Web 3 Terms Women Should Know

You know the expression, “I know enough to be dangerous.”  It generally refers to not being a fully versed expert but informed enough to hold one’s own in a discussion on the basics and be up to speed to know what to Google and dig into for more.

As work life integrators, knowing “enough to be dangerous” is a strong approach to managing mompreneur life.  You need to know enough to be dangerous when it comes to managing family members’ activities, health, the household, your work and yourself.

In fact, in a recent article in The Atlantic by Julie Bogen titled, “‘Mom Brain’ Isn’t a Joke”, data shared by Eve Rodsky, Author of the NY Times Bestseller “Fair Play,” and “Find Your Unicorn Space,” demonstrates that “The cognitive labor of running a household is as intense as running a Fortune 500 company.”

In mompreneur life, while it sometimes feels like you have to do it all, you do NOT need to know it all; just enough to be dangerous.

 

How Hay There Social Media is Helping Women Learn About Web 3

At Hay There Social Media, we recently had a monthly professional development session for our INsiders about NFTs and Web 3 for women where Heather Parady, host of the Community Builders in Web3 podcast, came and spoke to our community of freelance social media managers.  In this article, you will see primary reasons we are excited for the opportunities social media managers will have with the rise of Web 3.

Heather, who attended the 2022 VeeCon, not only speaks “mom” and “freelance professional” but she also speaks NFTs and Web3 so after our session, the Hay There Team came out with a short list of Web 3 terms every woman should know to stay sharp and informed and we are sharing it with you.  Our team at Hay There thought the best way to package this info was in a graphic with about 20 terms and you can find the definitions below.

This graphic and list is for the woman who is scrolling in her jammies half awake at 9:30pm, or who just got done packing lunches or has 4 minutes before her next Zoom meeting starts.  We hear you, we see you, we are you.

You are busy but you do owe it to yourself to not miss out on this wave of the evolution of the internet from Web 2.0 to Web 3 and it all starts with educating yourself.  So instead of expecting yourself to learn everything, you just need to know enough to be dangerous and we are here to help you with ~20 terms and a good ol’ graphic.  This list (organized alphabetically) is not intended to be exhaustive, overly technical, computer programmer friendly or even 100% perfect so let’s go:

The Graphic with Web 3 Terms

The List of Web 3 Terms

Airdrops 
You may know this in the context of “airdropping” a photo from your iPhone to another.  But in the Web 3 case…

“An airdrop is a distribution of cryptocurrency, tokens, or NFTs that are sent to a web3 wallet address for free as a promotion, or as added value for participating in an experience or purchasing a digital asset.

Example sentence:  Now that you have found a NFT project that is doing an airdrop, and you have loaded some ETH into your wallet, its time to acquire your NFT. When you go on the project website, you will be able to join the drop by logging on using Metamask.”

Source: https://www.juststartinvesting.com/web3-airdrops/

 

 

Bitcoin –
“Bitcoin was first introduced in 2008 as a decentralized currency without the need for a central bank or any intermediaries. It can be sent to and from users via the bitcoin network, a peer-to-peer network in which transactions are authenticated by nodes and recorded on a blockchain.”

Source:https://www.jmco.com/brief-history-bitcoin/

In case you may know of any “Bitcoin O.G.’s,” Investopedia confirms that

“Many investors consider bitcoin to be the original cryptocurrency.”

 

Blockchain (there are many blockchains, not just THE one)
“The underlying technology, blockchain, is what’s called a “distributed ledger” — a database hosted by a network of computers instead of a single server — that offers users an immutable and transparent way to store information.”

Source:https://hbr.org/2022/05/what-is-web3

 

Coinbase
Coinbase is a secure online platform for buying, selling, transferring, and storing cryptocurrency.

Source: https://www.coinbase.com

There are tons of resources on their site to learn how to use a Coinbase wallet, how to buy an NFT on OpenSea and so much more.

 

DAO (pronounced “dow”)
“Wikipedia defines DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) as an organization represented by rules encoded as a transparent computer program, controlled by the organization members, and not influenced by a central government. As the rules are embedded into the code, no managers are needed, thus removing any bureaucracy or hierarchy hurdles.

