The Web3 Trifecta 📝

Hi friends!

I can’t believe we’re 11 weeks in. Whew! We’ve covered A LOT. After some great conversations with friends and subscribers, I realized that the most common questions are “How does all of this relate to each other?” and “What can I do today to get involved in Web3?” My goal with this post is to show how some of the concepts we’ve touched on connect and how you can prepare yourself to be immersed in this space. If you want to go deeper into any of the topics, feel free to refer to the original post. I’ll also have a place at the end for you to share any lingering questions you’d like me to answer in more detail. :)

Now let’s dive in!

The Web3 Trifecta

In a previous post, I described Web3 as a new version of the internet that is powered by blockchain technology. The average person may never actually interface with this technology, but below are the three easiest and simplest ways for you to kickstart your entry into the world of Web3. 🔮

Wallets

The first step in your Web3 journey should be to acquire a wallet by creating one on a platform such as MetaMask.

In the physical world, most of us probably own at least one wallet. These are used to store your credit cards, cash, license (which proves your identity), and maybe even small items that you consider to be valuable (like a picture of a family member, a pocket sized degree, etc). They don’t have much value outside of that though.

In Web3, we have digital wallets that are considered to be either “hot” or “cold.” Hot wallets are similar to physical wallets—very accessible for every day use, but more prone to security attacks. Whereas, cold wallets in Web3 are similar to a safe in the physical world. It’s almost like a USB drive that stores your most valuable assets, such as high value NFTs or large amounts of crypto.

Web3 wallets allow you to access and engage with the Web3 space, decentralized finance (DeFi), and crypto. In your wallet, you can store digital assets like NFTs. It also allows you to interact with and access decentralized apps (dApps) on various blockchains.

Cryptocurrencies

At the same time as you’re setting your wallet up, you can also consider purchasing cryptocurrency of your choice on an exchange such as Coinbase or Binance. Below is a great advantages / disadvantages list comparing exchanges and wallets.

To be clear, you don’t have to have a wallet to buy crypto, but storing it in a wallet allows you to be able to send and receive crypto. It also allows you to purchase items using crypto. I personally keep most of my crypto either 1) in my wallet or 2) staked to generate returns.

Something to be mindful of is that as crypto becomes more widely accepted and used, it’s going to become more common to have it stored in a hot wallet such as MetaMask to allow you to purchase different items. Digital money is the future, so let’s get ourselves set up! ⚡️💰

Domain Names

Now, let’s say you create your MetaMask wallet and someone offers to send you 1 whole bitcoin. That’s basically a free coin valued at ~$40,000 at the time of this post? Uh, yes please! Well, the only problem is you thought you copied your long cryptic wallet address (where people send you money), but you accidentally jotted down the wrong address. So you just sent your free bitcoin to a whole stranger and you’ll never be able to get it back. Yikes!

This is where domain names come in. They’re easy to remember addresses that allow for you to send and receive crypto with ease. It’s similar to your Venmo or CashApp name! Instead of sending it to a long, random compilation of numbers and letters, you can just send it to “kendallr.eth”. Another benefit of having a domain name from platforms such as ENS or Unstoppable is that you can build websites using them, so they serve as your own personal landing page in Web3. More details on how to set yours up are at the end of this post.

This week’s recommended action: Ask me anything! 🤔

If you have questions about ANYTHING I’ve covered over these last few weeks, please drop them here. The purpose of this newsletter is to make knowledge about Web3 easily accessible in a way that resonates with my community—and I want to make sure I’m doing just that.