Welcome to NEWFORUM

A research network coordinating
the builders of the New Internet — the confluence of web3 and AI.
Welcome to NEWFORUM
We’re focused on bridging visionaries, creators, and new perspectives on the metaverse.
SPOTLIGHT
INTERVIEWS
Quotes
"In psychology literature, there is a distinction between identity and self. The identity-to-identity relationship tends to involve conflict, whereas the self-to-self relationship has a different dynamic. Ellie discusses a technique that helps individuals break free from their identity constructs and establish self-oriented connections. Joe and Forrest Landry support this view, highlighting the metaphysical argument that goals are competitive while values are not..."
Jordan Hall
"In the decentralized ecosystem, we need the right tools to experiment effectively. Solving wallet usability is crucial to overcome the cold start problem. We have a long way to go in exploring consumer applications, but exciting models like DAOs and social experiences intertwine ownership and social interactions. By prioritizing human experiences like connection and sharing, we create value beyond economics. Fascinating platforms like the FWB app foster authentic communities where people share their lives."
Chase Chapman
Identity, from a classical perspective, is shaped by how we perceive ourselves and how others perceive us within various communities we belong to. It's like a socially constructed picture of who we are based on our beliefs and affiliations. In this regard, I see POAP playing a role in helping individuals mark the aspects they identify with and that others recognize them for. Through tangible and durable information, POAP allows you to establish your participation in specific moments within communities, showcasing your contributions and anchoring your identity within history.
Isabel Gonzalez
"Exploring trusted data and attestations reveals the vital role of trust. Attestations, like digital gossip, rely on the credibility of the issuing party. Trust is key in this context, just as we trust credentials from reputable authorities over those from unverified sources. Blockchains also rely on trust for tasks like miner payments and node client updates. Trust holds great importance in attestations and blockchain environments."
Evin McMullen
"Larping is like actualized fiction. It's not about lying but rather embodying the version of ourselves we've always desired. Avatars and the metaverse play a significant role in this. While the current notion of the metaverse falls short of expectations, people crave digital embodiment and active participation in immersive spaces. Avatars and objects serve as the foundation, offering a new mirror to explore different aspects of one's identity. Facebook's horizons, with its focus on photorealistic representations, misses the point. We seek infinite possibilities, not mundane realism."
Reggie James
"Web3 identities are still evolving. You can have multiple identities and accounts, with the primary one typically linked to your profile. Collectible badges can enhance your primary identity, and secondary accounts are also possible. We're exploring features like ZK technology to hide or keep badges private. The concept is new, and the foundation is being built by talented individuals..."
Emily Furlong
"Curation is a powerful tool for context and education, democratized by technology. However, poor curation has increased, with shallow moodboard collecting and lack of credit. Exceptional curation is crucial for appreciating art without context. It shapes our perception and is like a dying art form. In the web three realm, curation is a two-way street, still in its early, wild west stage..."
Eric Hu
“We have witnessed visual artists and musicians receiving their fair share of attention during the last bull cycle. Despite several text-format projects being launched, the traditional media industry has not fully explored the potential of blockchain. In my opinion, there is a significant opportunity for the media industry to benefit from blockchain technology, both technically and in terms of reputation.”
Yana Sosnovskaya
“It depends on who you are and what you’re trying to use the technology for. We can program our values into our money, so what kind of monetary systems do we want to be involved in? If you’re abusive and manipulative, you can build ponzi schemes. If you care about the environment and social good, you can build a system that reflects those values. Similarly, if you care about strong cryptography, you can build systems to support that…”
Kevin Owocki
“My experience so far with NFTs: I downloaded some Apps a while back and tried to follow these online tutorials that got me nowhere for two reasons, one was that the account had to be opened in certain countries and I didn’t see my country on the list…”
Dela Anyah
"Timely reaction to events on the Blockchain gives you an edge, whether you're a trader, investor, or seeking to prevent fraud and crime."
Tom Tirman
"The Blockchain technology is powerful, but it doesn't stop someone or huge powerful people from using it and to increase more damages in society, so we're building a tool that can either provide a better or a worse Society ever..."
Julien Bouteloup
"I'm really excited to see Investment DAOs become more of a thing and democratize investing for tons of people, which is hard to do in the real world, you have so many restrictions on who can invest in something and support founders, but I think in this way, this opportunity of upside allows more people to participate..."
- Eshita
"We would like to see more Africans benefit from web3 and the Metaverse, whether it's DeFi or NFT marketplaces; we have artists in Africa, and we want to see them connected and benefiting from these Global Trends, and that is our desire."
