Day 1 of Web3 Connect hosted Founding partner of Millennium Oak Digital, Hao Wang, Managing director and head of sales at GSR, C.J. Fong and Director of Consensys, Marouen Zelleg, who talked about how innovation is a silver lining amidst the bear market.

Hao Wang, C.J. Fong and Marouen Zelleg (left to right)

While according to Marouen, “the fundamentals of web3 have not changed,” The space is still in its infancy and as the bear market is bestowed upon us, the builders continue to build and retailers are waiting to deploy capital.

UI/UX

While we are waiting for something that can spark a new wave of adoption, there are still plenty of gaps that need filling. This comes in the form of solving UI/UX.

Web3 needs to be something which will not be recognizable as a blockchain as it is “currently not perfect, as it is missing a few things.” Instead, it should be simple and seamless to use just like any applications we know of in the current world.

We take two extremes as an example. On one hand, we have Curve Finance. While it may be easy for crypto natives to comprehend, it comes off a very steep learning curve for those new in the space.

On the other hand, we take Metamask for example, a web3 wallet where every individual’s crypto journey probably starts. Although there are significant efforts by the team to reprimand this, there are plenty of features which can be added for the common folk to easily utilize.

The current process of setting up a web3 wallet is still currently cumbersome, significant efforts in the UI/UX department are key in bringing in the next billion users.

Find out more where Marouen Zelleg Of ConsenSys On Metamask, Unlocking Web3.0, And Institutional Adoption

How long will the bear market last?

On the duration of how long the bear market will last, the three speakers all shared varying sentiments.

For Marouen, who is more of “a pessimistic guy, it is beyond the crypto market, the global level has to solve some stuff first.”

As there are a few things we all have to solve first on the global level, the is unlikely the crypto market will be 10x from where we are now as it will “take some time.”

Hao Wang on the other hand is more optimistic. “There is a prolonged bear market beyond crypto for the next 12 months.” In no way, is financial advice, it would be wise for investors to “manage your asset and don’t take leverage while being ready for the next opportunity.”

For GSR’s C.J. Fong though, is caught in the middle. “I think it is going to take some time to see what we saw (in the bull market) previously.” Most of his sentiments stem from the blocker of regulation.

“DeFi, in theory, is wonderful with the idea of open and trustless transactions where people trade without a middleman brings an amazing concept to the world of finance… but Defi is completely flawed in its implementation.”

And according to C.J, a large part of this is contributed by human nature having the mindset of “my gain your loss“. As everyone in DeFi is not playing by the same set of rules, “regulation needs to step up” to eliminate this.

At the crux of it, regulators are not going against blockchain and innovation, they are going against the concept of speculative tokens. “It will take the time to get there but the TradFi guys are not walking away from crypto and there are participants coming in.”

Also Read: Wangarian Of Tangent On Web3 Narratives And How To Onboard The Next Billion

[Editor’s Note: This article does not represent financial advice. Please do your own research before investing.]

Featured Image Credit: Chain Debrief