[Editorial] Web3: Stop Boasting About Technology and Prove Its Utility

The Web3 industry has explained too much over the past decade. Blockchain, decentralization, token economy, zero-knowledge proof, layer 2... The technology has become increasingly sophisticated, and the explanations have become more complicated. Yet, it has failed to answer the most important question.

So how has the lives of the people improved?

Users do not want to use blockchain. They want to pay lower remittance fees, trade assets more easily, and keep their money and data safer. Technology is merely a means to solve these problems.

However, the Web3 industry has long sold means as if they were ends.

When a new blockchain emerges, it boasts about how many transactions it can handle per second. When a new coin is introduced, it explains the tokenomics. It claims that decentralization will change the world. But what users have received in return are complex wallets, difficult terminology, and wildly fluctuating prices.

Ultimately, 'speculation' has taken the place where 'innovation' should be.

This is particularly severe in South Korea.

Despite being more active in cryptocurrency trading than any other country, there are not many representative services that have solved the inconveniences of citizens' lives through blockchain. People remember the price of coins but forget what problems those coins solved.

This cannot solely be blamed on regulations.

The industry has repeatedly created technology first and then tried to fit use cases afterward. Instead of creating services that users want and then questioning whether blockchain is necessary, it has built blockchains and looked for where to use them.

The order has been reversed.

The internet did not grow that way.

People accepted the internet not because TCP/IP was excellent. It was because email was faster than letters, searching was easier than rummaging through libraries, and online shopping was simpler than going to physical stores.

The same goes for smartphones.

Ordinary consumers do not need to know about semiconductor processes or operating system structures. They use them because they can call a taxi, do banking, and take photos with just a few taps of their fingers.

Good technology makes users unaware of the technology itself.

Web3 should be the same.

In the future, new systems like token securities (STO), stablecoins, and real asset tokenization (RWA) will be introduced in South Korea. The industry will once again flood the market with new jargon.

However, the name STO itself holds no value.

Does it allow ordinary investors to trade assets worth hundreds of millions with a small amount of money? Can small and medium-sized enterprises raise funds more cheaply and quickly than before? Can it reduce the intermediary costs in the issuance and trading process?

There must be meaningful results.

The same goes for the Korean won stablecoin.

Just placing the Korean won on a blockchain does not equate to innovation.

Will overseas remittances become cheaper than now? Will inter-company payments speed up? Can content creators receive small payments from abroad without being robbed by bank fees? Can AI agents conduct transactions without human involvement?

These are the problems that need to be solved.

Otherwise, stablecoins will ultimately just be another coin.

What the Web3 industry must be most wary of is mistaking another bull market for innovation.

When Bitcoin rises and altcoins soar, users flock in. Trading volumes increase, and investments pour in. The industry calls this 'popularization.'

However, if users disappear the moment prices drop, that is more of a speculation cycle than industrial growth.

Real industries continue to be used even when prices fall.

People do not delete KakaoTalk just because its stock price drops. People do not stop searching just because a search company's stock crashes.

Because the service itself is necessary.

Web3 must reach that stage.

Successful blockchain services in the future will likely not look like 'blockchain services.'

People will simply send money, invest, play games, and buy and sell content. They may not even realize that blockchain is being used in the process.

That is how it should be.

The industry must now change its questions.

Instead of asking "Which chain are we using?" it should ask "What problems are we eliminating?"

Instead of asking "How will we issue tokens?" it should first ask "Why are tokens necessary?"

If centralized services are cheaper and more convenient, then it is fine to use centralized methods. Blockchain should only be used when it can reduce costs and solve trust issues.

The Web3 industry has ignored this obvious principle for too long.

Technology has advanced, but the number of users has not increased, and while projects have flooded in, lives have not changed.

Now, enough with the technology boasting.

For the Korean Web3 industry to move to the next stage, it must prove itself in front of users.

Has it made things cheaper?

Has it made things faster?

Has it made things safer?

Has it created opportunities that did not exist before?

If it cannot answer these questions, no matter how flashy the technology is, it holds no meaning in the market.

Web3 must now sell utility, not technology.

The day people use blockchain without caring that it is blockchain will be the day Web3 finally sheds the name of speculation and becomes an industry.