Perspectives from a new generation of crypto/Web3 builders - Interviews with college students focused on industry (Part 1)
Last month, ETH Denver saw an influx of students attending the conference. These young crypto enthusiasts were so passionate about the industry that they were willing to skip classes to attend. They came from all over the country, united in their shared interest in blockchain technology. Dorm rooms and lecture halls were left behind as they huddled six to a room in nearby AirBnBs, eager to soak up everything that ETH Denver had to offer. We caught up with some of these university crypto/blockchain club members to learn more about their motivations and get their insights on the future of this industry.
It's truly fascinating to think that the 18-21 year olds of today are the first generation to be natively crypto. The Satoshi whitepaper was released when these students were 4-7 years old. As they grew up, they watched crypto/Web3 go through its ups and downs. The most remarkable thing about these young adults isn't just their familiarity with crypto - it's their nuanced and unexpected perspectives on it. Rather than embodying the stereotypes of "crypto bros," the 18-21 year olds of today are deeply thoughtful and reflective about the industry they've grown up with.
This and next week’s posts are dedicated to these interviews. Treat as a focus group to get a better perspective of what makes crypto/Web3 interesting to these students, what they are worried about and what the future holds. Not all views are represented, but hearing from this generation has been insightful.
Meet the students
Ronith Yalamanchili (Georgia Tech, 2nd Year): Working on - Zalpha, a financial literacy app for Gen Z that was originally called Invest-ed, and DAO Governance & Research at 404 DAO / Blockchain @ GT
Josh Walton (University of Miami, 3rd Year): Working on - Souvenir, a Web 3 social network that empowers users to own their content and buy/sell content created by their favorite creators/communities. In addition to that we are aiming to revolutionize the way people connect on the internet.
Pruitt Martin (Georgia Tech, just graduated): Working on - 404 DAO, a non-profit in Atlanta focused on expanding web3 education and opportunities in the Southeast. We have 3 verticals: the Web3 ATL conference, the 404 Accelerator, and governance delegations in partnership with Blockchain at GT.
Manakin (University of Southern California, 4th Year): Working on - Technical writing at a layer-1 building in stealth!
Logan Norman (University of Southern California, 2nd Year): Working on - Holonym, a zero knowledge protocol that builds ZK-SNARKS for private identity on blockchains.
Bennett Thompson (Northeastern University, 3rd Year): Working on - Nifty Bridge enables premium memberships, digital twins, gated content, and event access. Our platform has helped brands like University of Michigan, Malbon Golf, and more launch digital first products from within their Shopify store.
Rutvik Rau (Columbia University, 3rd Year): Working on - Credicle, a Web3 wallet data analytics tool for FinTech companies. Fintech companies with a high percentage of crypto native users use Credicle for streamlined product experiences and services. We offer platforms user analysis for faster onboarding, user segmentation and risk analysis for lending.
http://credicle.xyz/
The Interview
Axial Studio: Why is crypto/web3 interesting to you?
The idea of ownership of your data was most interesting to me, its something that is increasingly becoming a problem with the internet. I see crypto as a tool we can use to solve that issue. Similarly, as I see all these banks fail - I see decentralized crypto applications as potential solutions.
The immutability of distributed ledgers is what attracts me to crypto. The idea that once you’ve put something on chain, you can’t mess with it. In my research it really struck me that for institutional use cases, the ability to have on chain credit, on chain capital markets seemed like a way to build more efficiencies and pathways for financial access.
There are 2 parts that really drove me to be interested in crypto:
The actual technology of blockchains and consensus algorithms were really cutting edge. I’m less interested in the trading aspect of it. I think that the real innovation is the actual technology underpinning crypto - maybe that is just my perspective as a computer science major
The different applications that it makes possible are diverse, from NFTs, gaming and financial assets is a big draw for me. An idea like being able to pay without your identity being known or being able to see the history of transactions on chain are powerful concepts that have so many potential applications.
The ability to build a borderless ecosystem and improve financial services is what drew me to crypto. I’m interested in how DeFi can change financial inclusivity. So much of the world’s population is unbanked and unrepresented. There’s an opportunity to reach those people through decentralized systems and support those growing markets. Web3 can take it a step further, where people can start organizing around a particular set of rules which are built and baked into code vs. social contracts with a government entity.
I originally got into crypto from the financial perspective, but as I learned more I became interested in the idea of ownership of your own data/assets - fighting back against the system of surveillance capitalism that has captured our society. The business models of Web2, the internet today, are completely driven by ad revenue and algorithms to maximize user attention and make money from ads. I see Web3 as an opportunity to build out a new type of business model for companies on the Internet. We can build something that breaks this circular system of monetizing users for their attention and capturing as much data as possible, maximizing revenue.
