Introduction:
When many post-80s and post-90s are still confused, for fear that they will not be able to catch up with this so-called Web3 “revolutionary express”, some post-00s have already “played flying”. A post-00s friend said, “The revolution in your eyes is my daily life.”
However, this new track is not only “frenzy”, some younger pioneers have begun to be more calm and even reflect.
We talked in detail with 4 post-00 entrepreneurs who “played” Web3. Their stories and experiences may reflect the other side of the industry.
Entry, in adolescence
Fujianese Meepo was born in 2000 and is “financially free”.
He defines “financial freedom” as having enough assets to buy two homes and two cars in a first-tier city. This is his record as a Web3 “veteran” with a decade of experience.
Meepo came into contact with Bitcoin when he was in the sixth grade of elementary school, in 2012, when his parents, who graduated with a doctorate in finance, were trying to mine Bitcoin out of interest. In order to prevent Meepo from continuing to indulge in the game, he was encouraged to “study” Bitcoin mining, and for every coin mined, a reward of 100 yuan (one Bitcoin was worth $12 at the time).
At that time, Bitcoin, which was just two years old, had little social value in terms of practicality. However, a Web3 investor who has mined recalled that for Bitcoin, 2012 was a turning point.
This matter is related to Nokia’s “going down the altar”.
In the past, Nokia has been the “top stream” in the mobile phone industry for a period of time. It is very popular in China, but the price abroad is much cheaper than that in China. In order to prevent mobile phones sold overseas from flowing into China, Nokia has set up a “software lock”, but someone has cracked the software lock, and the mobile phone system can be changed to a system suitable for Chinese operators. Soon, the cracking method flowed into Huaqiangbei in China. Since then, using computers to crack Nokia mobile phones “smuggled” into China from abroad has become a special business of Huaqiangbei.
But it’s still a bit slow to crack only with a computer. So, someone invented a graphics card acceleration program that allows graphics cards to participate in cracking Nokia’s software lock. This “grey” industry broke out quickly. The profit of unlocking a mobile phone was between 200-300 yuan. A large number of merchants participated in it, forming the earliest batch of graphics card “miners”.
However, since 2012, with the decline of Nokia and the involution of “miners”, the unlocking fee for a mobile phone has dropped to 10 yuan, or even 5 yuan, there is no profit to make, and a large number of “miners” are facing unemployment.
At this moment, the “savior” came – the Bitcoin graphics card mining program was born. The investor recalled that there was no exchange at that time, and Bitcoin was usually traded in forums and QQ groups. “When I entered the pit, I could mine a dozen bitcoins a day. At that time, it was almost 50 yuan a coin.”
“The people in Huaqiangbei don’t even know what Bitcoin is, they just look at whether mining can make money.” These people who made a living by “swiping” Nokia quickly turned to using graphics cards to mine Bitcoin. As a result, “China suddenly emerged a group of very professional Bitcoin mining computing power at that time, which can be regarded as the origin of the earliest batch of “miners”. “
The admission of these professional “miners” from far away in Guangdong indirectly brought Meepo’s mining career to an early end. The computing power of ordinary laptops is naturally no match for professional graphics card mining machines. Meepo found that the coins that could be mined were getting less and less, and gave up after a year, and gave the small amount of bitcoins mined to his parents.
“I didn’t make much money at that time,” but his interest in blockchain started from there.
Like Meepo, Zohar, who was born in 2003, was also exposed to Bitcoin early. Zohar is interested in finance and economics. When he was a freshman in high school, he heard about Bitcoin from school-related clubs, and he completed the basic course of game theory at Zhejiang University on the Internet.
In addition, the family is all in business and also playing with bitcoin. “I used about 3,000 yuan to buy bitcoin and play casually, but then I basically lost money.”
Zohar now has multiple labels: the top student in the college entrance examination in a city in Guangdong Province, a freshman student at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (has taken a leave of absence to start a Web3 business), a co-founder of an art DAO, a Web3 investor, and more.
