I was terrified when I announced via Linkedin that I was leaving my job as a vice president at Amazon and going to work in the crypt. It was more frightening to announce it than to give notice.
I was leaving a great job and thought everyone would think I was crazy. I was surprised that more than 800 people commented on my post. Most people thought I was not crazy.
The phase of the internet we are in now is dominated by companies. People thought that I helped shape it over my career at places such as IBM and Amazon. People were excited that I was going to help shape Web3 and that it would be a community-driven version of the internet.
I am the senior vice president and channel chief of Unstoppable Domains, a company that allows users to send, receive, and store cryptocurrencies.
I gave up my job at Amazon to work on Web3.
When I was working at Amazon, I became interested in the digital currency. I had a lot of customers who were talking to me about the value and significance of the future of technology. I looked into the use cases for the technology and found it to be worth it. About a year and a half ago, it became a side project for me.
I was looking at NFTs and metaverses and saw a visual image in my head. The web3 is built on the block chain. Web3 is used to build the metaverses. I decided that I didn't want to be left out of the next technological evolutions as they were created. I am influenced by the idea of creating something new and innovative. It was just a question of when and what I wanted to do when I realized that I wanted to tie my career to it.
I like to work on projects with a purpose. Projects related to space travel and cancer research have been worked on by me.
People assume that you are in it for the money when you say you work in Web3. That wasn't what I thought it was. I believe that your data should be owned by you, which is why I am in favor of the concept of decentralization.
I didn't know how to trust the technology. When it comes to security, developers keep up the pace. Due to my background in enterprise, I needed to understand that the open-sourced nature of the technology made it compatible with other applications. I was confident when I saw how the technology could be used in the supply chain.
When I purchase a Lazy Lion NFT, I join the community. Customers and their partners would be given a roadmap in Web2. Customers are a part of Web3's membership because they are a group that makes decisions. That is incredibly powerful.
This is an example of a community. There is a group called Unstoppable Women. Multiple groups are trying to raise women in this area. "Oh, are you guys going to compete against each other?" I was completely against it. We aren't fighting because we are all part of the same community. We are all going to make it, and we are going to rise together. It's refreshing and different than what I've experienced before.
It is a new way of looking at the world. The internet was for the person but the tech wasn't there yet. Web2 began to sell your data. We thought the internet would be about community and individuals.
Most of the people I saw were males. There needs to be diversity from the start of Web3. That's one of the reasons I wanted to be involved.
I included a link to apply to the company when I said I was going to Unstoppable Domains. 1500 people applied from all walks of life. Women made up 3% of the applicants. I was shocked by that.
Since then, diversity has improved. 70 companies signed up to take a pledge to prioritize diversity
Improvements will be made if we want Web3 to go mainstream.
The interface needs to be simpler to use. When I did a panel in the metaverse, it took us a couple of hours to learn how to sit and walk with our characters. I looked up and there were two people sitting on the ceiling. They asked me how to get off the ceiling.
My dream is that we don't have to worry about people sitting on the roof of a conference center because anyone can use it.
It has to be simpler to talk about Web3. Sometimes my colleagues have different words for the same thing. It's very confusing for me. I want them to clean up the terminology and come up with a single word for each thing.
They sometimes say I sound like Web2. Good morning when it should be a little g and a little m. They said that Web3 people don't put pictures in their accounts.
I'm very pleased with my decision to join Web3. Digital identity is going to be a lot bigger than it is today. I think it's a good idea to learn more about Web3 and play with it, but don't assume anything before you do. It's easy to say that NFTs aren't worth anything before you do the research.
The recent downturn isn't bothering me. Even though they're connected, I don't think they're equivalent. Web3 has the potential to impact the internet through decentralization and digital identity. Individual ownership of data and identity is what it's really good at. There are other uses for the technology.
I'm a builder, and I'm in this for a long time. I think we are creating the internet of the future.
Email jgyimesi@insider.com if you would like to tell your story after leaving tech.
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