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/cathyhackl/2021/06/01/what-are-daos-and-why-you-should-pay-attention/?sh=41da417f7305

 

Discord
Although we’ve heard it described as “another social network,” that’s not quite the case…

“Discord is a free voice, video, and text chat app that’s used by tens of millions of people ages 13+ to talk and hang out with their communities and friends. “

Source:https://discord.com/safety/360044149331-What-is-Discord

We thought this was helpful:

“If you just want a basic chatting platform, go with WhatsApp. If you are a gamer or are involved in some sort of project with others, Discord will serve you better because it has more advanced group features.”

Source: https://www.mksguide.com/discord-vs-whatsapp/

We can see how people think of it as a social network because it does require you to create a user profile, upload a pic and join groups like we’ve become accustomed to in social media / Web 2.0; however, the value prop for businesses to use discord should be motivated by the desire to form authentic community, not just to create another place to grow a following.

 

Decentralized
This is a big, fundamental concept to digest…to “decentralize” means to transfer authority from central to local government.  “Decentralization” is the primary objective and value for this next evolution of the web in the first place.  Here’s why:

“The attractiveness of Web 3.0 is that it is decentralized, meaning that rather than consumers accessing the internet through services mediated by companies like Google, Apple or Facebook, individuals, themselves, own and govern sections of the internet.”

Source:https://cointelegraph.com/blockchain-for-beginners/what-is-web-3-0-a-beginners-guide-to-the-decentralized-internet-of-the-future

A common example we’ve heard is to imagine what it would be like if Uber drivers and its users OWNED the platform, not the company, Uber.  Whoa.

 

Ethereum or “ETH” – pronounced “eeth” like “teeth”
Ethereum is the community-run technology powering the cryptocurrency ether (ETH) and thousands of decentralized applications.

(So don’t just call it “a cryptocurrency”…)

“At its core, Ethereum is a decentralized global software platform powered by blockchain technology. It is most commonly known for its native cryptocurrency, ether, or ETH. Ethereum can be used by anyone to create any secured digital technology they can think of. It has a token designed for use in the blockchain network, but it can also be used by participants as a method to pay for work done on the blockchain.”

Source: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/ethereum.asp

You can exchange USD for ETH.  Think of it as making a currency exchange.  A $ has a certain value in ETH.

“Since Ethereum is so popular, most cryptocurrency exchanges will let you buy ether, but we recommend sticking to a few of the more-popular exchanges like Coinbase, Gemini, or eToro. Ethereum is also one of the few types of crypto you can buy on platforms like Venmo or PayPal.”

Source:https://time.com/nextadvisor/investing/cryptocurrency/how-to-buy-ethereum/

 

Metaverse
“The metaverse is a 3D version of the Internet and computing at large,” Mathew Ball, a venture capitalist and angel investor who’s written a series of essays about the potential and structures of the metaverse, told VICE.

Source: https://www.vice.com/en/article/93bmyv/what-is-the-metaverse-internet-technology-vr

I’ve recently heard “Metaverse” referred to as a generic term like “cyberspace.”  In other words, the Metaverse should not be thought of as a chat room or a video game you enter a “contained environment” to access.  Although it’s funny (and intriguing) to hear organizations talk about “buying up space in the Metaverse.”  That really makes it sound like a limited real estate situation!

 

MoonPay
Cute name, right?

MoonPay is a Financial Technology (FinTech) company that offers a fast and simple way to buy and sell cryptocurrencies. Buy crypto with credit card, bank transfers or Apple Pay today.

Source:https://www.moonpay.com

From personal experience, I could not successfully buy crypto with my credit card on MoonPay’s site despite that seeming to be one of their primary capabilities.  I called my credit card company and they confirmed the transaction was not being blocked by them (the credit card company), so they recommended I contact MoonPay.  Of course, there was no phone number to find a human but I did fill out a help request.  I didn’t hear back.  So I am likely going to try exchanging actual USD for a cryptocurrency via Coinbase and not go this MoonPay route.

 

NFTs (non-fungible tokens)
Where do we begin here?

“An NFT is a digital asset that represents real-world objects like art, music, in-game items and videos. They are bought and sold online, frequently with cryptocurrency, and they are generally encoded with the same underlying software as many cryptos.”

Source:https://www.forbes.com/advisor/investing/cryptocurrency/nft-non-fungible-token/

To note: at Hay There Social Media, we are excited by the utilities of NFTs being used in memberships.  A really interesting organization to check out is Unlock, Inc if you are looking to dive into examples.

