5 Things I’ve Learned Writing ‘The Ultimate Web3 Pocket Guide’

In this issue: Building a decentralized social media website with Lens Protocol, using the Alchemy SDK, and what I’ve learned writing my book ‘The Ultimate Web3 Pocket Guide’ so far.

Photo by Mari Potter on Unsplash

Gm and happy friday everyone!

Friday is my favorite day of the week, not just because it’s the end of my work week, but because it’s the day when I publish new content on the Filebase documentation website.

This week, I published 4 new Filebase Web3 tutorials.

• Alchemy: Using The Alchemy SDK with NFTs Minted Through Thirdweb
• Lens Protocol: Build a Decentralized Social Media Network Stored on IPFS
• thirdweb: Build an NFT Minting Page with thirdweb, IPFS, RainbowKit, and WAGMI
• Waffle: Deploy a Smart Contract with Waffle That’s Stored on IPFS

You can view all of the Filebase documentation here, or follow Filebase on Twitter to see our weekly docs updates every week!

Decentralized Storage Highlights In The Web3 Space This Week

Here are some of my favorite pieces of content relating to decentralized storage posted this week in the Web3 space:

• An awesome presentation about decentralizing an application stack using Filecoin and Web3.Storage from the #30DaysOfWeb3 Women Build Web3 project.
• Ever wanted different decentralized networks explained using The Breakfast Club characters as a comparison? This post by Catrina Wang on LinkedIn is exactly that, and she hits the nail on the head.
• What’s the point of the decentralized web if the majority of crypto nodes are hosted on centralized providers? This post by Messari breaks down exactly how many nodes for networks like Ethereum and Solana are stored on clouds like AWS.

5 Things I’ve Learned Since I Started Writing My Book ‘The Ultimate Web3 Pocket Guide’

When I first conceptualized my idea for ‘The Ultimate Web3 Pocket Guide’, I knew that it was going to be a sizable challenge. Not only trying to fit everything that makes up Web3 into one (massive) body of text but also trying to stay as up-to-date with the space as possible, especially when things grow and change so often.

Here are 5 things I’ve learned in the past 6 weeks of writing:

1. This space moves fast. Scary fast. Since there are hundreds of pages that are dedicated to describing specific products and pieces of the ecosystem, like the Ethereum network or NFT collections like Moonbirds, I’ve had to go back and revise my descriptions to stay up to date. As soon as the Ethereum merge was announced, I updated my Ethereum page with the information reflecting the merge. When Moonbirds announced they were going to be using a CC0 license, I needed to add information about that to the Moonbirds page.
2. The rabbit hole is never-ending. I could easily write thousands of pages if I wanted to encompass every single product, collection, or tool in the space. I’ve done my best to try and narrow it down to the most important, and my draft hovers around 500 pages (without a table of contents, glossary, or ~6 chapters that I still plan to include!)
3. There is a project for everything (well, almost). Want a Web3 alternative to Spotify? Yep, that exists. What about a data oracle that enables you to create your own Web3 indexing service? Yep. There are so many specific use-cases that have incredible, powerful tools that can be used. I can’t wait to see what this space looks like in a year.
4. Visuals are so important. Last week, I spent the day at a local bookstore reading every other technology book on the shelves. I wanted to know what else was out there right now (turns out there’s a book on TikTok on the shelves). Only one book I found mentioned cryptocurrency at all, and it was a brief mention of Bitcoin. I realized though, that my book was lacking visual appeal immensely. Up until then, I had some graphic diagrams, but everything was text formatted. I’ve since reformatted everything with some graphic headings that I’m so excited to share once I finalize the draft.
5. Lastly, I’ve learned what it’s like to write extremely long-form content. I’ve written content that is over a hundred pages in length before, but almost 500 pages in length is uncharted territory for me. This is the longest single writing project I’ve ever taken on, and I’ve loved every second of it.

What’s Next?

Next week, I’ll be recording an episode of the Women in NFTs & Web3 podcast. More info on that when I have it!

I’m striving to finish the first draft of ‘The Ultimate Web3 Pocket Guide’ by August 31st *fingers crossed*. Once the draft is finished, I can have it edited and revised, then get some proofs ordered to make sure I’m happy with it. Ideally, I want to release it sometime around Halloween (mostly because Halloween is my favorite holiday, I’ve already got my decorations up.)

Alright, that’s it for this week. Have a great weekend everyone!

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