The income of his daily investment in NFT is about dozens of times. When he said that young people should not be carried away by the short-term wealth gains, as a senior “office worker”, I was slightly mixed.
Emma started her blockchain business at a younger age. Born in 2006, she is only 16 years old and attends a high school in San Jose, California. Emma heard about Bitcoin from her parents when she was 11, but had little interest.
This is the heart of Silicon Valley, and last year, the Internet project she created was shortlisted in the top 10% of the YC Bootcamp (a famous American startup incubator that has incubated many unicorns). This year, she upgraded this Web2 project to a Web3 project, intending to hit YC again, hoping to get investment. The reason for the upgrade is very simple, the project vision needs to rely on blockchain technology to realize.
Whether Meepo, Zohar, or Emma, entering the so-called Web3 is not intentional.
It’s like, a programmer who works in a cryptocurrency exchange suddenly found that his field of work has another title today – Web3, and he seems to be more valuable. But even getting involved doesn’t necessarily make it clear what Web3 is all about. I asked him why he thinks Web3 is the future.
After thinking for a long time, he squeezed out an answer: “Don’t young people like the future?”
“There is no authority here”
Whether starting a business in Web3 or in Web2, for Emma, it is just a way of learning. “The way I learn is through my entrepreneurial project, and whenever I have a question, I go to look up materials or ask someone for advice.”
Emma says that unlike other Asian kids living in the United States, who place the same emphasis on test scores, she spends most of her time doing things she is passionate about. “When I find I’m passionate about something, I go after it and follow what makes me happy.”
Emma’s father, Kavin Zhang, a graduate of Tsinghua University, told me that “most parents set their educational goal as a relatively superficial, obvious, and very consistent goal, such as going to an Ivy League school or something.” But he never Emma is required to also attend a prestigious school.
Even though he is well-known for the lifetime benefits brought by the school’s halo, he values the children’s independent will and self-discipline more. He always asks Emma, what do you want to do?
At the age of 9, Emma started writing, and has published 4 novels on reality so far, and is writing her 8th book. In order to share this passion and love with others, in 2020, she founded a non-profit online organization to teach others to write. In this organization, she holds writing competitions and invites other speakers to share writing experiences.
Emma found that it’s hard for a writer to make money just by writing books, and many writers don’t know how to market their books.
In order to solve the problem of writers’ income and work marketing promotion, she founded a Web2 digital publishing platform called Quillmates. This year, she re-built the project on the blockchain and changed its name to Cypher. Relying on tens of thousands of dollars in “angel investment” raised from relatives and friends, she hired someone to write code, while she was responsible for product prototypes, business model design, and operations outside the code.
On Cypher, users can publish articles, and at the same time provide readers with a “paid reading + investment” model, allowing readers to invest in authors. In this way, authors can publish their own tokens, and when an author appreciates, the tokens held by readers will appreciate, which also gives readers motivation to support and market authors.
“It’s going to be a free market, and anything that is popular with readers will automatically have more room to invest,” Emma said when she introduced me to Cypher. “What I want is only possible on Web3.”
She observes that in a Web2 world, “social media giants like Meta and Google, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter, platforms can control whatever they want and censor whatever they want.”
In Web3, there is no central authority, and everyone is the co-owner of the blockchain. “The only way to make content truly free is to build it on Web3,” she said.
Many people regard Web3 as the entrance to the new world, hoping to rewrite the “outdated” underlying business rules once written by the old giants. This is also closer to the reason why young people who are “outside the door” are trying to enter Web3.
For example, Dinghui fell in love with DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) at first sight. This kind of business organization different from traditional companies is what excites him most about Web3. He worked as an operating partner of an NFT project for a period of time this year. When he decided to join the Web3 “circle” a year ago, he had no practical experience of any on-chain enterprise. Dinghui, a native of Shaanxi, was born in 2003 and only attended high school, including eight years of homeschooling.