 

NFT projects (2 examples of):
1) Bored Ape Yacht Club – Wikipedia tells us that the “Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), or often colloquially called Bored Ape, is a non-fungible token (NFT) collection built on the Ethereum blockchain. The collection features profile pictures of cartoon apes that are procedurally generated by an algorithm.”

So if now is where you ask “what’s the point?”  Here’s an answer on that:

“Owning a Bored Ape is now the epitome of NFT coolness for many. Holding the NFT can give you access to an exclusive Discord server with some celebrity owners, as well as free perks like additional NFTs or tokens from the BAYC ApeCoin launch this week.”  (From March 18, 2022)

Source: https://fortune.com/2022/03/18/what-is-bored-ape-yacht-club-nft-apecoin-explained/

 

2) World of Women (example of a mainstream NFT collection project with recent involvement from Hello Sunshine (Reese Witherspoon’s production company))

“The World of Women NFT collection is made up of 10,000 NFTs developed by French artist Yam Karkai. In founding World of Women, along with co-founder BBA (an acronym for Being Bored Ape), Karkai sought to empower women and increase their representation in the NFT and cryptocurrency spaces.”

Source: https://www.sofi.com/learn/content/world-of-women-nft/

Check out WOW NFTs here on OpenSea: https://opensea.io/collection/world-of-women-nft

At the time I am writing this on 5/18/22, the floor price of a WOW NFT is 4.2 ETH, which is roughly $8,196.

What’s cool about WOW is,
“Reese Witherspoon announced that her company Hello Sunshine will join with World of Women (WoW) to bring NFTs into film and TV. Witherspoon has been a strong female voice in Web3, particularly on Twitter Spaces with Coinbase NFT. This partnership marks another step forward in helping educate more women in Web3.”

Source: https://beincrypto.com/reese-witherspoon-partners-with-world-of-women-nft-for-tv-film/

“As part of the partnership, Hello Sunshine will build out the World of Women character universe and franchise into entertainment properties including feature films, scripted and unscripted TV series. The move is another sign of the growing popularity of NFTs and the potential they hold for traditional media companies on the prowl for intellectual property.”

Source:  https://variety.com/2022/film/news/reese-witherspoon-hello-sunshine-world-of-women-partner-nft-movies-tv-shows-live-events-1235185212/

 

MetaMask (a type of crypto wallet application available via web browsers and mobile)
Wikipedia tells us that “MetaMask is a software cryptocurrency wallet used to interact with the Ethereum blockchain. It allows users to access their Ethereum wallet through a browser extension or mobile app, which can then be used to interact with decentralized applications.”

I would highly recommend hopping over to MetaMask’s website https://metamask.io and checking out this incredibly helpful video of theirs:

Personally, when I started down the path of setting up a wallet, MetaMask was the first place I went because of how frequently I heard MetaMask mentioned in NFT discussions.  Plus, I love the cute fox avatar that sits in your browser.

 

Miners 
Blockchain “mining” is a metaphor for the computational work that nodes in the network undertake in hopes of earning new tokens. In reality, miners are essentially getting paid for their work as auditors. They are doing the work of verifying the legitimacy of Bitcoin transactions.

Bitcoin “mining” is the process by which new bitcoins are entered into circulation.

Source: https://www.investopedia.com/tech/how-does-bitcoin-mining-work/

So I have to wonder, “are bitcoin miners people?”

“Bitcoin miners are not people with picks and shovels, but rather owners of sophisticated computing equipment. Bitcoin miners compete to be the first to verify Bitcoin transactions, and earn rewards paid in Bitcoin.”

Thanks, https://www.thebalance.com/how-does-bitcoin-mining-work-5088328

 

Minted / to mint – 
“Minting an NFT means converting digital data into crypto collections or digital assets recorded on the blockchain. The digital products or files will be stored in a distributed ledger or decentralized database and cannot be edited, modified, or deleted.”

Source: https://www.nfi.edu/what-is-minting-an-nft/

Is Minting an NFT the same as buying?

How are these two concepts different? Minting an NFT means creating something completely new. You can mint from a digital online project or convert existing items such as art, memes, poems, or music into NFTs. On the contrary, buying an NFT requires an existing item that has been minted into an NFT.

 

OpenSea (kind of like an eBay for NFTs)
The world’s first and largest digital marketplace for crypto collectibles and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Buy, sell, and discover exclusive digital items.

One of the largest NFT marketplaces. This peer-to-peer platform bills itself a purveyor of “rare digital items and collectibles.” To get started, all you need to do is create an account to browse NFT collections.

