The inaugural Rally Innovation conference took place this year from August 29th to the 31st in Indianapolis.
The conference covered the whole gamut of innovation, ranging from ag and sports technology to entrepreneurship and software.
Our CEO and co-founder, Drew Beechler had the honor to speak on the only web3 panel at the conference alongside Muhummad Yasin (VP of Marketing at High Alpha), Shane Mac (co-founder and CEO of XMTP Labs), and Yu-kai Chou (Partner at the Octalysis Group). The title of the session was Web3 and the Future of Consumer Experiences: Embracing Decentralization and Ownership, so the majority of the conversation revolved around real-world use cases of blockchain technology and where the space is headed in the future.
Web3 technology is different from other forms of technology because it is 100% decentralized. Decentralization allows consumers to fully own digital assets without needing a middleman to facilitate the transaction or a server to store the digital assets. The permissionless infrastructure provides more value to the end-user, saving them money and providing security.
One of the other core tenets of web3, due to its decentralization, is interoperability — interoperability enables data and assets to seamlessly work together. This allows web3 users, projects, and more to be interconnected and more accessible.
Web3 technology has become more user-friendly:
The panel also discussed the history of web3 technology and how far it has come.
Web3 technology used to be confusing and over-complicated — the average consumer could not easily understand what web3 was or how to use web3 technology. Because of this, it created a barrier to entry for the average consumer.
Fortunately, the fundamentals of web3 technology have not changed, but the user experience has greatly developed over time.
Now, web3 users can easily onboard themselves and have a smooth consumer experience. The panelists believe that web3 technology is only going to innovate more as web3 still has significant room to grow in order to be more user-friendly.
As web3 marketers use language that resonates with their audiences, web3 natives will see more new users enter the space. One of the panelists gave the example of a brand referring to NFTs as digital collections because that language is better received by its audience.
Like Shane said in the panel, “Web3 needs to feel like web2”.
When brands remove all the friction in web3 experiences and make them feel familiar, web2 experiences, then web3 technology will be more widely adopted.
Brands using web3 technology create more secure customer experiences:
Most recently, brands have adopted web3 technology to create better brand experiences for their customers.
Because web3 is public and decentralized, the proof of security is much more apparent in web3 transactions than it is in traditional ones.
Web3 technology connects brands and customers with safer interactions and more transparency.
For the first time in history, customers can make digital transactions in secure and verified ways, without depending on a middleman — operating without a middleman cuts down transaction costs for the consumer and creates less overhead for the brand.
Web3 technology is changing the future of customer experiences, providing the end-user with more value and brands with better infrastructure.
The future of web3 will become more interactive:
Everyone should be excited about the future of web3 technology — it just keeps getting better.
Web3 technology will continue creating immersive experiences for consumers, providing more value associated with ownership, elevating the way brands engage customers, and cleaning up regulations with more clarity.
All the panelists are excited about the future of web3 and the value it will bring to the average consumer, but they all agreed that educating the end consumer about web3 is not the solution. Building 10x better experiences and products due to their web3 infrastructure is the ultimate goal.
