Why Paul Hsu Believes Purpose First Leaders Can Make Web3 a Vehicle for Generational Change
Paul Hsu, Decasonic
From his two decades in technology, Paul Hsu, CEO and Founder of Decasonic, sees an opportunity in blockchain to create positive, purposeful change.
In Web3, Paul sees a frontier design space growing at an exponential rate—in his words, “a billion-user opportunity and a trillion-dollar whitespace.” What that technology will become, and how it will function going forward, will be shaped by today’s founders and leaders.
Paul wants to extend an invitation to well-intentioned, positive-sum innovators who are building for long-term impact: “Let’s build together.”
Paul’s hope is that purposeful leaders can work together toward a common goal of “innovation for better.” They can mold Web3 into a vehicle for generational change. Paul says, “Web3’s innovation is changing how value and power connect people in the digital world. That’s a powerful paradigm shift, one that has the potential to redistribute wealth and power.”
To that end, in 2018 Paul founded Decasonic, a Web3 native venture fund with a focus on blockchain innovation to unlock Web3’s rich potential. That started with building on a core set of values from the beginning that revolve around the vision of #innovationforbetter, and he’s dedicated to publishing those values for all of their partners to see.
The critical piece, according to Paul, will be the community of leaders that coalesces around Web3 in this moment, at its inception. The strongest communities are built on a set of shared values and purpose, and by bringing together leaders who are clear on both, Paul believes that the community can drive Web3 toward reaching its fullest potential. The work of the community benefits the community; as a result, the entire community will level up.
The success of Web3 will ultimately be based on the human spirit and the drive to create technology that can change the world for the better.
Paul believes that today’s Web3 innovators are part of a long trajectory of technology designed and developed to improve living standards—in other words, technological innovation with purpose. The global implications are monumental. Paul points to just a few examples of how “banking the unbanked” through cryptocurrency has transformed people’s lives worldwide in recent years:
Play-to-earn gaming, particularly in southeast Asia, is allowing players to earn wealth, even when rolling lockdowns created unstable earning opportunities for many.
NFTs offer opportunities for artists—particularly those who come from communities that have historically been marginalized in the traditional market—to find customers globally, be fairly compensated, and maintain greater control over issues around copyrights and ownership.
As ATMs across the country ran out of cash and the country’s banking system suspended electronic funds transfers during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, some refugees were able to leave the country with the funds necessary to care for themselves and their families in their crypto wallets. And in fact, the UNHCR is encouraging crypto donations as an impactful, efficient way to support those forced to flee Ukraine.
Latin American immigrants working in the US, Canada, and Europe are able to safely, efficiently, and quickly send money to their families through crypto remittances.
Paul points out that while it’s easy to associate cryptocurrency with its high-income investors, its real power lives in its potential to create greater financial inclusion for people left out of the formal financial system in the US. In the US Federal Reserve’s Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2021, the agency found that cryptocurrency allowed lower-income adults, especially those who lack traditional vehicles for making purchases—like bank accounts and credit cards—to complete transactions. In fact, nearly 60% of Americans who used cryptocurrency to make purchases in 2021 had an income of less than $50,000 per year.
Recently there’s been a market reset in the crypto environment, but Paul sees that as part of the natural life cycle of new technology.
He points out, “Innovation is creative destruction, so naturally a significant majority of the ideas won’t succeed. That was true in dot com and in social web as well. The ideas that do win generally have a broad impact.”
If we can reframe these shifts to see them as positive changes, then we open the opportunities that come with them. If you believe in the long-term positive impact, those shifts allow you to see what’s working and where change can make the greatest impact and develop commitment around it.
There are plenty of skeptics about the possibilities in crypto and Web3. Paul is looking to demystify those processes in order to build a community that can help capture the real opportunities without being limited or put off by the skeptics. That takes people who are willing to dive in for the long term and ride the ebbs and flows in this early period.
While there is always the potential for bad actors in Web3, it can also create a better community, especially if like-minded people try to build a values-based community. Paul explains, “I believe tech for good is orders of magnitude larger than tech for bad, especially in Web3, where platform growth aligns with user value.” The more founders with good intentions who come to the movement, the more likely its success and its success implementation for good.
That’s the vision Paul has for the future of Web3, but it’s one that he hopes other like-minded founders will start building today. That’s a call-to-action he believes will have consequences for generations: “Help us build innovation for better. There’s so much about crypto and Web3 that’s uneasy, but well-intentioned people can build that better tomorrow. It starts with setting up your personal values and your company’s values on Day 1. From there, we can build together, intentionally.”
