to evaluate whether values align.
- Providing liquidity on AMM exchanges like Uniswap empowers trading by earning fees on pool shares. This helps build circular economies.
- Backing startups via Initial DEX Offerings (IDOs), SAFTs or other deals gives early-stage funding to talented teams.
- Donating to fundraisers supporting hackathons, public goods and educational initiatives fuels further decentralized progress.
- Collecting NFTs from artists and early web3 projects represents votes of confidence in their potential. Engage with the community.
Your role as an investor or economic participant in web3 can be significant, but always act responsibly. Start small, diversify, and learn continuously.
How Web3 Communities Function
Understanding what makes web3 communities distinctive is important for fully engaging. Here are some of their defining characteristics:
- Openness – Information is shared transparently by default, with inclusivity valued over exclusivity.
- Peer-to-peer collaboration – Hierarchies are flatter, with users coordinating to solve issues and build improvements.
- Consensus-based governance – Major protocol changes are put to a stakeholder vote rather than unilateral decisions.
- User ownership of assets/data – Platform users retain control through public-key encryption and decentralization.
- Incentives alignment – Participants are motivated via tokens and financial rewards to contribute to ecosystem health.
- Experimentation – New ideas are encouraged, with the community determining fit via usage and feedback. Failure is acceptable.
This cooperative spirit enables web3 communities to take on ambitious initiatives like creating cryptocurrencies, rebuilding the internet stack, and formalizing vast virtual worlds. Every new voice strengthens this powerful movement.
Why Now is an Exciting Time to Get Involved
It’s easy to see headlines about crypto trading markets and dismiss web3 as driven purely by speculation. But in reality, an entire parallel technological revolution is rapidly unfolding. Here are just some of the reasons why now is an exciting time to get involved:
- The core protocol layers (ETH, BTC, etc) have stabilized, providing a solid foundation for innovation.
- UX and onboarding are improving drastically, opening web3 products to mainstream users.
- DAOs are coordinating the resources to solve complex challenges at scale.
- Use cases like social networking, creator monetization, and gaming are generating real utility and value.
- The global connectivity of web3 networks empowers underserved users.
- Regulation is progressing, providing standards and guardrails.
- Institutional investment continues growing steadily, funding growth.
During these early days, individuals can still meaningfully influence the shape of web3 to come. Small contributions now could have big waves of impact later.
How Web3 Communities Operate
Flatter and More Inclusive Structures
Traditional corporations and communities on Web2.0 tend to be hierarchical. There are clear delineations between executives who make decisions, employees who carry out orders, and users who consume content. Communication is typically top-down, with limited input reaching decision-makers.
In contrast, web3 communities embrace flat, decentralized structures. Protocols and platforms are governed transparently via open-source code and public proposals. There are fewer gatekeepers preventing users from being heard.
Leadership roles are informal. Those who demonstrate passion and expertise in helping a project thrive organically emerge as influential community stewards. But power remains spread through the network.
This greater inclusivity creates a culture where no individual dictates unilaterally. Anyone can share ideas and contributions without requiring formal credentials or applying through narrow processes.
This more participatory structure often leads to greater innovation as fresh perspectives filter in from diverse community members. There is less inertia resisting change if proposals clearly benefit the majority.
Rather than closed teams handing down finished products, web3 projects co-create in tandem with their communities. There is a shared sense of ownership which incentivizes users to invite friends, provide feedback, evangelize, and contribute labor to advance the ecosystems they are invested in, both figuratively and literally.
This collective momentum can achieve remarkable progress through coordinated small efforts. Tasks once impractical for centralized entities handling alone become feasible when distributed across a network of enthusiasts.
Consensus-Based Governance
With more diffuse leadership, how do web3 communities actually make decisions? The primary method is governance tokens and voting.
When you hold the governance token of a particular protocol, such as UNI for Uniswap or MKR for MakerDAO, you gain the ability to vote on upgrade proposals submitted to the community. Tokens represent a proportional share of influence.
After a proposal is submitted, a multi-day voting period begins. Token holders signal whether they accept or reject the changes based on their own perspectives of whether it benefits the ecosystem. If the majority votes to approve, the proposal can proceed.
This democratic structure allows coordinated changes without relying on a small council of executives. The communities self-govern based on aggregated consensus rather than top-down decrees.
That said, the majority of governance token holders tend not to vote, so proposals often achieve quorum with a minority of active voters. Participating in the vote signals your support and makes you an engaged community member.
For major proposals, the community often hosts public video forums allowing pros and cons to be debated. Think of it like a virtual town hall meeting. Asking thoughtful questions here is encouraged.
Overall, keeping up with proposals via forums and Discord, then voting, allows you to directly steer web3 protocols you care about in a meaningful way. Your voice matters.
User Ownership of Assets and Data
On many of today’s internet platforms and social networks, users pour huge amounts of time and energy into content creation, connections, and communities. But the data and value users generate typically gets locked into private, centralized databases. The platform owners monetize this data while users forfeit control over their digital assets.
Web3 flips this arrangement by putting users fully in possession of what they create or collect. Your wallet address serves as a container only you control. No third parties can censor your content or prevent access to your assets.
When you mint an NFT of your artwork, write a post on a decentralized blogging platform, or buy a virtual land parcel, these items belong to your account forever. Even if a particular application shuts down, you retain ownership.
This ability to take your digital goods anywhere provides unprecedented interoperability. For example, you could bring the avatar clothing bought on one game or metaverse into many others that support the format. Your identity and connections can span apps rather than getting siloed.
Some compromised user data protection does occur on web3 today due to convenience-focused centralized services sitting atop decentralized protocols. But the broader ecosystem recognizes this issue and is collaborating on solutions.