Web3’s Real Problem? Nobody Knows WTF It Is
When Bitcoin emerged from the ashes of the 2008 financial crisis, it promised a new world—one where trust was coded and power decentralized. But over a decade later, the average person still can’t explain what Web3 is. Worse, many actively mistrust it. That’s not a technology problem. It’s a storytelling failure.
From day one, crypto has struggled with perception. Bitcoin was branded as a currency for drug dealers. Ethereum was “just for nerds and ICO scams.” And the rise of NFTs? A carnival of JPEG millionaires and rug pulls. Mainstream audiences saw headlines, not context. They saw speculation, not sovereignty. And while builders obsessed over tokenomics and TPS speeds, the real cultural war—the one for hearts and minds—was lost in silence.
Jonny Caplan said it best in his CoinRock Show appearance:
“Why are we sitting in rooms talking to each other about how to do it? Why isn’t it simpler to learn to get in it?”
It’s a fair question. But the truth is, founders failed to do what storytellers like Caplan eventually stepped in to fix: they forgot that innovation means nothing if people don’t understand it.
In 2021, billions of dollars flooded into Web3. Startups promised a decentralized future. Tokens surged. DAOs sprouted overnight. But ask the average person what Web3 actually is — and you’re more likely to get a blank stare than an answer.
This isn’t a UX problem. It’s not about seed phrases, gas fees, or wallet onboarding friction. It’s something deeper, something more damning: Web3 has a story problem. And founders — the very people who were supposed to carry the torch of innovation — failed to tell it.
The Tech Was Revolutionary — The Messaging Was Trash
Web3 was pitched as a movement. But it landed like a niche subculture powered by jargon and gated Discord invites. Founders spoke in whitepapers and protocols. Investors chased speculation. And the rest of the world — the actual world — was left wondering, “Is this some kind of scam?”
Because if we’re honest, it wasn’t the media that first failed Web3. It was its own builders.
The FTX collapse didn’t just wipe billions from portfolios—it wiped years of narrative progress. Regulators pounced. Journalists declared the “end of crypto.” And millions of would-be adopters were turned off forever. Why? Because the industry failed to explain itself before disaster struck.
In the absence of clear, accessible storytelling, chaos speaks louder. And crypto’s chaos has always had a megaphone. Terra, Celsius, Three Arrows Capital—each meltdown reinforced the same myth: that Web3 is a dangerous casino run by tech bros with no accountability.
Caplan’s work—especially NFT Me—emerged as a counterbalance. He didn’t just build documentaries. He built bridges between abstract technology and everyday people. He put crypto on Amazon Prime. He licensed it globally. He spoke to the “why” behind the “what”—something most founders never bothered with. Matthias echoed this aloud during the show:
“You probably did more for onboarding the masses than a lot of these apps online that raise 50 million for an old app that never works in Web3 and tries to get people to connect to wallets and use it for a payment system.”
You Can’t Onboard the World in a Discord Server
The Web2 playbook succeeded not just because of slick design — but because of emotional engineering. Apple didn’t just sell phones. It sold rebellion. Google wasn’t a search bar. It was knowledge at your fingertips. Meanwhile, Web3 sold… DeFi yield and community vibes.
Founders launched whitepaper-heavy projects and expected the world to understand. But the cultural gap was massive. Crypto Twitter isn’t onboarding — it’s an echo chamber. And Discord? That’s where communities go to die quietly if they weren’t seeded by airdrops or speculation.
And yet, there was a glimpse of what could have been.
Jonny Caplan’s show NFT Me reached over 80 countries. It aired on Amazon Prime. It explained Web3 in language people could relate to. No ‘drama’. No hype. Just real stories of creators, collectors, and technologists trying to reimagine ownership.
“We honestly didn’t make money out of the show… we felt the world needed to understand it,” Caplan admitted.
While the rest of the industry burned VC funds building dApps nobody used, Caplan put Web3 on broadcast television. And the world listened.
Web3 Forgot That Every Revolution Needs a Myth
Movements need mythologies. Narratives. Messengers. The personal computer had Jobs. The electric car had Musk. Crypto had… pseudonymous developers and a lot of bad branding.
Satoshi may be a ghost, but that doesn’t mean the movement had to be faceless. Instead of leaning into big stories, founders leaned into market cycles. They confused liquidity with legitimacy. When culture asked for “why,” they responded with “roadmaps.”
Caplan made a crucial observation during the show:
“We became like the Forbes of television… elevating innovation and making it digestible.”
Digestible. That’s the word. Web3 didn’t need to dumb itself down — it just needed to make sense to more than 0.01% of the population.
The myth Web3 needs isn’t a founder with a Lambo. It’s the idea that decentralized technology can free creativity, empower individuals, and rewire the world’s relationship to value. That story is still waiting to be told — and it won’t be written in Solidity.
Translate or Die
This isn’t a hit piece. This is a wake-up call.
We need more Caplans. Builders who don’t just build—they communicate. Founders who don’t just raise rounds—they raise awareness. We need fewer influencers shilling tokens and more storytellers showing why any of this matters..
Web3 still holds a chance to become one of the defining shifts in modern technology. But only if its leaders stop obsessing over technical milestones and start shaping cultural ones. The future isn’t just decentralized. It’s narrated.
Until then, the revolution will remain untranslated — and the rest of the world will keep asking the same question:
“WTF is Web3?”
