You'll have probably seen me say before that I am not convinced by the Web3 world. Yes it brings some interesting opportunities to our world such as better protection over sensitive information but so far I am left unconvinced that it's really the answer to all our problems. If anything, I think it's making us create problems that really don't exist, especially in the sport world.
More and more, brand and marketing professionals are bolstering their Web3 budgets and decreasing their traditional and digital budgets. This could not be more detrimental to their objectives, their fans and their reputations.
Is it actually that sport brands just need to better embrace data rather than the full Web3 world?
Here's why we don't think Web3 is really taking over:
Web3 is going to be disastrous on the environment
It's the biggest issue being ignored right now. It is quite literally, life or death. The latter being the road we're travelling down at tragic speeds. And Web3 is only going to accelerate it. Whilst it's impossible to calculate the exact amount of carbon dioxide Web3 is going to create because it's simply so vast, a good example of just how bad this is comes from the Bitcoin blockchain which is estimated to consume around the same amount of energy (and therefore emit the same amount of carbon dioxide) as Finland. Yes Finland. The whole country. And that's Bitcoin only.
We simply cannot plant enough trees or create enough carbon capture technologies to prevent these greenhouse gases from entering our atmosphere.
People love the physical, real-life aspect of sport too much
It doesn't matter how much small writing you have that promises you have the original NFT trading card of your favourite athlete, it doesn't stop any joe blog from saving down or taking a screenshot of the exact same image. Unlike physical trading cards where replicas have to have even the smallest detail change, NFTs are, in the grand scheme of thing, able to be copied. They simply cannot be sold.
But more than anything, and the pandemic taught us this the best, people thrive off the physical. As great as live streaming and Zoom was to keep us connected throughout the pandemic, as soon as the opportunities returned to attend events in the physical realm, we jumped at the chance. It's no different for merchandise and exclusive memorabilia. People want to be able to activate all of their senses, especially touch.
It relies on two generations getting up to speed with a new world
Whilst we know gen-z and younger are quickly getting up to speed with Web3, Millennials and older don't have the time and in some cases, even the capability to, learn a whole new digital language. It took decades for Boomers to get up to speed with Facebook whilst skipping Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok etc. Millennials, however, are turning their back on social media due to the negatives it brings to their mental health, the dangers it can create and the effect it has on the climate.
Crypto will accelerate the world's gambling problems.
Like vaping introduced more kids to smoking, the opposite to what it was introduced to do (stop smoking), crypto is quickly becoming the betting world's answer to its losing battles. It feels like every other day we're hearing of another corrupt crypto brand or another sad story of people losing all their savings to terrible investments in the digital currency.
I don't give it long before governments are putting restrictions, warnings and management in place for crypto investing which will of course have a knock-on effect to sponsorship budgets and opportunities.
Do you have any other reasons why Web3 won't survive? Or perhaps counters to the above points as to why it will! I'd love to hear.