Why do Web3 practitioners have a strong sense of "stealth"?

An industry that can only exist in secrecy has no future.

Written by: Liu Honglin

In some industries, parents nod in agreement as soon as they hear them, such as civil servants, doctors, and teachers; in other industries, young people mention them and everyone envies them, like product managers, investment banking analysts, and programmers at big internet companies. But if you say at the dinner table, "I'm working on Web3" - you're likely to get one of three reactions: friends laughing and saying "you're just speculating on coins," industry peers staring at you and asking "have you launched a token?", and elders shaking their heads in confusion.

So you just don't say anything, or speak ambiguously: "I've been researching new technologies recently," "working on some overseas projects," "helping a friend with data asset matters." This vague and unclear "industry positioning shame" is what we are going to discuss today regarding the "sneaky feeling" of Web3 practitioners.

The Unspeakable Occupational Labels: The Self-Identity Crisis of Practitioners

In the Web3 industry, you will find a very interesting phenomenon: many people's job descriptions are quite twisted. Someone who is clearly the legal director of an exchange will say they are doing cross-border compliance research; someone who is obviously a core founder of an NFT project will say they are working on cultural digital products; and even some friends who have clearly made quite a bit of money through DeFi arbitrage will say they are "doing some overseas asset allocation."

It's not that they lack confidence, but rather that the labels associated with the entire industry are too easily misunderstood, belittled, and stigmatized. From "speculating on coins," "pyramid schemes," and "harvesting chives," to "money laundering" and "fraud," none of these terms are particularly suitable to include in a resume.

You may say that Web3 is the forefront of financial technology, a prototype of the decentralized future internet, and a testing ground for blockchain technology applications. No matter how excited you get, the other party will only lightly ask, "So what coin are you actually trading?"

To be honest, this "sense of theft" does not come from nowhere. Behind it are several very real issues intertwined.

First, there is policy ambiguity. Many countries are still in the exploratory stage of regulating virtual assets, especially in mainland China, where issuing coins is not allowed, trading is not supported, and speculation is not encouraged. In this context, practitioners often face the psychological burden of operating in a gray area. You know that what you are doing is technological innovation and compliance exploration, but you also understand that even helping overseas projects with coding or operations makes others feel like you are "engaging in illegal trading."

Secondly, there are too many chaotic phenomena in the industry. Scams, Ponzi schemes, cutting leeks, running away... In the past few years, projects in the Web3 industry have come to grief one after another. The news that goes viral is often not about technological breakthroughs, but rather about project teams absconding with funds or exchanges collapsing. The "crypto circle" referred to by the media has become a hotspot for negative sentiment. As someone who is seriously working in the industry, you will also be implicitly labeled with these tags.

Moreover, public awareness is lagging behind. When you tell your peers that you are working on blockchain technology, they are still focused on Bitcoin; when you mention DAO, they think you are "organizing something"; when you say you are issuing NFTs, the other party assumes you are selling profile pictures. The more you explain, the more confused they become. In the end, you can only choose to remain silent or brush it off by saying you are "doing some internet finance."

"Being honest and upright" seems to have become a luxury.

In this industry atmosphere, many Web3 practitioners actually feel psychological pressure. When they work, they have to consider various "risk controls": do not talk about tokens in public, do not leave personal real-name information, do not use domestic bank cards for payments, do not tell relatives that their project has issued a token.

This is completely different from traditional entrepreneurship. In the Web2 era, you could create an APP, start a new consumer brand, or open a small e-commerce store, and even if you lost money, you would dare to post about it on social media. But in Web3, even if your project raises tens of millions and has over ten thousand users, you are less willing to show off, because on one hand, you fear being targeted, and on the other hand, you worry about being misunderstood.

Ultimately, this state of "doing things secretly" is actually our compensatory behavior due to the lack of social legitimacy in this industry. Moreover, everyone understands that the industry is still not at a level where you can "hold your head high." You present a PPT with a bunch of "Token Economics" and "ecological incentive models," but in the end, others will still ask: "Is this thing just a way to harvest retail investors?"

Should we be a little braver?

To be honest, Web3 practitioners feel conflicted. On one hand, you believe that you are building the infrastructure of the future internet, representing technology, innovation, freedom, and globalization; on the other hand, you selectively avoid these terms in real life, fearing that others will know you are involved in blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and Web3.

You don't doubt this road, but you don't quite believe that this world can understand what you're saying.

But this does not mean that we can only continue to "do things secretly." On the contrary, more and more Web3 practitioners are actively trying to establish new ways of dialogue—not by using jargon, but by telling stories; not by stubbornly insisting on "technological advancement," but by speaking through real-world scenarios; not by emphasizing the "ideal of decentralization," but by showing the real value of use to those around us.

For example, when you say "I make wallets", everyone would ask you "Are you collecting dirty money?"; now someone has changed the wording to: "We are creating cross-border remittance tools, specifically serving overseas workers." Doesn't that sound much better? Another example, when you say "We create NFTs", people might say you "are just selling profile pictures"; but if you say: "We help musicians distribute digital royalties, allowing them to get paid directly without going through platforms", suddenly your image is established.

Of course, it's not to say that simply wrapping it up can solve the "sense of theft", but at least this is a transformation - from avoidance to explanation, from internal friction to construction, from self-denial to gradually having a sense of identity.

More importantly, we must acknowledge the gray areas in our industry and recognize our own position within it. But gray is not a sin; stealing is. You can operate in the gray areas, but you should not always face the world with a "sneaky" attitude.

Where this industry ultimately leads is uncertain. But one thing is clear: an industry that can only exist in secrecy has no future.