Web2 succeeded in large part because of the focus of frictionless user acquisition & onboarding. Think of an app like TikTok and the time it takes for a new user to start interacting with content. Similarly, intuitive interfaces made it easy for new Facebook users to pick up the platform and guide themselves through the funnel of acquiring ‘7 friends in 10 days’ as Facebook (now Meta) intended.

Some pieces of Web2 behemoths were possible before social media, or had been attempted on the internet without success. Think of friends on MySpace before the arrival of Facebook, or the platform Vine which didn’t succeed in the fertile ground of short form video that became a successful app category years later. Digging even deeper, there were tools to connect before Facebook, before MySpace, before AOL Instant Messengers, before intuitive forums and so on. The technology existed, but it was for specialized users, not mass audiences. Web2 continuously made it easier for people to create and use content, which gave rise to success in former graveyards.

Just as how it was possible to connect with people over the internet before Facebook, or share short form video before TikTok or YouTube Shorts or Instagram Reels, it is possible to do some of the best feature of Web3 today, if you’re willing to deal with enough nonsense, difficulty, steep learning curves, or hopping from specific app to specific app.

However, while there may be some ways to execute functions of Web3 today, many of those experiences are simply too fragmented, difficult or time consuming to use. This is where the internet was for content creation and sharing during Web1.0.

If Web3 is going to succeed, then Web3 experiences and functionality must be accessible in the same way Web2 was to non-technical people. Grandma is not going to sign up for 7 different Web3 apps and learn each one’s discreet functionality to keep up with whatever tools their Grandkids are using to share content or build communities. Additionally, scalable onboarding can’t require human supported guidance for each dApp.

Finally, for Web3 success, just as you can go down the rabbit hole about how various forms of connecting over the internet existed long before social media and giants like Facebook, many of these use cases required technical expertise or devotion to understanding underlying tools. This is where much of Web3 is today, where the experience only makes sense for crypto natives, and is not an experience designed to scale global movements. Think university researchers in 1990 connecting via the web and telling you their experiences are going to scale to the world. More work was needed before their visions would bear fruit.

The challenge is that the fundamentals of Web3 mean a central entity is not fencing users into their platform, nor is user data and identity held by a centralized entity. Thus, if the various features of a Web2 app like Facebook could be considered spokes coming off a central hub, the features of Web3 are more akin to spokes but with no hub to connect them. Think of how successful Facebook would have been if all they did was build a book of faces and put it online, then expect another company to build a messenger and another company to build groups and pages and so on. The answer is not very.

This is where ShardSpace comes in for Web3.

Web3, including DeFi, is a better option for a mass number of people and users. While not getting into Web3’s selling points, some of the key pieces are that all of the components of identity, assets and data can be controlled by the user, and all of the applications and features are decentralized and composable. But, there is no hub to connect all of these applications and features, and the path to onboarding a new user to the full experience offered by a Web3 ecosystem is missing this core feature that enabled Web2 growth.

ShardSpace is building the User Interface Layer for viewing, managing and using your Web3 assets in the Radix ecosystem.

If no one offers this fluid and unified experience, then user acquisition is never going to be competitive with the traditional web and growth, both in terms of value, user count, and use cases will suffer. A DEX acquiring a user will not compound the network effects of also introducing the user to an NFT marketplace, the way that a platform like Facebook not only has the effects on the network but also the compounding impact of the suite of products offered by Meta and within Facebook itself.

The incremental effort to use an additional Web3 application should decrease for each new application you pick. However, without a unified experience this simply is not true, and it will be a battle to win the same user again and again for each use case or application. This is not a fast or sustainable way to build a network or movement.

This is why ShardSpace is focused on building a simplified interface to view and use your identities and assets, plus seamless integration of interoperable Web3 components in the Radix ecosystem.

By creating a platform where various dApps and Web3 functionalities can interact seamlessly, ShardSpace is ensuring that users have a plethora of options, tools, and applications at their disposal, enhancing engagement and participation. Further, it’s not on the user to find and learn new dApps, but rather the Dashboard and future features all bring the necessary components to the user, in an easy to find fashion and easy to identify and step into new apps.

As ShardSpace continues to develop it will help push the development of Web3 in a manner that is complemented by the ease of use and intuitive interfaces that made Web2 popular. By addressing the onboarding and ease of use challenge head-on, ShardSpace is not just contributing to the growth of the Radix ecosystem but is setting the stage for the universal adoption of Web3.

In this world, the complexities of decentralized technology are not barriers but bridges to an inclusive, empowered, and decentralized digital world. Effective Web3 will not only enhance user experience, but make the user experience so excellent that people are do not feel friction moving between Web1.0, Web2 and Web3 experiences, as platforms like Shardspace will make interaction as similar and fluid as possible, all with the full enrichment of Web3 technology.