We are on the precipice of entering the New Internet and the experience must come first.
As we suddenly begin to see institutional and regulatory acceptance of crypto and the concepts of digital ownership and decentralization becoming a part of the mainstream consciousness, the focus now turns to the missing piece for the next wave of adoption: user experience.
According to Chris Dixon's 2024 book, "Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet", and with great consensus across the industry, the New Internet is the internet of ownership. An internet where choice, control, and composability are delivered to both end users and entrepreneurs alike. An internet that brings back the power and importance of sovereignty to the individual.
But realizing a better internet is hard. There are few incentives for developers to build good products when there are no users. And there are no users because there are few useful products. This chicken-and-egg cycle is almost about to reach escape velocity but can only do so when crypto actually becomes usable.
The bar for user experience in crypto has been too low for too long - multiple clicks, remembering seed phrases, expecting users to manage network switching, security issues, and much more. At WalletConnect we solved one of the first major hurdles to user experience by enabling the connection of mobile wallets to desktop applications, and we’re proud to continue to power millions of connections today along with providing many more tools to those building out the New Internet.
I want to see a future where incredible UX meets ownership. Where I have choice and control over my assets. Where I can build and interact seamlessly with my communities. Where there aren’t walled gardens, and where we build using open standards.
At WalletConnect our community is composed of thousands of wallet builders, tens of thousands of application builders, many partners building other developer tools, and millions of unique end users.
Our mission to empower the community of the New Internet is more important than ever. I’m proud to present to you our pledge and manifesto to support the ecosystem as the UX Platform for the New Internet.
