Web3, Blockchain, and NFTs: Q&A with Lisa Seacat DeLuca of Unstoppable Domains
Lisa Seacat DeLuca, Director of Product Management & Engineering for Web3 Identity at Unstoppable Domains teaches MHTBA members and guests about Web3, blockchain, and NFTs inside the Bozeman Event Space on June 15, 2022 for the Bozeman roundtable. Photo courtesy of Mallory Regan, 40 Watt.
September 28, 2022
By Christina Henderson
On June 15, 2022, Lisa Seacat DeLuca - a Montana native, TED speaker, and the most prolific female inventor in IBM history - joined the Montana High Tech Business Alliance for a far-ranging fireside chat in Bozeman about the exciting opportunities emerging in web3 and her work at Unstoppable Domains.
Read on for the transcript of Lisa’s insightful interview with MHTBA Executive Director Christina Henderson. Questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity. Not familiar with the Web3 lingo? Check out our helpful glossary of web3 terms below.
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Web3 = the newest version of the internet, enabled by blockchain and based on ideas of decentralization, user ownership, and trustless and permissionless interaction.
Cryptocurrency (crypto) = a type of digital money that uses encryption technology to make it secure.
Mining = setting up a large network of high-power computers (known as nodes) to solve complicated cryptographic puzzles to ensure the network remains encrypted and protected from bad actors.
Gas = the payment that is sent to node operators (known as miners) in exchange for sharing your data on the blockchain.
Bitcoin = the first and most popular cryptocurrency. Devised as electronic money for direct exchange between people anywhere in the world who need not trust each other, or anyone else, and instead put their trust in the blockchain. Bitcoin is also the name of the payment on which this digital currency is stored and moved.
Blockchain = a distributed ledger – a database hosted by a network of computers rather than a single server, offering a secure and transparent way to store information. This method of record keeping was introduced by Bitcoin. The blockchain design has been adapted for other kinds of records.
Coinbase = A platform that allows people and companies to buy and sell various digital currencies, including Bitcoin, for a transaction fee. The first major cryptocurrency company to list shares on a U.S. stock exchange.
Ethereum = the #2 cryptocurrency behind Bitcoin measured in terms of market cap. A technology that lets you send cryptocurrency to anyone for a fee. It also powers applications or Dapps that everyone can use. Like a blockchain-based operating system, it’s the blockchain most of the web3 ecosystem runs on.
Decentralization = the idea of taking the powers and functions currently dominated by centralized organizations (governments, banks, corporations, etc.) and distributing them to the public.
Decentralized finance (DeFi) = a way of exchanging currency without bank or government involvement. Customers access financial products on a blockchain network without a middleman.
Decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) = an organization whose rules are encoded as a computer program. DAOs raise and spend money, but decisions are voted on by members and executed by encoded rules.
Decentralized applications (Dapps) = a decentralized application may feel like a regular app, but it is a program living in the web3 Ethereum network. Dapps can include programs for crowdfunding, cryptocurrency wallets, portfolios, games, portals to acquire NFTs, and others.
Nonfungible token (NFT) = a digital asset verified using blockchain technology, giving buyers proof of authenticity and ownership of items that can’t be substituted or replaced.
Creator economy = composed of digital artists, videographers, designers, podcasters, and other producers who build and monetize content through the support of their audiences.
Sources: Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, Associated Press, Exploding Topics
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Lisa Seacat DeLuca leads engineering and product management for web3 identity and login at Unstoppable Domains. Unstoppable Domains is a startup in the web3 space with a mission to empower user-owned, digital identity for every person on the planet. NFT domains are infrastructure that allows people to own their reputation and data between apps.
Lisa is a TED speaker and the most prolific female inventor in IBM history with 850+ patent applications filed and 650+ granted to date. Her patent ideas range from cloud, mobile, IoT, social, security, AI, blockchain, commerce and everything in between.
Lisa was featured three times on the #LinkedInTopVoices in Technology list (#1 or #2) and is an Inductee into the Women in Technology International (WITI) Hall of Fame.
A Helena native who returned to Montana during the pandemic, Lisa now lives in Bozeman with her two sets of twins. Follow her on Twitter @LisaSeacat
Could you walk us through a short history of the internet? What was web1 and web2? And now what do we mean when we say web3?
Lisa Seacat Deluca: Web1 is read, web2 is write, and web3 is own, to put it in a single word. Like when the web1 first started, it was really just publishing content on the web. So, you're going and reading static articles: that was web1. Web2 is that engagement. Like, how do you respond to posts and share messages? Social media was introduced. That's web2. And web3 is this notion of digital scarcity, so you can own assets, it's you as an individual being able to contribute and have a presence.
And that's what our mission is…how do we actually bring this promise of web3 to life, because right now you're seeing a hybrid approach where some things are still very centralized. Web3 is decentralized. So you don't have a Facebook or Google of the world that has a database and could give your data up to anybody. Web3 is that blockchain approach where every piece of data is decentralized from that same central source.