When he was in the fifth grade of elementary school, his father, who was a university teacher, dropped out of school for him—the reason was that, after seeing his child in school for several years, he “stayed up all night doing homework every day” and “lost a lot of his spiritual energy”. Since then, there has been no education within the system.
At first, his family would help him find some courses and project internships. In his words, “finding one’s own value in working with outstanding seniors and seniors in society”. For example, when ordinary people should be in their first year of high school, Dinghui joined a college student association, became a volunteer of the association, and began to do errands for the association’s official account. Since then, she has entered the new media industry. Since then, he has been interning or working in various projects until now for nearly three years.
Long before the concept of DAO appeared, Dinghui felt that he was already “practicing” DAO. Around the time of her second year of high school, Dinghui created an online community that brought together hundreds of teenagers studying at home, dropping out of school, and dropping out of school.
Later, Dinghui apprenticed an educational innovation teacher named An Zhu, and learned how to do community operation, writing, and project management. “I think the autonomous atmosphere of his team, although there is no smart contract, is similar to DAO. In each city, members can form branches there. They explore more in educational innovation, social innovation, and organizational change. “
The entry into Web3 is in 2021. During her internship in Beijing, Dinghui found that more and more people were chatting about blockchain and Web3 online. “So when I met DAO, I was very surprised, so I fell into the pit.” When she first came into contact with Web3, Dinghui was soaked in DAO every day. In various WeChat groups, at first he couldn’t understand the chat content, but he felt that he was “always learning”. Because of his active speech in the community, he was recognized and invited to participate in a DAO, and became the operation of the DAO, “They pay me a salary.”
To a certain extent, among young people in the Web3 field, the rebel element appears very frequently. Zohar, the top student in the college entrance examination, likes to call himself a “bad student” and “likes to do something different” — in his freshman year of high school, Zohar used various online course resources to develop an independent study plan for himself.
“Why do both teachers and schools want everyone to study or research at a relatively standard pace and requirements? I understand that, after all, managing so many people requires a more unified approach that is suitable for most people to improve efficiency.” Zohar Say, “But I don’t think I belong to the majority.”
Previously, his grades were in the middle class, and he hardly listened to lectures. Through self-study on the Internet, he acquired a lot of knowledge and experience about the college entrance examination. Later, in the college entrance examination, he became the city’s top student in the college entrance examination.
Just six months later, he made an unusual choice again. After completing the first half of his freshman year, Zohar took a leave of absence from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and devoted himself to Web3 entrepreneurship: he initiated an art-related DAO, and participated in the planning of Europe’s first high-level encrypted art exhibition; an investor.
Zohar feels that under the existing environment, it is difficult for ordinary people to realize their own value, obtain considerable benefits, and even cross classes, but “Web3 provides greater imagination and hope. In this wave, every The influence of individuals can be amplified. ” – This is mainly reflected in the speed of wealth transfer is fast enough. Whether on the Internet or at an exchange meeting, legends about the freedom of wealth in the blockchain are spreading everywhere, making them believe that everyone is likely to gain excess wealth in the process of participating in Web3.
Young people are eager to subvert authority, and even become the so-called “authority”. But what are the odds of being that lucky?
” Cut” and “Cut”
When Zohar communicates with the project team on the phone or online, no one will know that he is only 18 years old if he does not say it. “This is the anonymity of Web3”.
He was right about that.
Our interviews were all conducted over the phone, and I didn’t know what the other person was like or what they looked like. In fact, it is not convenient for me to do an interview and ask the other party to send me his ID card, household registration book, academic certificate, and industrial and commercial registration certificate to verify whether what he said is true.
I’m trying to cross-validate authenticity with people around them. But it’s not completely guaranteed. For example, I have no way to fully verify-they claim to be talking about 20 entrepreneurial projects at most every week; some people have done more than 20 internships related to securities, large factories, and exchanges during college; or, the real rate of return on investing in cryptocurrencies . If the other party wants to fool me, it must be easier.