My interest in crypto came from a focus on remittances. I was in Europe traveling, seeing first hand how people in other countries prefer to use Bitcoin or other stablecoins to accept payments rather than their own. That was eye opening. Then, coming back home, I started to appreciate the ecosystem around Web3 and crypto and the collaborative nature of projects. Working on decentralized projects has been a more democratized way of working than going down the traditional career path. There are no boundaries, nobody saying you can’t do it, everyone is there to push forward to a common goal.
I have 3 primary reasons I got into crypto
I believe decentralized systems can provide means for competition. Whether for public goods, funding or allocation of capital.
Philosophically, I like the grandiose ideas of distributed, decentralized systems to provide high-fault tolerance, highly available systems.
Many of the most curious people I know have gone into crypto/Web3. I think it provides the ability for individuals to have an impact that many don’t have today. There are no guardrails, just a distributed cohort of people all working towards some grandiose vision.
Axial Studio: Many of you mentioned caring about things like data/asset ownership or access for the unbanked, why do you care about those things?
Our generation has had an enormous amount of information readily accessible to us, more than any previous generation. That access to information for our generation has shaped our viewpoints and opened our eyes to many of these issues which might be affecting people across the world.
I grew up in India for a long time. Recently, India had a really strong change introducing an identity system, similar to SSN in the US. It has been a remarkable success in terms of financial inclusivity and bringing more people who are unbanked to financial platforms. I see the same trends playing out in Web3 - the technology has a similar promise.
Similar to Rutvik said, a lot of it has to do with having open access to information via the internet. As we try to change things, it is so hard to do it from a top-down perspective. For me, it started from just theoretical interest but then my values developed after learning more.
In high school, I liked reading books like 1984, watching Black Mirror episodes or consuming other dystopian media - they were just interesting to me. But when some of the real world events started unfolding and those events didn’t seem so far off in the future, that was a little scary. I started seeing crypto as an industry that could fight against some of those authoritarian overreaches.
Axial Studio: There’s been a lot of turmoil in the crypto/Web3 industry the past year, what are your reactions to what’s going on?
These blow ups have had less to do with cryptocurrency and decentralized system, they have to do with the connection of centralized traditional finance systems. Its almost comical that there’s regulatory headwinds coming from the aftermath, its missing the point to me. It doesn’t worry me because the core technology/systems themselves have been robust and will persist either way.
Its been hard to watch/listen to on Twitter or the outside world, at this stage of my life I’m on the edge of dropping out to focus on this. Its hard having my parents breathing down my neck with different news articles of SVB going down or Bitcoin price crashing, asking if I’m still employed or how the startup is going. But I still see a lot of bigger, Fortune 100 companies, hiring for crypto roles and different blockchain divisions. Amazon is launching their layer 1 soon and other bigger companies continue their initiatives. So even though there’s a lot of negative news, there’s still a lot of energy in the industry and people staying here.
Its been encouraging to see how many people have stayed around. We’ve washed out a lot of grifters and survived what has been a tough year. The FTX blow up did a lot of damage to the industry and was a surprise to many. I don’t think anyone saw the level of corruption and gree that was going on and were ultimately blindsided by it. It was extremely frustrating to explain to my parents, friends and other students what was going on in detail. Its been a tough year, we’ve survived, but there’s a lot of work for us to make up for it.
I think for the industry to move forward we have to start talking about the valuable use cases. Finding a bridge between Web2 and Web3, and communicating how value can be created with the technology. We also have to find a regulatory middle ground that we can build on top of - or it will be difficult to build in the future. Overall, I feel pretty positive going forward.
I agree with what everyone has said. I feel like there’s a lot going on in the industry for a while, its been up and down. All of these situations (FTX, Celsius, etc.) have been distractions, I’ve primarily focused on the technology and how it will have an impact on the future. There’s still a lot of promising projects from bigger companies and smaller startups - there’s more accelerator programs, educational programs so the outlook is strong.
Its definitely been concerning. I’m just optimistic that there will eventually be a coming together of the industry. I believe regulators will hash something out that all stakeholders can live with. But at the same time, I’m worried that if we keep getting stalled/delayed that the US will lose leadership in this industry. The industry will be led by other countries/jurisdictions unless there can be more certainty on that front.
I think FTX is an interesting case, because the reason it failed goes against much of the philosophy of crypto. Having funds centrally managed and ultimately stolen is what crypto is supposed to prevent. I’m optimistic that there will be more products in the consumer front we’ll see in the future.
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This is the end of part 1 of the interviews. Next week, we’ll ask about the students’ perspective on building for a crypto only world vs. connected to our current financial system, what they view as the biggest challenges to the industry and how they think their generation will change finance/technology.