Web3: The Marketplace of Human Experience
The future we’re heading toward isn’t problem-free—it just accelerates us into new ones. We used to live in a world where some things just existed. A home was a place to live. A hobby was something you did for fun. A friendship was a connection, not a commodity. But somewhere along the way, that changed.
Airbnb turned homes into investments, and Instagram turned our lives into personal brands. Sorry, but LinkedIn turned networking into content marketing.
Now, we want Web3 to push this development even further.
In Web3, our attention is an asset. It’s scary, but mine and your reputation is an asset, and so are our relationships. Sure, our humanness has always been our most valuable asset in living, but now we are making this increasingly tradable.
Last week, I touched upon the issue that our soul seems to be getting tradable. Nothing just is anymore. Now, even our attention has a price.
Web3 was supposed to be different. It promised to break free from the systems of Web2, where tech giants profited from our data and behavior. But instead of dismantling the machine, we seem to just be rebuilding it—only this time, it’s decentralized. Now, instead of companies monetizing us, we’re doing it to ourselves.
I am not saying that monetization is inherently bad. Ownership, transparency, and financial autonomy are all much-needed shifts. The problem is when everything becomes an asset, when every interaction carries an economic weight. When engaging in a community isn’t about belonging but about speculation. When our online presence isn’t just an extension of who we are but a portfolio to be optimized.
As an author, I live and breathe the stressful and frankly demotivating effect of living in a world where art (writing) is supposed to be optimized for sales. In an era where everything is commodified, art for art’s sake isn’t a luxury—it’s essential to preserving our humanity. This shift extends beyond writing—musicians sell royalties as NFTs, DAOs monetize collaborative work, and even digital artists face pressure to tokenize their creativity. Web3 could empower creators, but will it free them or simply make them optimize even more?
When technology is designed primarily to serve capitalist structures, efficiency and profit take priority over our well-being. Algorithms push us to work more, hustle harder, and engage in an endless cycle of self-optimization. Rest becomes laziness. Hobbies become side hustles. Even social interactions are filtered through a lens of networking and opportunity.
We are running toward a world where value is no longer just about meaning, connection, or fulfillment—but about liquidity. About what can be bought, sold, staked, or flipped.
This isn’t just a Web3 problem—it’s a cultural one. If Web3 is truly to be a break from the past, it can’t just decentralize who profits—it must redefine what sound progress means. Perhaps there’s a way Web3 can shift the focus from pure monetization to sustainability, creativity, and genuine human connection.
I am sure we want to use technology to create a world beyond just decentralized hyper-financialization.
I don’t have to say that we all like profit. The question is: Are we doing our best to create tools for empowerment? Or just new ways to turn life itself into a marketplace?