Source:  https://www.forbes.com/advisor/investing/cryptocurrency/nft-non-fungible-token/

 

POAPs – (pronounced “po-app”) is an acronym for “Proof of Attendance Protocol
This is super cool and something Heather told Hay There INsiders about.

“POAPs have emerged as a new way of keeping an immutable record of your life experiences, including virtual and in-person events.”

“POAPs can almost be thought of as an upgrade to “checking in” or tagging a location/person on social media, as users don’t reveal any sensitive personal data by doing so.”

Source: https://www.coindesk.com/learn/poaps-what-is-a-proof-of-attendance-protocol/

Does this mean I can stop worrying about keeping ticket stubs and credentials from cool events?  Does this mean the party favor will be a thing of the past? So much to consider!

 

Smart Contracts
“A smart contract is a self-executing contract with the terms of the agreement between buyer and seller being directly written into lines of code.”

Source: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/smart-contracts.asp

NFTs are not the same as smart contracts, rather…

“An NFT smart contract is a mechanism for implementing a sale agreement between the NFT owner and the buyer. Smart contracts are self-executing and can check that the contract terms have been satisfied, as well as execute the terms without the need for an intermediary or central authority.”

Source: https://cyberscrilla.com/nft-smart-contracts-explained/

I have learned it’s oversimplified to think these are like “normal” contracts you hire a lawyer for.

 

Tokens
“Technically, “token” is just another word for “cryptocurrency” or “cryptoasset.” But increasingly it has taken on a couple of more specific meanings depending on context. The first is to describe all cryptocurrencies besides Bitcoin and Ethereum (even though they are technically also tokens). The second is to describe certain digital assets that run on top of another cryptocurrencies’ blockchain, as many decentralized finance (or DeFi) tokens do. Tokens have a huge range of potential functions, from helping make decentralized exchanges possible to selling rare items in video games. But they can all be traded or held like any other cryptocurrency.”

Source:https://www.coinbase.com/learn/crypto-basics/what-is-a-token

We recently learned about a freelance marketplace called “Braintrust,” the first user-owned talent network.  They issue “BTRUST tokens” to their talent that is used as an incentive to reward our community for building the decentralized network, inviting and vetting talent, and referring clients.

 

Wallets (crypto wallets) 
“Crypto wallets store your private keys, keeping your crypto safe and accessible. They also allow you to send, receive, and spend cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.”

Do I need a crypto wallet?
“If you want to invest in cryptocurrency, you should invest in a wallet. That noted, if you’re just dipping a toe, services such as PayPal and Robinhood allow you to buy a coin or fractions of a coin and store it on their servers. These are custodial wallets, however, where you don’t hold the private key.”

Source:https://www.cnet.com/personal-finance/crypto/the-best-bitcoin-and-crypto-wallets/

And just to keep you on your toes as we get close to the end here, “Will I need a wallet to buy an NFT of have someone airdrop me an NFT?

“If you’re interested in collecting or investing in non-fungible tokens, you’ll need an NFT wallet.”

 

Web 3
Web3 is being touted as the future of the internet. The vision for this new, blockchain-based web includes cryptocurrencies, NFTs, DAOs, decentralized finance, and more.

Source: https://hbr.org/2022/05/what-is-web3

Fun fact: the proper reference in writing is “Web3” but that isn’t the most search friendly way to format it we are told.

So what did you think??  Is your head spinning?  Or are you feeling like you just got the cliffs notes to the textbook?  We hope that by bookmarking this post, you can refer back to it, save yourself some Googling time.

If topics around Web3, NFTs and cryptocurrency come up with your friends, on your next Zoom meeting or IRL networking event, our goal is for you to feel like an informed woman who knows enough to be dangerous.

We are committed to studying the evolution of Web 3 and are thrilled to take our knowledge and apply it to the skillsets of the social media managers that enroll in the Hay There INsiders program.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

If you are a woman looking for more, wondering what’s next professionally; perhaps you are considering new marketing roles, work from home options or simply looking to close your resume gap, we’d love for you to schedule a call with us and check out our Hay There INsiders program where we teach you how to start and run your own social media freelance business in 6 weeks.  And “Web3 and NFTs” are one of the aspects we teach you about in Core Training. 

You can see what women in our community have done with the knowledge they learned including how they applied it to their freelance business and/or their re-entry into the workforce.  We’re always here so reach out to learn more today!