Web3; and Gen-Z

Lately there's been another work-related phrase floating around the internet - apparently "quiet quitting" is already old news and the thing to do now is to "rage apply". "Rage applying" is basically the act of the employee applying to other jobs if they felt like they've been slighted or mistreated at work. (Being passed up for a promotion or being harassed, for example.) Gen-Z uses a different language than their Millennial/Gen-X/Boomer counterparts but this is actually what you're supposed to do if you feel like your current job is toxic or not getting you anywhere. Whereas Millennials often spend their energy trying to have their feelings validated (my boss is a dick), the Gen-Zers seem to be more interested in beating the game itself (find a better job with better conditions).

Gotta keep an eye on Gen-Z during this recession, I think. The economy is going to suck for a while but there are lots of jobs to go around (employers are still having trouble hiring but the Zoomers are forcing them to raise salaries now) and they might end up taking everything over after the Boomers retire. 😳 And they do have an unspoken synergy with Gen-Xers who also tend to lean towards pragmatic solutions - X in leadership, Z in execution: that seems to be the "new normal" we are headed towards right now. (The Boomer/Millennial feuds that have become commonplace in the media was, in a way, a product of a low-interest rate economy, too. Millennials entered the job market during an economic bubble - Gen-Z will now enter it during a recession.)

In a way, the craze over low-resolution monkey pictures in crypto's 20-22' bull run was the Millennials' last attempt at cultural relevance before things start to go in a very different direction over the next few years. Taking a step further, one could argue that the height of this culmination was the rise and fall of FTX: being a Millennial/Gen-Z hybrid born in the mid-90s, Sam Bankman-Fried was also a product of his time: ideological, but also...solely looking out for himself in the most selfish way possible. Sam's Millennial side informed him of the heart-strings he needed to pull, his Gen-Z side told him how to execute an agenda for his own personal gain - the unholy combination of poor Boomer parenting skills, Millennial reality-aversion, and Gen Z's ruthless pragmatism run amok.

But as with most technologies ahead of its time - FTX's story is just a preview for the things to come in the general economy, where there are probably hundreds - if not thousands - of SBFs running around, scamming people every day. The silver lining for crypto is that at least FTX got caught with their misdeeds early and relatively quickly, thanks to the blockchain that always leaves a paper trail. (CoinDesk was the one that broke the story, after all.) In fiat, a lot of these misappropriations get lost in the paperwork and politics (the media will often ignore FTX-esque stories if they're getting paid by guilty parties) and is much harder to detect. But with the money fountain now turned off, we'll get to see - albeit slowly - who has been swimming without their pants on in the fiat markets as well.

To the die-hard crypto enthusiasts out there, the FTX scandal may not seem like a great thing (it isn't, to be clear) but in a way SBF did the industry a favor by giving us an over-the-top example of what not to do. The Bitcoin and Ethereum Maxis bicker a lot about a lot of things all the time, but there's at least one thing they both agree on - FTX sucks and we probably shouldn't do anything like that, ever again. While the fiat worlds continue to stay in denial about their own misdeeds, crypto will have hopefully learned its lesson and moved on by then - they have, after all, the tools to do it, sitting right there.

In a way, part of Web3's cultural development is also tied to how the general economy will "rehab" from its addiction to cheap loans onto an economy that is actually competitive and forward-looking. How does that happen, though? As the economy shifts, the purchasing power will shift from organizations who were good at fundraising (an essential skill during bubble-times) to ones that are actually generating revenue. Capital wise, we'll start to see revenue-generation become a higher priority for VCs and investment capital; organizationally, we'll see startups start to favor horizontally-integrated models over vertically-integrated ones as the imperialist ambitions of "total founder control" start to become unpopular in the face of recessionary realities. (You can't fundraise your way out of trouble this time, SBF. 😂)

The fiat worlds have been around for a very long time so what happens there will likely be a complex mixture of a lot of things happening all at once. Crypto, on the other hand, will probably go through an extreme pendulum swing in the other direction, which will likely take most people by surprise. In a way, the reason why crypto projects haven't thrived despite being around for over a decade now is because the old worlds were keeping it suppressed: hostile when antagonistic, misdirecting when sympathetic. But with all of that gone, the Web3 worlds are now free to do what they originally set out to do. It's finally time for the crypto communities to declare its independence from eras before its time.

While its execution wasn't without its problems, everyone knew there was something about NFTs that were worth paying attention to, which is why the world viewed it with curiosity, even if they didn't exactly know what was actually going on. (Neither did the crypto folks either, if we're being honest. 😂) NFTs are where culture (art), economics (crypto), and politics (DAOs) all intersect into one neatly wrapped package, after all. We don't know where things are going to go...yet, but we do know that we are definitely in a new territory where there is no precedent to speak of.

At the same time, society moves in cycles: the Renaissance followed the Middle (Dark) Ages, Modernism followed Romanticism, Minimalism followed Maximalism, etc. We do know that for every movement that exists, a counter-movement always follows. I do think we're at the point of inflection now: generationally, economically, industrially, politically and culturally - society itself seems to be ready to move on. There's a lot more to be said about this topic itself, but we do know that generally speaking, these "swings" do happen all the time in history, pretty reliably.

The younger generations have been ready for this moment and will probably thrive in the long run so I'm not really worried about how "the kids" will turn out in the long run. But it's up to Web3 companies to make sure that they're well-positioned to take advantage of this shift about to unfold over the next few years, because I do think the mental shift needed to stay relevant in the new economy will be pretty intense, as mentioned earlier. If there is ever a time to be adaptable, it would be now, I think.

Happy New Year and good luck to all during 2023, which is likely to be a pretty wild ride. Hang onto your butts, folks. 🤞