Web3 – a Vitamin or a Medicine? Debunking this myth with FUD – Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt

A product characterized as a “vitamin” is considered as “nice to have”, while a product qualified as a “medicine” is considered as “must have”. Most investors wrongly believe that a “medicine” is a much better investment than a “vitamin”.

Let’s debunk this myth - the only true and absolute things that we cannot live without are air, water, and food. Everything else is optional. Most products in the great majority of industries, especially the luxury sector, are not “needed”, but “wanted”, or better, “desired”. For examples:

• Does anybody need a $1 million Ferrari? Nobody except all the machos out there.
• Does anybody need a $60,000 Louis Vuitton bag? Nobody except the millions of socialites.
• Does anybody need anything that the Kardashians peddle? Nobody except millions of teenage girls.
• Does anybody need a $1,600 iPhone 14 Pro Max with 1TB? Nobody except millions waiting in line including grandmas anxious to take better selfies with their grandchildren at 1.9µm pixels.
• Does anybody need a 4-wheel drive SUV? Nobody except every single soccer mom none of whom ever went off-roading.
• Does anyone need Spotify, Netflix, or ESPN? Nobody except all the neighbors.
• Does anybody need to travel, be entertained, or even, be educated? Yea – just about everybody!!!

Even prescription medicines (real ones like statins that reduce cholesterol) are in many cases not really needed if only people exercise and change their diet. Still doubtful? Take a look at your closet - the average person owns 148 pieces of clothes, but they really need only 12 or so. How many pieces do you have?!! The reality today is that what once was a desire, or a want, becomes an absolute need (ex: your smartphone).

What about Web3? Is it a “vitamin” or a “medicine”?

It will start as a vitamin, evolve as a medicine, and ends up as a key pillar in our society. Even if you don’t care about privacy, security, authentication, governance, censorship, data integrity, data redundancy, or derivative data tracked for surveillance, you will be swept by the big tide because Web3, with its “Network Effect”, is more than just a vitamin or a medicine with a technology evolution but a new movement that affects people personally, professionally, socially, and financially.

We are no longer plain people but addicted consumers who traveled from the agriculture age to the industrial age at high speed, and then from the industrial age to the information age at supersonic speed. We are now entering the network age at a lightning speed.

When it comes to adoption, “fear” is better than “desire”, which is better than “want”, which is better than “need”. Why? Because most people buy emotionally and then justify their purchase logically. In addition, feelings are relative to each person, and the strongest feeling is fear which applies to everyone. Web3 amplifies these feelings with a special fear – the fear of being left behind and stuck in the past.

So, forget about vitamins or medicines, look for FUD. And that’s what they don’t teach you at Harvard...