Start with basics (how & why)

Start by learning blockchain fundamentals. To work in web3, it’s important to understand some of the technical underpinnings that make this new paradigm possible.

Why is web3 important?

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Web3 is the means by which ownership and power is returned to users of a platform. This can take the form of governance tokens, NFTs, or none of the above. More than anything, these vehicles are means, but not the end. The goal of web3 is to let users have a say in the way the platforms they contribute to work, and have a chance to start accruing value because of it.

How does web3 change the way platforms work?

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In web2 (privately-owned data, closed-source software), companies competed on the basis of data moats and user information, which led to the creation of walled parks where consumers were locked into platforms because their data lived there. In web3, data is openly available, software is open-source, and protocols/dapps are composable——this allows others to build on top of them and take advantage of the protocol’s existing user base.

A Non Comprehensive Glossary of Terms

(all examples provided are specific to Ethereum’s blockchain for ease of reference):

Wallets	Your gateway to interacting with smart contracts, which are the basis for all crypto-native applications or “dApps”	Metamask, Rainbow, Coinbase Wallet
Block Explorers	An interface that lets you see what’s happening on the blockchain on a transaction-level (see what people are doing)	Etherscan
Smart Contracts	Code written to govern the ways in which an application will behave under certain conditions	Written in Solidity
NFTs	Digital ‘tokens’ that are non-fungible(1 of 1) and immutable (permanently unchanging). They can represent any media form that exists on the internet today.	Bored Ape Yacht Club, Cryptopunks, Crypto-covens
Cryptocurrency	Digitally-native currency that is used to transact and operate on a blockchain	ETH, SOL, AVAX
Gas fees	Fees used to help secure a blockchain and protect it from fraud. Also given to ‘validators’ who help secure the transactions on a network in return for their effort in validating these transactions.	denominated in a unit called gwei on Ethereum
Blockchain	A digital ledger, secured by ‘validators’ who confirm the truth and ordering of the substance of blocks, which are called ‘transactions’.	Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche

Crypto Startup School | Andreessen Horowitz

The course videos from a16z's Crypto Startup School, held in the spring of 2020, are now available to all. Use the hours of free videos and the reading materials, below, to navigate the idea maze and start building crypto projects. Sign up to receive more content from the a16z Crypto team Secure Application Development What will I learn?

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Crypto Startup School | Andreessen Horowitz

she256

The number one question we receive from people new to crypto is "Where do I start?". With the wealth of resources out there, it can often be overwhelming to figure out where to begin. That's why we collaborated with Women in Blockchain Boston to create this 'Beginner's Guide to Blockchain'.

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Why Web3 Matters

Web1 (roughly 1990-2005) was about open protocols that were decentralized and community-governed. Most of the value accrued to the edges of the network - users and builders. Web2 (roughly 2005-2020) was about siloed, centralized services run by corporations. Most of the value accrued to a handful of companies like Google, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook.

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The 411 on Web3 101's: a Collective List of Web3 Learning Experi...

Learning and education are fundamental pillars of web3. Everyone in the space-from seasoned blockchain developers to someone buying cryptocurrency for the first time-is constantly engaging with, and taking in endless information. 2021, as so many have recently noted, was a wild year in the crypto/web3 space. The increasing noise surrounding web3, crypto, NFTs, etc.