“Onboarding the next billion” is a flawed narrative for driving real impact in web3, and we desperately need a new one. Why? 

Crafting narratives for products that spark cultural movements. Awakening the soul through myth, tech, art and spirituality ⚡️

Keeping that in mind, the term “onboarding” is not about creating real systemic change in the world, even if we hope and assume that will be the byproduct. 

The narrative of “onboarding a billion users” and creating “mass adoption” give us faulty metrics to gauge progress and connotate little beyond adding holders and getting people psyched. Fine and well, but none of this provides substance or solves any concrete, real world problem

At best, onboarding is an empty narrative and an unfulfilling vision: it gives clear direction and absolutely zero purpose. At worst, it is a rallying cry to drive prices up without any demonstrable utility undergirding adoption.

At our core, I believe that the web3 community genuinely cares about making the world a better place, and solving for the vast landscape of systemic issues highlighted by the 2008 financial crisis that spurred crypto’s creation in the first place.

A note of interest: while @base has been and still is a main entity propagating the onboarding narrative for builders, they have been adding others to it in order to actually reach those users, including “updating our financial system” and elements of “fixing a broken system”. 

Words have tremendous power. Our narratives will shape what we build, thus they must evoke the feeling of what we wish to see built. Some may dismiss this as mere semantics, but to not see the power in our language is to blindly accept someone else’s embedded value system.

A note of interest: while @base has been and still is a main entity propagating the onboarding narrative for builders, they have been adding others to it in order to actually reach those users, including “updating our financial system” and elements of “fixing a broken system”.

Of course, they have a lot to gain by finding the right resonance, especially as it appears that they see themselves as a central figure in the remodeled system.

To ensure the integrity of their efforts to build for this new system, would love to see them transition away from onboarding users and increasing adoption as a primary narrative angle for crypto builders.

To craft a new builder narrative set, we need to get out of our blockchain echo chamber and out from under rallying cries built upon VC growth metrics like DAU, and start talking about building products that solve real problems for real people.

This is extremely hard because it means we have to go out IN the world, EXPERIENCE its problems and use our creativity to craft solutions in product form. We have to give users—aka people—results, not hope.

And builders, that means not building products that are just another way for people to gamble and speculate. This just screams values-misalignment and, even more alarmingly, a deficit of creative thinking.

Of course, I blame the narrative. If we give people a better target than “increase usage” and cast a compelling vision for a better world, and they will open their imaginations and build cooler and more effective products.

Adoption and onboarding will happen as a byproduct, as will profit, but actual change will result as people use products and systems that make their lives better, blockchain powered or not.