- Felix Macharia
"With the production of digital items, we don't use any water. However, in the production of physical goods, we need water, for example, 3000 liters to create a simple cotton t-shirt or about 7000 liters to produce a pair of jeans, so this is the second parameter. Then, of course, the environmental issue is the physical waste at the end of the life of the physical goods; however, with digital items, you just archive your photo on your drive or on your Cloud, so we are preventing the items from ending up on the landfill. Most of our clothes now contain polyester, which is basically plastic and is not biodegradable and creates tiny pieces of microplastics that enter the ocean, so with Digital Fashion, we avoid all these at the end of the life of the items..."
- Olga Chernysheva
It's more about education. The majority of people don't know and don't fully grasp what's happening, and the initial conversations I have with the majority of the brands I engage with go like, "can you come and give us a little bit of what you've seen or what you've experienced or what you've done and what that could potentially mean to us, right usually our engagement starts like that, and then we start diving deep into the misconceptions, into the potential, the possibilities..."
- Diego Borgo
"Tokens have proven that they're effective at bootstrapping early days. They've not proven to be effective at not only retaining but evolving with their community. Oftentimes with DAOs, there is no endpoint, so at what point does it not make sense anymore to hold the token, oftentimes thats when they stop incentivizing you by effectively paying you with token incentives, and so we need more than that, whether that's relationship-building or other types of utility in a DAO, you just need more than the token I'd say."
- Kinjal Shah
The nice thing about helping run DAO and seeing all the problems with it informs you why you should not be investing 99 of the space, which is unfortunate. The issues of the space are the opportunities of the space. I spent half of my time looking at this and thinking, none of this stuff works, this is not investible- like stay away, and then the other half of the time I think, oh, this is a huge opportunity because whoever solves this is going to be gigantic..."
- David Phelps
"Gitcoin is now a DAO, and we're still evolving and thinking about what that means. But fundamentally, what we're trying to do is actually, by Conway's Law, run the organization the same way that we are trying to run the rounds. If we are going to use Quadratic funding successfully, then the organization should mirror the same democratic processes that the tooling aspires to allow for..."
- Scott Moore
"If you're not afraid of taking risks, that doesn't mean that you always take risks right; if you take risks when it is rational to do so when the reward for taking that risk is justified, playing against a player who is correctly calibrated in how much risk to take and when to take that risk is the most challenging thing as a poker player, and the same thing is true in investing. The first investment I've made in my career is not writing a check but deciding to pursue Crypto with my career at a time when not many people were doing that right. That's the biggest bet I could possibly make with my life..."
- Haseeb Qureshi
"If you collect one of 100 things as a collector, let's say you do that for a luxury Brands jacket, you would never be able to find out who owns the other 99 jackets, but now, within the digital world, you can do that, so I think it's really a paradigm shift that is not just going to affect art but going to the fact fashion going to the fact luxury and a lot of other spaces..."
- Audrey Ou
“I believe DAO will affect creators and be a critical tool that they’re able to leverage; stepping back for a second, if you think of one of the kinds of core value propositions that Crypto initially enabled, especially with Ethereum, this idea of permissionless Capital formation, that anyone can come together and contribute Capital and time and energy into a given Mission or initiative or directive and DAOs have been a way to coordinate not only that Capital but these large communities…”
- Mason Nystrom
"Ultimately, the whole cliche term is the game has to be good for it to be something that people want to play, regardless of if it is Web2 or Web3."
— Bryce Johnson
"One thing that is different in web3 for designers is needing a proactive mindset. Decision making is quicker when we work with founders on web3 projects at WE3."
— Charlota Blunárová
“In 2013, I started coding on Bitcoin. When Ethereum came, I was excited. Ethereum is developer friendly. I wanted to use this technology to create new things.”
— Simon de la Rouviere
“Web2 taught app builders that apps can have 24/7 access to your data... but our data represents an extension of us, it deserves the level of consent we extend to our bodies.”
— Evin McMullen
“What began as my side hustle became something that the whole world started to care about.”
— Dani Loftus
"The vast majority of things are more NFT than not. Money is clearly fungible, but even dollar bills could have a unique serial number."
— Matt Condon
“I’m one of the three founders of Kickstarter; we were inspired to allow creators to fund projects without a middleman’s approval."
— Yancey Strickler
"I'm into DAOs trying to make the world a better place and actually solve problems that other structures cannot solve."
— Griff Green
“We are in the middle of a digital art renaissance. It's the first time in history there is a structure, a system to actually own digital art."
— Kenny Schachter
“Ethereum and blockchains in general as open access and permissionless networks allow the onboarding of global creativity.”
— Colborn Bell
“Now a lot of the focus in web3 when it comes to building apps for consumers tends to go more on the UI/UX.”
— Jad Esber
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