Tell us more about your work at Unstoppable Domains. Maybe give us an idea of what the company does and what new plans and products are underway.
Lisa: Unstoppable is NFT domains. So NFT is just written to the blockchain. You buy a domain name and then you own it forever because it's an NFT. It's not like a renewal fee, like typical domain names, where every year you have to up and pay for it again.
Right now, we're seeing that FOMO, like fear of missing out, everyone has to buy their name dot crypto dot wallet, dot x. But there's not a lot of value behind it right now. The whole point of it was to be that human readable [NFT Wallet] to pass crypto to someone. So rather than that long crypto wallet address that you could easily make a mistake, you can send money to Lisa.x, right? That makes it a lot easier.
What I'm doing is [asking] what is that value we can build on top of the NFT and further build out the NFT domain. It's all about identity and digital identity, and really that promise of web3. Can you, when you log into an app for the very first time, tell it what you think it needs to know about you so that you can have that personalized experience?
We're very similar to like a Namecheap or GoDaddy right now, it's a marketplace. And after you mint your domain, that's when you start adding digital identities. So, you add profile information, social handles, you have badges based on on-chain activity, what you're doing, which projects you are a part of.
What is an NFT and why are people buying them? I think a lot of us have seen these stories about people buying weird digital art for insane amounts of money. Isn't that just like a JPEG?
Lisa: [NFT stands for] non fungible token. I like to think about it like a baseball trading card, right? Every one is unique. Even if you have the same exact player, depending on the mint and how good the condition is, it's going to be worth more than somebody else's. It's not the same exact one. Whereas if you have $1 and $1, we trade dollars, we will still only have $1. So that's kind of the thinking behind NFT's, and their value there really is a digital scarcity. You have it, it's yours. It's almost like bragging rights. So, you're starting to see NFT's for monkey art. You can see them for domain names, like what we're doing [at Unstoppable Domains]. People are doing it based on proof of attendance protocols, like this event, you could offer an NFT. And then it's proof that you were there that you were in the room during that event. I love that crossover between in real life events as well as NFTs.
What are some web3 projects that you are particularly excited about? Or that you think really show the opportunities with this technology?
Lisa: I think equity is my favorite example, especially when you think of countries where women can't go out and get a bank account. They have to have permission from their husbands to go sign up for a bank account. They're now able to trade goods just by signing up online and creating a crypto account and sending money to each other. When you start thinking about those use cases it gives you shivers. Like this technology is really changing the world and kind of setting that even playing field.
I think the NFT projects are really cool too, especially when you see the real-life event aspects to them. Our CEO went to an event in New York, and you couldn't get in until you bought a lobster NFT. He bought this NFT to prove he owned it on the blockchain in order to get into the event, I think that's really cool.
I'm going to launch a project here, probably launch a Kickstarter or something. It's called a non-fun game. So, I'm creating a card game for kids, because I like to explain technology to my kids. But it will be collecting different NFT art in a card game scenario so you can learn those web3 kind of terminologies for kids. So, there's a lot of really cool projects and hundreds of 1000s of dapps [decentralized applications] that are being created and available on different blockchains for different use cases.
What are some of the biggest opportunities you see right now in web3 and related technologies?
Lisa: I think it's going to impact every single industry, not just tech. Like what [Figure is] doing with Provenance and large assets…I'm buying a house here in Bozeman right now and it's difficult. Like why did it take 21 plus days to close? It shouldn't, right? That whole experience of buying a house and dealing with title companies and going through all those record checks, block chain will solve all that. It's going to be interesting to see how some of the Web2 businesses start to come forward in the web3 realm.
What is blockchain? And how is it related to Bitcoin?
Lisa: Blockchain is just the underlying technology, right? It's a ledger. It's a linked list. Think of it as you can write something to the blockchain, and no one can change it. It's immutable. The cool thing about blockchain, because it's decentralized, is there's a bunch of different people all helping to spread that truth. And the truth spreads very quickly. Bitcoin is just those records, those transactions, written to the blockchain.
What are some of the bigger trends that are driving web3?
Lisa: Definitely equality[and] access for all, that's what we're focused on. I think there’s an interesting difference between web2 and web3, when it comes to product management, because typically, you are looking for that product market fit. And in web3, you're almost writing it, like we're all learning together. So, it's interesting to kind of do that painted door effect where you throw something out there and just see the feedback that you're getting, and then dive in with more innovation around whatever that product is, based on the feedback that you're getting. Whereas in Web2, you do more discovery and product research and really have a better understanding of what the product needs before you go live. That's been really fun as an innovator, because it's like, “Let's just see what people think, let's test some ideas out.”
What are some of the downsides to web3 right now and do you see solutions on the horizon?
