Web3 communities are supposedly all about decentralization, transparency, and inclusive participation. You may feel like a certain Web3 project is your own, even when there's no tangible reason to feel like that other than a whole bunch of GMs and yeah bros. Sure. It's rewarding to be part of something you're really bullish on and have an active role in.
But yo. Watch out. Seriously. You have to strike a balance and avoid spending too much time on a community that at the end of the day, belongs to someone else via right of founding or funding.
Here are some reasons why no matter how promising a Web3 project looks, you better make sure that you're getting your expected returns on what you put into it.
Decentralized My Derriere
The guy (or core team) who founds or funds the project is the one who has the main decision-making power at the end of the day. No matter how much people parrot the Web3 utopia tropes, there is no way around this. Core team members can sing the decentralized song 'til the cows come home.
But the main decisions about the project's direction, governance, and resource allocation will be in the hands of the ones at the top of the (block)chain. If that's not you from the get-go, don't believe the hype. Unless it's stated up front, you are not going to have the desired impact you imagined belongs to you by dint of your slaving over a hot keyboard to make this Web3 community fly to the moon. It's never about you, either in the singular sense or collectively. It's about - what makes the boss(es) the most money?
It Ain't Your Money, Honey
You may not get all the financial perks you imagined you were entitled to. You might even not get the perks that were promised to you for your community building efforts at all, or severely reduced from what you imagined them to be. The core team has the decision-making power specifically correlated with the portion of project funds they hold. Meaning, they make the rules. They take the money. And they change the rules as they so please, even ignoring DAO votes when they wish to. Pipe dreams notwithstanding, when you spend your precious time on a community without getting the facts straight or reading signals that you need to book, you aid and abet the messed-upness of the situation.
All For One and None For All
If a project relies heavily on a core team, then if key people on that team leave or stop interacting with the community, the project is generally toast. Progress is stymied. Decision-making will even be further cemented into the hands of the remaining team.
Subsequently, stagnation and the echo chamber effect will eat away at whatever brought you into the community in the first place. You, as someone who isn't part of the core team, have no control over this. You do, however, have control over what your expectations are and to leave the community if they are not being met.
Are You Cool Enough?
The siren call of many Web3 communities is promised inclusivity.
Come on now. Don't believe the fairy tale. Unless you're in with the core team on some level, you don't have a word to say about what's really going on, as much as they say you do.
When this happens, inevitably, that core team will limit the ability of other community members to actively contribute and have any real say in shaping the community's future. And the more control they get, the more they're going to keep it. This means that the purported collective-decision making of the entire Web3 community becomes a figment of the imagination. And even though you might have put tons of time and energy into it, the longer you stay in a community like this, the more you perpetuate the farce it has become.
In Conclusion
Being part of Web3 communities can be awesome. But don't be stupid about it. Recognize the possible pitfalls of devoting excessive unpaid time to a project that simply doesn't belong to you.
And even if you already have put a lot of time and effort into building someone else's project, look for the signs encouraging you to run like the wind.
Warning signs include when your decision-making influence becomes more and more limited, that the core team has most of the moolah, that when key people leave the project bad things happen, and that all the talk of inclusivity and community empowerment are a particularly pungent fairy tale.
Find a community that lives up to your values. But even then, create a balance and make sure it's worth it to you to spend your time there. Have a list of expectations and make sure their promises are clarified in writing. Make sure they're met or that you're OK with certain of them not being met.
Many Web3 projects will promise people working for them the moon. Just make sure you're not ending up in a dumpster fire, instead.
This is a reprint from my Substack
