Keep Hearing About Web3, But Don’t Understand It? Lisa Teh’s 1-Minute Explainer Is All You Need

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To understand what Web3 is, you first have to understand Web1 and Web2, says Lisa Teh, co-founder of Web3 marketing agency Mooning.

Teh features on episode three of The Flipside podcast, hosted by Sali Sasi and Julie Stevanja, where she talks about everything from how she ended up working with one of the co-founders of Netflix, to her best productivity hacks, and, of course, what Web3 is and how she manages to stay on top of its constant changes.  

“We think of Web1 as being the ‘read form’ of the Internet,” Teh says. “As an everyday person, you couldn’t share content on the Internet — you could consume it at scale, but you had to know coding to share content on websites.”

What came next was Web2, which refers to the ‘read-write form’ of the Internet — in other words, social media, explains Teh. Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok were all platforms that made it easy for the everyday person to share content. This was where the rise of influencers came in.

“Prior to Web2, only celebrities were getting brand deals,” says Teh. “But with Web2, everyday people could form a following just by sharing content. Suddenly, the everyday person could influence buying decisions.”

Another shift with Web2 is that social platforms began monetising their audience and data. “To be transparent, they have a lot of power,” says Teh. “We all use the platforms, and they can control what we see and what we do on them, which is a little bit scary when you start to drill down into it.”

This all brings us to Web3 — the next iteration of the Internet — also called the ‘read-write-own form’ of it. This is where we’ll start to see blockchain technology effectively become the economic layer that underpins the Internet. “Blockchain technology is at the heart of it,” says Teh. “It’s a digital ledger. When you put something on blockchain — like a crypto transaction or an NFT — it’s what we call an ‘immutable’. It’s super powerful when you think of all the different user cases.”

With Web3, Teh says we’ll start to see people owning their own digital assets. For example, if you play a Web2 game, you don’t own your characters or weapons, so you might invest a lot of time in the game, but then have nothing to show for it.

“If you look at gaming in Web3, you actually own those characters that you build up,” she says. “You can then sell them to someone else.”  

As for what it takes to work in the Web3 space, Teh says that because it’s moving so fast, you have to be obsessed with it. You have to love it and be completely immersed in it, she says. If you aren’t actively investing in NFTs, buying crypto and venturing into the Metaverse, it’s hard to stay up-to-date with what’s going on.

It’s for that reason that she made a conscious effort to distinguish her Web3 digital marketing agency Mooning, from her Web2 agency, CODI, with different people working at each. For Mooning, she wanted to hire people who lived and breathed the Web3 space.

On top of running Mooning and CODI, Teh is also the co-founder of 101 Lifestyle, “the world’s sexiest toothpaste brand”; co-founder of Lisnic, a platform connecting business owners with mentors; and the editor-in-chief of lifestyle website Coutouring.com. So, with all that to juggle, not to mention having to stay up-to-date with everything that’s happening in the world so she can better run her businesses, how does Teh manage it all?

“From the moment I wake up, I’m consuming content,” she says. “I love listening to podcasts. I listen on double speed so I can listen to more content in a day. I’m reading the news constantly. I’m on social media.”

To-do lists, of course, help her, too — though, she always does them the day before, spending time at the end of every day jotting down everything she needs to do the next day. In the morning, she’ll get some quick wins off the board so she can feel like she’s achieving something. And, finally, she’ll pre-plan her outfits and get other life admin out of the way outside of working hours so she can maximise her workday.

“I can’t believe this is my life,” Teh says in the podcast.

For more of her journey from tax lawyer to entrepreneur, how she manages to keep her marriage intact while working with her husband and, most importantly, how she ended up in a milkshake sculling competition with Gary Vee, tune into the full episode below.

You can listen to The Flipside wherever you listen to your podcasts, with episodes dropping every Thursday — each with an exclusive offer from one of the Her Black Book brand partners.  In this episode (which you can listen to below) Bangn Body, is offering 15% off, sitewide, when you shop via the Her Black Book app. You have until midnight on Sunday 18 September to take advantage of the discount, so be quick!  To unlock even more exclusive deals and offers, download the Her Black Book app now.