CoCreate: To reshape the brand technology of Web3, it needs to improve the consumer experience

Author: Darren Klein, Blockworks; Compiler: Songxue, Golden Finance

Tara Fung says “cryptocurrency” is a dirty word.

During a panel discussion at the Permissionless II conference in Austin, Texas, CoCreate co-founder and CEO talked about how the industry needs a “rebrand.”

**Fung prefers the term “Web3” to “cryptocurrency” because it “encompasses technology and ethos,” opening up new use cases, interoperability, and ownership. **

The ethos of Web3 is that “people should have more ownership,” she explained, "and we should build things as community components, not as a centralized entity that decides everything unilaterally. "**

But cryptocurrency’s stigma extends far beyond blockchain. Fung said telling someone why they should care about cryptocurrencies (a common conversion tactic) is a fool’s errand.

“If you do that,” she said, “you’ve already lost. It should be intuitive. It should be experiential first. It should be said that it is a better experience. It is a better program.” It’s a better, more personalized journey.”

“Oh, it’s Web3. Yeah, nice. But I don’t have to know that to appreciate it.”

No one cares how the toilet works

Keith Grossman, president of Moonpay Enterprises, compared the current cryptocurrency investor mentality to what happened during the early rise of personal computers, when people cared about “their 486 and their Pentium and how much RAM they had.”

“That’s where we are today in this space,” he said. “We’re discussing specs.”

“Then the iPod came along and Steve Jobs held up a device and said ‘You have a thousand songs in your pocket.’”

Grossman said most people have an “I don’t know and I don’t care” attitude when it comes to today’s technology specs. “I just want it to work. I hope it does something great.”

“Nobody cares how the toilet works,” Grossman quipped. “That’s how I feel about technology.”

“The key is,” Grossman reiterated, “it 100 percent needs to be rebranded because it’s about how people understand the value of this technology.”

Grossman insisted that the reputational damage the crypto industry has suffered due to a series of scams and nefarious behavior is not unique to the space. “Fraud happens in any business where money is involved.”

“I can literally get involved in any industry where there is money to be made, and I can call out the bad actors. Are there bad actors in this space? 100%.”

“Does this space need to be regulated?” Grossman asked. “Yes, it requires responsible regulation.”

“Ultimately, for mass adoption at the consumer level, it’s going to be like a toilet,” he said. “Nobody cares how it works.”

“Technology just needs to be able to deliver a better consumer experience.”