This week’s podcast is my second SoloCast, and during the episode, I share my thoughts and some predictions on the potential impacts and implementations of web3. The blockchain can be basically defined as a cryptographic breakthrough that allows for openness but with very careful editing permissions. While web1 resulted in costless publication and web2 in costless communication, web3 allows for costless transactions. This will likely increase the number of transactions we make. Web3 can also create cheap digital scarcity which may help authenticate originality in the digital world.

Why does this all matter? My answer to this question regards the implications of web3 on the cost of trust and decentralization. Currently, the cost of trust in the market is relatively high, and with increasing transactions and original creations occurring via the blockchain, we will have to pay less for trust. Also, there will be less need for centralized parties such as brands or centralized banks, though it’s too early to say which authorities will all be affected.

Next, I make some predictions about what will happen as the blockchain gets deployed. The first to be impacted is the management of digital items, with finance and gaming among the earlier industries. Also, we will likely see digital components getting separated from analog components so that they can be managed on the blockchain. Another trend that may happen is that the blockchain may be implemented to manage atoms in the real world.

To wrap up the SoloCast, I explore the implications of web3. It will probably impact managerial culture, and DAOs (distributed autonomous organizations) will likely take over some market share from companies. I also believe the biggest networks will be bigger than the biggest companies, in part because there is no cap on involvement in web3 networks and ecosystems.

My goal in sharing my thoughts is not just to tell you what I think will happen but to provide some notions and rough directions so that you can hopefully overlay some of these lessons into your own experience and expertise. Web3 is still not easy to navigate, and it is still early in its implementation, but it provides incredible opportunity, and it is fun to get involved.

Links:

Eric’s Blog

Eric’s blog post on digital scarcity

Eric’s Blog post on The Cost of Trust

Technological revolutions and Financial Capital by Carlota Perez

SquidDAO

Topics:

(0:08) - Introducing the Web3 discussion

(4:13) - What is the Blockchain?

(6:06) - Lowering transaction costs across Web1, Web2 & Web3

(9:46) - Creating cheap, digital scarcity

(12:12) - Why does the blockchain matter? Trust & Decentralization

(18:50) - What happens when blockchains are deployed? Digital and Physical impacts.

(26:26) - Technological Revolutions & Financial Capital by Carlotta Perez

(28:23) - DAO: Distributed Autonomous Organization

(30:51) - Predictions: The biggest networks will be bigger than the biggest companies

(39:03) - Wrap Up: What do you have to do?

(42:02) - Web3 is supposed to be fun!

Additional Episodes If You Enjoyed:

Jason Hitchcock: Your Guide to Web3

Simon Judd: How Index Coop is Building Crypto Index Products

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Important quotes from Naval on building wealth and the difference between wealth and money:

How to get rich without getting lucky. - Naval Ravikant

Making money is not a thing you do—it’s a skill you learn. - Naval Ravikant

I came up with the principles in my tweetstorm (below) for myself when I was really young, around thirteen or fourteen. I’ve been carrying them in my head for thirty years, and I’ve been living them. Over time (sadly or fortunately), the thing I got really good at was looking at businesses and figuring out the point of maximum leverage to actually create wealth and capture some of that created wealth. - Naval Ravikant

Seek wealth, not money or status. - Naval Ravikant

Wealth is having assets that earn while you sleep. - Naval Ravikant

Money is how we transfer time and wealth. - Naval Ravikant

Ignore people playing status games. They gain status by attacking people playing wealth creation games.

You’re not going to get rich renting out your time. You must own equity—a piece of a business—to gain your financial freedom. - Naval Ravikant

The most important skill for getting rich is becoming a perpetual learner. You have to know how to learn anything you want to learn. The old model of making money is going to school for four years, getting your degree, and working as a professional for thirty years. But things change fast now. Now, you have to come up to speed on a new profession within nine months, and it’s obsolete four years later. But within those three productive years, you can get very wealthy. - Naval Ravikant

Important quotes from the podcast by Naval on Leverage:

“Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand, and I will move the earth.”

—Archimedes

To get rich, you need leverage. Leverage comes in labor, comes in capital, or it can come through code or media. But most of these, like labor and capital, people have to give to you. For labor, somebody has to follow you. For capital, somebody has to give you money, assets to manage, or machines. - Naval Ravikant

Fortunes require leverage. Business leverage comes from capital, people, and products with no marginal cost of replication (code and media). - Naval Ravikant

Capital and labor are permissioned leverage. Everyone is chasing capital, but someone has to give it to you. Everyone is trying to lead, but someone has to follow you. - Naval Ravikant

Code and media are permissionless leverage. They’re the leverage behind the newly rich. You can create software and media that works for you while you sleep. - Naval Ravikant

If you can’t code, write books and blogs, record videos and podcasts. - Naval Ravikant

Leverage is a force multiplier for your judgment. - Naval Ravikant

Apply specific knowledge, with leverage, and eventually you will get what you deserve. - Naval Ravikant

“We live in an age of infinite leverage, and the economic rewards for genuine intellectual curiosity have never been higher. Following your genuine intellectual curiosity is a better foundation for a career than following whatever is making money right now.” - Naval Ravikant

Important Quotes from the podcast on Business and Entrepreneurship

There is no skill called “business.” Avoid business magazines and business classes. - Naval Ravikant

You have to work up to the point where you can own equity in a business. You could own equity as a small shareholder where you bought stock. You could also own it as an owner where you started the company. Ownership is really important.

Everybody who really makes money at some point owns a piece of a product, a business, or some IP. That can be through stock options if you work at a tech company. That’s a fine way to start.

But usually, the real wealth is created by starting your own companies or even by investing. In an investment firm, they’re buying equity. These are the routes to wealth. It doesn’t come through the hours. - Naval Ravikant