This is the norm in Web3 startup circles. A friend who works at Binance (currently the largest cryptocurrency exchange) once reminded me, “Don’t completely believe what the currency circles say, remove a zero from the wealth they say, and then fold it in half.”
“There are wealth myths in this circle, but they are few and far between,” Meepo said.
After coming into contact with the Ethereum network in 2014, Meepo participated in it and got to know many project parties. “Many people in the early days later became bigwigs in the circle.” Later, he took the lead in forming a community, which gradually grew. By forwarding the project to the group for propaganda for some project parties, Meepo obtained some “insider information”, such as a large amount of money will come in at a certain point of time, he will do arbitrage, “Almost from 18 years, slowly freedom of wealth.”
“Many people in the community made money because of this, and everyone gradually trusted me and became my fans.”
When Meepo admitted that to some extent he also achieved financial freedom by “cutting leeks”, I was surprised by his frankness.
“How does the currency circle make money? It makes money from the opacity of information.” He saw some domestic VCs who achieved overnight wealth through the all-in method in the early days, and then quickly quit Web3 to invest in other fields. “Many Web 3 project parties say that they do things based on beliefs and consensus. These are all false. When everyone makes enough money, no one will talk about consensus anymore.”
We were silent for a while on the phone. Meepo went on to say, “Although I don’t like this method, I think personal interests are above everything else.” “If I want to save all sentient beings, I first need to achieve some of my own pursuits and goals.”
Will there be guilt?
“Because I can’t see who is losing money. The blockchain has such a benefit that you don’t know who is cutting leeks now, so you don’t feel guilty. ” But Meepo will not allow it in its own This is what happens in the project.
Dinghui once served as the operation director of a religious and cultural NFT project. After contacting for a period of time, he speculated that the investors are “people in the currency circle” and may just leave if they want to make a profit.
“The biggest value of an avatar-type NFT should be the user’s network circle and the wealth-making effect in the bull market. But for Tugou NFTs, it seems that the style of doing things is “empowering” through some narrative and marketing methods. Starting from water is actually just false prosperity, and does not really create value. “
Dinghui initially chose to join this project. “On the one hand, there are indeed a lot of thoughts on religion that I hope to express. More importantly, I have the opportunity to operate as the project leader, face greater challenges and gain first-hand experience.”
“With my background, high-quality project parties will not give me this opportunity, but if I have the experience of doing it once, the subsequent job search will be completely different.” In his opinion: bowing into the game is always the best way to learn.
“I have quit now.” Dinghui made it clear that the experience he wanted had already been obtained, “I just don’t want to cooperate with such an immature project party. This project may not have much value, but when I was doing publicity I did not deliberately deceive or incite people’s desire to make purchases, so I have a clear conscience.”
“NFT is essentially a field that relies on volume contributions,” Zohar said. He observed that the merits of a project and its ability to make money are two different things. Some projects are “rare” and “creative”, but the team’s poor management of user expectations has resulted in the project not being recognized by the market, and the price of NFT has been unable to rise. “We call this the ability to manage market value. In layman’s terms, it’s a bit like the ability to tell a story.” To describe it more directly: Can you make users feel that they can appreciate the value of your NFTs after buying them.
A senior NFT buyer told us bluntly, “Most NFT projects are leeks.” For example, in the early stage of developing an NFT project, a team will paint a picture of the future (how the NFT will appreciate). Once a project is released, and users pay for it, they will no longer “enable” the project (such as engaging in some community activities and inviting some bigwigs to share in the community), and the user is equivalent to only buying one picture. The project team is basically “white wolf with empty gloves”.
Meepo, however, feels he has a way to change that. He planned an NFT featuring the concept of IP second creation, and is confident that it will be welcomed by the market.
“The current NFT market is a hype market, and many people’s NFTs cannot be sold because the holders are passive.” He decided to make an NFT whose price can be determined by the players themselves – for his own NFT project I wrote a 100,000-word fantasy open-ended novel. After the user buys an NFT, they will get a specific chapter in the novel, and they can create this passage.
