what in the world

the majority of our digital experience comes through individual apps. we use twitter as a news feed, instagram for the highlight reel, and spotify as our life’s playlist. the list could go on and on but simply put, most interactions online revolve around them.

we jump from one app to another as they serve their specific purposes, but can’t help but feel the fragmented nature of the experience. our history lives behind walled gardens.

the future of our online lives looks slightly different when imagining the phase after apps as worlds. a design shared by Josh Cornelius, in this tweet, visualizes this experience with some of our favorite crypto-adjacent ecosystems, Friends with Benefits and Songcamp.

the leading digital communities have fundamentally strong brands and are centered around specific niches. why? in many cases, consumer technology has started to feel stale. attention spans are slim and actions are jumbled by algorithmic feeds. often not even interacting with the people that we actually care about. bogged down by outside noise, ads, bots, and random accounts. any sense of community is now found in groups that align with our interests. while the place of meeting matters less than the meaning behind attached to it.

but what’s with this whole worlds over apps concept? i’ll preface this by saying some of this is slightly abstract; apps won’t just go away. they’ll just serve a different purpose. emphasizing broad discovery while worlds double down on unique experience. more on this later.

web3 comes into play on both the social and technological levels. it’s worthy to note two large value propositions of web3

1. individual ownership of data

2. interoperable systems that are flexible in nature

the nature of these core tenants means switching costs between platforms are extremely low. consumer facing products that solely rely on in-app participation might not have a home here, yet.

for example, the features brought forth by apps like Clubhouse or Discord still serve a purpose, but the desired place of gathering could be different. we don’t need a mundane product experience in an individual app. we want a set of products within a world. with new frontiers come new convergence points, these principles inform the practicality of worlds.

one of my favorite internet experiments, Poolsuite, has blossomed into a sort of lifestyle conglomerate. their website visually serves as a great early example of what worlds can look like for a consumer.

while I won’t give a deep dive on Poolsuite’s existence, take a peak above. experiencing their brand doesn’t stop with a single product, but it carries through different mediums They found footing as a fun-filled brand centered around internet leisure. now, you find them building products to complete that world. listen to the uniquely curated Poolsuite FM, shop retro-beach gear with Vacation, interact with others building at the edges of the internet at the Jacuzzi Club, and grab exclusive perks by owning their Executive Pass.

seeing apps transition to worlds is seeing community-based businesses at the top of the funnel. the community being valued more than the platform. these worlds give access to various brand touch points with a lesser focus on third-party applications. going directly to the community.

side note but a shift towards brands that embody an entire aesthetic rather than a single product make the case for worlds. media, IP, merchandise, and audience engagement all bundled together. multiple verticals within the single vessel.

it’s important to touch on the role of current web3 communities in all of this.

NFTs (or any sort of token) serve as foundations. broadly speaking, they can be brand multipliers, but they aren’t business models. the strongest of communities have members attached to the brand by intangible feelings and people. things that even move past speculative monetary outcomes. but these communities are seeing the need to integrate into pre-existing business models to move forward, and new behaviors are seen as primitives of the transition.

Jason Levin mentioned in a past Cyber Patterns edition that “social media feels like a video game and video games feel like social media.” in response, I tweeted that when someone mentions “the great online game” most immediately relate it back to how someone leverages their skills on social platforms rather than typical video games. many social apps are becoming places where viral content and personal agendas are more important than genuine connections. and that’s totally fine. it gas unlocked more business opportunities for individual entrepreneurs than any other medium. but, audience does not equal community. people still want to have fun. they want to exist in places surrounded by like-minded individuals. casual settings where getting ahead isn’t the motive. worlds can be similar to video games. worlds can be like nostalgic social platforms. playful, accessible, and approachable.

if actually reaching millions of people with web3 based products is a priority, portraying brands as worlds, brings new optionality and gives needed context. all it takes is a few “this is easy to understand” or “that brand is different” comments to more open eyes to the power of this technology. and in a sense, blockchains themselves will be the portals to these worlds.