What Happened to Web3/Crypto?

It was a big con https://davegebler.com/post/musings/web-3-0-the-great-con

I liked the idea of bounties being paid in crypto but now bounties have problems too, someone needs to figure out a decent bounty site/scheme to avoid hundreds of people trying to claim then then wasting time producing nothing

The overwhelming majority of it were pyramid schemes that lured people in during covid when folks were desperate and interests rates were low. It was never sustainable and interest naturally waned after a few years. The final nail in the coffin was when AI took all the investment dollars and compute.

Monero is still very useful for making private transactions if you’re buying or selling anything that isn’t legal in your jurisdiction.

Lots of other coins are useful for exchanging money outside of the traditional financial system but the majority of people don’t need them and if you use them you need to handle the inherent volatility of something you don’t want to be volatile, and the on- and off-ramping cost and inconvenience.

Web3, defi and NFTs seem like a bit of dud so far and most projects are somewhere on the scale from “useless” to “outright scam”.

And of course many people won and lost lots money by speculating on crypto prices.

There are people I know who genuinely rely on crypto for their survival. For them, it’s the only way to send money abroad to support family in certain countries, or to access their own funds when they move.

As the world becomes more fragmented, with financial and cyber spaces becoming increasingly isolated, crypto is often the only tool left to maintain personal financial freedom.

So, in the long run, I believe crypto will be just fine. The trend isn't likely to reverse anytime soon.

The money that wasn't rugpulled started chasing AI instead.

I still see a lot of startups and small companies doing crypto stuff, as well as job openings in LinkedIn and similar so I don't think it went anywhere is just that the hype died a bit and it's been replaced by AI.

It was all a scam.

https://www.stephendiehl.com/blog/crypto-is-a-scam.html

Crypto people now are waiting for the next bull cycle/halving/bull run/pump and dump so they can sell all their coins and retire in a nice house in the Caribbeans.

Web3 is going just great! ;)

https://www.web3isgoinggreat.com/

A "one hit wonder" band often produces music, plays tours, and has a fan base long after we heard their one hit; hype can make something seem gone once the hype is gone.

Since early 2024, several ETFs are available that have exposure to Bitcoin, meaning one can finally buy/sell BTC via their traditional stonks accounts and it has attracted a lot of big name investors.

I have/had high hopes for Web3 as a decentralized internet (Silicon Valley show?) is one of the best tools to thwart oppressive governments and have much more autonomy over your data, privacy, and money. However, 5+ years in and not much has caught. Internet took about a decade+ to become ubiquitous, so who knows.

It’s a case of rugged individualism, the search for the elusive use case: cryptid currencies, beware of geeks bearing grifts.