Busting Biggest Myths About Web3 Web3 leaders across the globe share with us some misconceptions about the space and how to break them

Remember the days when web pages were accessed on dial-up connections? This was when the world was transitioning from Web1 to Web2. While naysayers existed back then too, the transition to Web3 today is tougher and is plagued by many myths across global markets. This is why debunking these misconceptions has become crucial for the industry's growth.

Entrepreneur India spoke to some professionals from the space, including founders, technology enablers, blockchain experts, thought leaders, and private sector experts, on the sidelines of the recently concluded Polkadot Now India conference 2023 in Bangalore, to clear these myths.

According to them, one of the biggest misconceptions that started early on is that it's completely anonymous and so one can do whatever and would never get caught. "I think privacy is very important, but hiding crime is not a socially good thing. There needs to be a balance. People thought that if you have an anonymous address with Bitcoin, you could buy drugs and do money laundering and all kinds of things. And, people are getting prosecuted for that all the time because it is absolutely not opaque, it's very transparent. I think a big misconception is that it's a hotbed of illicit activity," said Mark Cachia, founder, Scytale Ventures.

This myth is a global phenomenon. "People think that everything is a scam. They think it is an easy way for people to start their own scam and that it encourages criminal activities," said Hoon Kim, founder of Team STEP and CTO of Astar Foundation.

Another misconception about blockchain is that it is not socially good. "I absolutely believe that it is for the social good. People have to be educated about it and learn to use it," Cachia added.

Industry experts feel that while India has always been progressive in the aspect of technology, it has not been so in terms of Web3. "India is facing a backlash right now because of the lack of knowledge or lack of awareness. Every company is being analyzed or compared on the same plate, even though the scenario is entirely different. For instance, we at Polkadot don't do much marketing. We are focused on developing the product. We believe that marketing comes into the picture after you build something that is sustainable, scalable and interoperable. Without having any content if you just keep on marketing that's going to give a different kind of impression to the larger audience out there. We need some key thought leaders to at least get more aware on the aspect of who is who and explore more on that front," said Rishant Kumar, growth lead, APAC, KILT Protocol.

Another myth surrounding the industry is that Web3 is complicated. Even though everybody talks about it, it is considered to be a confusing subject. Experts say that it is not rocket science. "It's more about a different way of thinking. It's about a different way of looking at how we solve problems. It's not a complicated piece of technology that is hard to grasp. So, as long as we can understand basics, the most basic fundamentals, we will automatically be more comfortable with the technology side of things," said Gautam Dhameja, director of solution delivery, Parity Technologies.

Another common myth is that the moment someone talks about Web3, everybody thinks of trading. "The whole game shouldn't be like trading, trading, trading and so on, but it should be more like building new applications using decentralized applications and actually challenging the way we think about the business model and making it much more democratized with access to everybody rather than it being controlled by a few parties," said Kasper Mai Jorgensen, co-founder, Polimec Foundation.

Unlike the popular notion, raising funding has not been easy so far for the players involved. "I think the bull market obviously always gives the wrong sentiment about Web3, where people are just talking about money they can make, how they made money with token investing, etc. And that's what people look at, that, it is a place to make money. They think it is easy to build by raising a couple of million dollars. When you go on to speak to investors, they ask you questions like… what are you building? How are you building? So, I think one of the biggest myths is easy funding," said Jaskirat Singh, founder and builder, Polkassembly.

Overall, experts feel that more awareness, education and adoption will solve the myth that it is an industry that fosters illicit activities and where anyone can make easy money.