Produced by: Web3Future
Author: Crypto Brave (X: cryptobraveHQ)
Web3 Community Building Under the Wave of Crypto Rightism (Part One)
In the world of Web3, what is a community? This question seems simple, yet it contains profound changes in the crypto industry. From the early days of technological idealism to the current financialization and capital centralization, Web3 communities are undergoing a significant shift from "left" to "right."
Having immersed in and built the crypto community for over four years, the feeling of a "right turn" in the current cycle is very apparent among many community friends I’ve spoken with. Therefore, I attempt to explore the current development stage of Web3 communities, how to respond to this shift, and the future direction of community building through a series of three articles.
The Multiple Identities of Community
From different perspectives, the definition of community varies:
From the viewpoint of technology-driven project founders, developers are the community, as they are the core of ecosystem expansion and application innovation.
From the narrative-driven VC coin teams, whoever can provide liquidity is the community, such as Binance, whose large user base provides liquidity for projects.
From the price-driven meme teams, KOLs and traffic distribution are the community, as they can attract attention.
From the perspective of project teams that have already conducted TGE, Builders and Holders are the community, as they are the core force accompanying the project through cycles.
These different definitions actually reflect the core driving forces of Web3 communities at different stages of development.
The Evolution of Web3 Communities
Early Crypto Communities
Born from a culture of technological idealism, emphasizing privacy, anti-authoritarianism, and decentralization, closely aligned with leftist liberalism.
Mid-stage Crypto Communities
Gradually evolved into a financial speculation community dominated by developers, exchanges, retail investors, and early institutions, becoming more pragmatic.
Current Crypto Communities
Begin to experience financialization, capital, and power centralization, with institutional and government investors accelerating their entry, leaning more towards right-wing conservatism.
Of course, this shift is not unrelated to the global rise of right-wing movements, such as the re-election of Trump, a representative of new populist right-wing politics, and the emergence of far-right president Milei in Argentina, which I will not elaborate on here.
In the previous cycle, technology was the core of projects, with development teams focusing on long-term construction, and community members willing to pay for technological idealism. However, in the current cycle, the importance of narrative has surpassed technology itself; the success of projects no longer relies on technological innovation but revolves around price and capital operations. The rise of memecoins further proves this point, as technology is no longer the focal point of attention.
The Tear in Community: Only "Far Right" Can Surpass the Right
Taking Ethereum and Solana as examples, the points of contention in their communities are very clear. The Ethereum community places more emphasis on technological idealism and decentralization, while the Solana community emphasizes efficiency and capital operations. This divergence reflects the tearing of Web3 communities under the wave of rightism.
Looking at the comparison between Ethereum and BNB Chain, it is not difficult to find that the current BNB Chain is "more right" than Solana. This is because BNB Chain must compete with Solana through ecological strategies like meme and AI Agent, which can only lead to greater centralization, stronger capital injection, and operational resources (such as linked investments, token listings, market making, etc.), along with a more united community.
The Compliance of Exchanges
The same trend is reflected in the centralized exchange sector. In the previous cycle, most exchanges operated under the logic of regulatory arbitrage in different global markets, with compliance being a "get on board first, pay later" approach. Nowadays, most exchanges focus more on compliance, striving to operate within a compliant framework.
A similar logic of left and right extremes can also be compared among different DEXs and Bots (such as Uniswap, Jupiter, GMGN…), market makers (Wintermute, GSR, DWF, shadow market makers…), etc. I will not elaborate further here; everyone can apply their own standards for judgment.
Future Community Building
In general, in the past crypto circle, everyone paid for technological narratives, pursued decentralization and fairness, and founders emphasized long-term construction without caring about prices, creating an idealistic leftist atmosphere. But now, as the market trends right, everyone focuses on price and short-term returns, emphasizing corporate management and strong operations, with projects closely cooperating with regulators, and centralized interest alliances supporting each other, where making money is the most important.
I personally believe that whether leaning left or right, it is an objective result of market choices under the trend of industry evolution, a reflexivity that emerges after the peak of a trend—after idealism, realism has taken the lead.
In the next article, I will continue to share how to effectively build the current stage of the crypto community under the wave of rightism. For example, building developer communities, liquidity communities, KOL marketing, and the growth of social media data. I welcome everyone to engage with us.
Finally, do you think the rightward shift of the Web3 community is inevitable? What do you think are the key factors for future community building? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.
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