In the past several months, high profile implosions, such as Terra and Celsius, and the downturn of token prices, have turned many people skeptical of careers in the space. Market crashes elicit overall fear, uncertainty, and doubt surrounding the sector. Contrary to the negative headlines, now is the best time to join a Web3 startup because teams are more focused on their fundamentals, creating and delivering sustainable products. Innovation continues in the space, along with job growth.
Some of the best crypto and NFT companies are built during bear markets, as startups remain focused on their business models and missions. The 2018 bear market saw some of the most prominent protocols and companies emerge, such as Uniswap and OpenSea. Uniswap was founder Hayden Adams’ first coding project in November 2017, with an initial launch a year later. It was only until April 2019 that Adams built a company and secured seed funding dedicated to building out the decentralized protocol, by iterating and improving throughout the 2018 bear market. Current startups are learning from those that survived the previous cycle, by continuing to ship throughout the crypto winter.
The Uniswap website looked like this in 2017.
In addition, numerous business models lacking strong fundamentals thrived during the bull run due to sheer hype, but cannot keep runway during the potentially long bear market. This is reminiscent of the dot-com bubble in 2000, when the market crash wiped out thousands of Internet companies. As such, there will be a consolidation towards Web3 businesses that have long term visions for their products and services.
To add, joining the Web3 space during the bear market has a much higher potential upside than during the bull market. With an explosion of new startups breaking into the Web3 space, many employees from big tech companies are leaving their previous careers, and seeking new ones that provide greater room for growth. As we’ve seen before, we find some of the biggest Web3 companies emerge from previous crypto winters. This one won’t be any different.
Many non-technical workers assume that Web3 jobs require a high level of technical proficiency, so they completely disregard any potential careers in the sector. Fortunately, there are plenty of non-technical roles at emerging startups, whether you’re seeking a role as a designer, a copywriter manager, or a community manager. It may seem daunting to enter a brand new space without a complete understanding of the underlying technology; however, bear markets are the perfect time to learn, since there’s much less background noise.
The digital renaissance of Web3 is a shift towards more decentralized business models, allowing users to have greater control over their data and identity. Blockchain networks are powering innovation in multiple areas, such as the transfer of money and assets, storing data, or authentication of both physical and digital goods.
Web3 companies tend to promote cooperation over competition, building infrastructure on top of one another. The space is community focused, and lively across channels: on Twitter, Discord, Telegram and at conferences around the world.