Web3 needs a rebrand, says Co:Create’s Tara Fung

“Crypto” is a dirty word, according to Tara Fung.

During a panel discussion at the Permissionless II conference in Austin, Texas, the CoCreate co-founder and CEO spoke about how the industry needs a “rebrand.”

Fung prefers the term “Web3” over “crypto” because it “encompasses the technology as well as the ethos,” opening up new use cases, interoperability, and ownership. 

The Web3 ethos is “that people should have more ownership,” she explained, “and that we should be building things in a way where there is a community component as opposed to a centralized entity that gets to decide everything unilaterally.”

But the stigma of crypto stretches well beyond blockchain vernacular. Fung said that telling someone why they should care about crypto — a common conversion tactic — is futile.

“If you do,” she said, “you’ve kind of already lost. It should be intuitive. It should be experiential first. It should be that this is a better experience. This is a better program. This is a better, more personalized journey.”

“Oh and it’s Web3. OK, cool. But I shouldn’t have to know that in order to appreciate it.”

Nobody cares how the toilet works

President of enterprise at Moonpay, Keith Grossman, compared the current mentality in crypto to conversations that took place during the early rise of personal computers, when people cared about “their 486 and their Pentium and how much RAM they had.”

“That’s kind of where we are today, in this space,” he said. “We’re talking about the specs.”

“And then the iPod comes out and Steve Jobs holds up a device and says ‘a thousand songs in your pocket.’”

When it comes to tech specs today, most people exhibit an “I don’t know and I don’t care” attitude, Grossman said. “I just want it to work. And I want it to do something awesome.”

“Nobody cares how the toilet works,” Grossman quipped. “That’s sort of how I feel about technology.”

“The point is,” Grossman reiterated, “it 100% needs a rebranding as it relates to how people understand why the technology’s valuable.”

The reputational harm that the crypto industry has incurred via a litany of scams and nefarious behavior is not unique to the space, Grossman insisted. “Scams take place in any industry where money’s involved.”

“I literally can go through any industry where money can be made, and I could point out bad actors. Are there bad actors in this space? 100%.”

“Does the space need regulation?” Grossman asked. “Yes, it needs responsible regulation.”

“Ultimately, for mass adoption on the consumer level though, it’s like the toilet,” he said. “Nobody cares how it works.”

“The tech just needs to be able to empower a better consumer experience.” 

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