“In this way, the value of NFT can be realized not determined by the market, not by the project party, but by the holder itself.” He called this model create to earn, and holders can increase the value of NFT through secondary creation, ” If you want to sell your NFT at a good price, then you have to constantly modify it through the form of second creation to achieve the buyer’s satisfaction and sell it for a higher price.”
“I’m not worried that I won’t be able to sell, I have my own way back.” He revealed that he “has 3 communities with a combined number of nearly 10,000 people” and “the group leader is me.” This is the network he has “accumulated” over the past few years. He believes that as long as his projects are announced in these communities, “someone will definitely buy them.” He calls it “circular marketing.”
But because the crypto market was in a bear market, Meepo put the project on hold, waiting for the next bull market. Now, he has another equally important thing to do.
next stop
“Actually I’m quite disappointed in this industry, Web3 should lean towards technology, not financial attributes or hype. I have a love-hate relationship with Web3,” said Meepo, who is helping Web3 in his own way — from school this year After graduating from an undergraduate degree, he turned around and joined an Internet company. He favors the technical background of big Internet companies such as AI and Metaverse. “After all, blockchain is only part of Web3.”
“If the time is right in the future, I will still return to Web3. The decentralized business culture attracts me more, and that will be the future.”
A manifestation of the difference between the so-called decentralization and the current business culture is that in the past ten years, the best-selling books in the Internet industry have been successful books such as “Infinity War” that seem to be drawn with swords, while popular books in the field of Web3 are. It is “Sovereign Individual”, and the tone has changed from struggle to equality, peace and win-win. Behind this, the underlying logic of the business is changing: emphasizing the community rather than the company, emphasizing individuals rather than companies, and emphasizing members rather than users.
However, the future of this “decentralization” is still far away. In July of this year, Dinghui bid farewell to the last DAO operation and the identity of the operating partner of the NFT project. He wrote an article: “Chinese DAO Big Failure: Don’t worry! We Can’t Achieve Decentralized Autonomy” , which reviews the current problems of DAOs.
Dinghui pointed out that many DAOs based on WeChat are no different from the community; the core team is centralized; the meetings are cumbersome, it is difficult to reach a consensus, no one does anything; and there is no good incentive mechanism. Flaunting the market in the name of DAO, “it’s actually nothing.”
“People often mention the Web3 belief. I think it is a kind of projection, which is to project human ideals onto such a new hot land.” Dinghui reflected on the DAO, “Can it become a reality? Actually, I don’t hold too much Hope.” But he’s still exploring better DAO implementations.
At the end of August, at the “Summer of Tile Cats” Web3 conference hosted by 706 Dali, Dinghui served as the director of the DAO theme camp. This 19-year-old friend planned and organized the “brothers and sisters” from all over the country. 3 days of sharing and co-creation activities.
For these young people, Web3 is certainly not the end, it is more like a journey of life, a new attempt or a low-cost adventure.
Zohar said he will eventually return to campus one day to do more in-depth studies and start the next research. “My experience outside of school and what I’m going to research on campus will be complementary. I’m eager to improve on this.”
Before returning to school, he hopes to accumulate more knowledge about the market, which is invisible to the public, and communicate with others to gain exclusive insights and knowledge. To accumulate the logic and experience of dealing with people, dealing with projects, and investing. “When I feel that I have built a relatively complete framework, I will go back to school to study the framework of another system. People can’t always be limited to one direction and work hard on things, and that may not go very far. “
The story of young people’s fortune is like Shuangwen. As a group with the fewest social resources, their background color is actually “Underdog” (in China, it can also be understood as “diaosi”). If even the people with the weakest resources succeed, then theoretically everyone has a chance to succeed. . Everyone likes to read the stories of young people, and they all want to have a better life.
The story continues.
As the first batch of post-00 Web3 entrepreneurs, Meepo joined a major Internet company, Zohar will go back to school in the future, Emma uses her spare time to continue to hit the YC training camp, and Dinghui is still looking for DAO opportunities: they all have bright futures.
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