The Conceptual Differentiation of #web3 and Web 2.0 in Akshay’s Mental Model, Along with the Introduction of Solana City

**Video Title: Understanding the Shift from Web 2.0 to Web3: Building Solana City**

**Description:**
In this insightful video, Akshay B.D., Head of International Expansion & advisor to the Solana Foundation, discusses the mental distinction he makes between Web 2.0 and Web3. While he admits his aversion to using the term “Web3,” he recognizes its utility in explaining an important shift in focus from user acquisition to producer acquisition. Unlike traditional companies, building a blockchain involves engaging a multiplicity of actors who have aligned interests in the growth of Solana City, while still pursuing their individual business interests.

To drive international expansion, Akshay proposes hiring the top 1% of producers from every country, leveraging their skills in coding, content creation, marketing, design, and development. These talented individuals will be pulled into a private community, granting them exclusive opportunities to contribute to the construction of Solana City. As the city attracts skilled producers, it will subsequently draw in users, leveraging the deep technical talent and high-quality engineering culture found in countries like India, Vietnam, and Turkey.

Akshay highlights how the advent of crypto has greatly decentralized access to wealth, erasing the need to physically relocate to the US for H1B visas. Today, anyone with skills in demand can work remotely for a crypto project and earn capital assets and US dollars, thanks to tokens and USDC, the native default currency of the crypto economy. This profound shift promises to democratize access to Silicon Valley jobs, opening new opportunities for individuals worldwide.

In this *Analyse Asia* interview, Akshay BD sheds light on the transformative power of Web3 and Solana City’s mission to pave the way for a decentralized future.

**Sources:**
– [Analyse Asia](https://analyse.asia/)
– [Trends Asia](https://trendsasia.net/)
– [Business Asia](https://businessasia.net/)
– [Technology Asia](https://technologyasia.net/)
– [Media Asia](https://mediaasia.net/)

**Transcript:**
A full transcript of the video can be found [here](transcript-link).

“What I can say is there is this mental distinction I make between web 2.0 and web3.

Even though I hate using “Web3″. It’s sort of useful in what I’m about to say. Web2 was about user acquisition. But Web3 is about producer acquisition and that is like an important insight for us. Cause building a blockchain is not like building a company. Where a company makes all the products and it ships them to customers.

And customers are simply passive consumers of those products. In a city, people move there to produce, you know, somebody’s building a hotel, they’re somebody’s holding down a job. And so they’re producers. And in a company, the product team is building everything. In a city, you have a multiplicity of actors who roughly have aligned interests to help the city grow, but have their own business interests too. Whether it’s UXD protocol or Mango Markets. They’re all their own companies with their own cap tables. But they live in and thrive in Solana city. And I think the way we think about international expansion is to go to every country and hire the top 1% of producers into the mission of building.

So Solana City. Recruit them into this mission by leveraging their skills to write code, write content. Maybe they’re marketers, designers, developers, whatever they are. Pull them into a private community that has access to exclusive opportunities to help build the city. So the first inhabitants of any city tend to be producers. They then attract users. India, Vietnam, Turkey, all these places that we’ve gone to have a very deep technical bend strength. There’s a high quality engineering culture in these countries. And I like to say previously you needed to go to the US to get like an H1 B visa, but today you have the TCP/IP Visa.

You can just download a browser extension and you can start making money in US dollars. This is actually pretty profound because the path to wealth for a lot of people from at least the country I come from, was to just move to the US and get an H1B visa, get a job there, and then invest in the capital markets of the United States.

And so that’s how you got wealthy by investing in the stock market. The access to capital markets and your proximity to it sort of  ultimately decided how wealthy you were going to be or your access to wealth. Oftentimes proximity to that capital market or access even ended up being physical proximity to the US.

But today that has truly decentralized because of crypto. Because it’s essentially like a labor marketplace where people can live anywhere around the world. Crypto is remote by default. And so if you have some skills and you are really good at what you do, you can stay back in your country and work on or for a crypto project and earn in capital assets oftentimes, which are in the tokens of those projects.

And US dollars, right? Because USDC is the native default currency of the crypto economy. And so I think that’s a very profound shift which hasn’t fully materialized because of how early everything is, but I think in five years from now, we’ll look back and be like, that was the moment where the access to Silicon Valley jobs got truly democratized.” – Akshay BD, Head of International Expansion & advisor to #Solana Foundation & host of @SuperteamPodcast