Lisa: So for us, layer one versus layer two is a big difference with environmental friendliness, and whether something is more expensive or cheaper. And what that means is a lot of the blockchains grow, (essentially you can't ever delete it), they get bigger and bigger and bigger. So, it's very expensive, both energy consumption wise, as well as actually writing to the blockchain when you're talking to a layer one. What we're looking at is porting to different layer twos. And the layer twos are cheaper, because they're smaller. So, to get that 50, 51% of the decentralized node networks, knowing what the truth is, is much cheaper than when you have that larger network. So that's one way a lot of companies are starting to combat that environmental issue and just the cost of blockchain. As far as scam and fraud, that's huge. I think there's a huge opportunity, in fact, to innovate around that space.
There's also conversation lately about whether this space needs to be regulated. Do you have thoughts on that? Do you think that would be helpful in securing the space? Or would that undermine some of the opportunities or the values of web3?
Lisa: It's interesting, because a lot of our users think they're anonymous., But everyone's traceable, it's all on the blockchain. So, it's like, I don't know if you guys heard in the news, the OpenSea product manager who knew which NFT projects were going to be featured on their main site. So he was buying them up early, and then turning them over and selling them. And he created all these wallets to hide the money he was making and move it around. But I mean, he's going to court over it. I think that it'll be easy to regulate, so whether I think it's good or bad, I'm just seeing how it all plays out. But I think it's naive to think that you can't be traced.
In what way is web3 anonymous? And in what ways Is it not? Because it seems like there's a misconception that this is anonymous, the criminals can just hide their money laundering or whatever they're doing. But what you're talking about is confirming identity and securing transactions. How should we think about what the anonymity looks like within these technology systems?
Lisa: It's anonymous, in that you could create a wallet and not necessarily give much information about yourself, and you can buy an NFT domain and not do anything but give your wallet in order to mint it to the blockchain. It's not anonymous, in that everything's public, they can trace everything. So, if you can find out that origination where some identity of the user is exposed, then you can trace it back to who that person is. So, you're no longer anonymous. But I think we're going to see a lot of change, especially with regulation in this space. And it's something I'm exploring actively just from being an identity.
43% of today's web traffic is controlled by the tech giants Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google. What are the problems that you see with an internet that is so centralized and what are the opportunities of a more decentralized internet?
Lisa: This is my space, [and] digital identity. I don't think people realize what they're paying for. Like Facebook, you think you're getting a service for free, but you're not. You're giving them your data. And in exchange, you have to listen to all these ads and basically be monetized, right? I think there's a stat that every Facebook user was worth $3.50 a month or something to Facebook. It's going to be interesting to see how that changes with web3.I think we're going to start to see more opportunities for marketing and segmentation and users being rewarded for their own data. Like, I'll give you access to my home location Wayfair, and the fact that I just bought a new house, if you give me that 20% off discount, or you give me $10 to shop. So instead of that money going to the centralized Facebooks and Googles of the world it will go back to the individual.
We've also seen interest in the possibilities of web3 for the Creator economy. Writers Li Jin and Katie Parrott have called the web3 renaissance “a golden age for content” and argue that web3 is “tilting the scales of power and ownership back toward creators and users.” Do you agree with this assessment?
Lisa: Yes, I love that. I think that's my favorite part about web3 is just that there's no more middleman, the creators get rewarded for all the things they're creating. You're going to start to see it more in the entertainment industry, creating movies, creating articles, creating all sorts of content. Snoop Dogg has his own thing. There's a lot of musicians that are starting to make money by selling their music as NFT's.
At the same time, it's kind of an interesting balance between are the creators really being rewarded? They need to get educated on how to go forward with their own art versus them just being commissioned out.
Can you define a dapp for us?
Lisa: Yes, decentralized application. I'm hiring engineers, and I'm looking for the same skills from web2 to web3. I'm looking for front end engineers or full stack engineers. A decentralized application, basically just [the] back end is decentralized, but still using the same technologies to write the front end. We're still using React and JavaScript and those standards, so decentralized, just [means] how the data in the background is being stored.
Why should companies in Montana, explore these technologies now? Or would it be better to wait and let it mature?
Lisa: I think if you don't jump on it, you'll be left behind. This is absolutely the future. And whether it's one blockchain or another blockchain, we will figure out who wins in the end. But, in general, being familiar with the space, starting to brainstorm and think about how your business could adapt or change or start thinking about these strategies, even if it's little, like getting your NFT domain, will make you stand out and move forward.
About the Publisher:
Launched in 2014, the Montana High Tech Business Alliance is a nonpartisan nonprofit association of more than 200 high tech and manufacturing companies and affiliates creating high-paying jobs in Montana. For more information, visit MTHighTech.org or subscribe to our biweekly newsletter.
About the Author:
Christina Quick Henderson has served as Executive Director of the Montana High Tech Business Alliance since its launch in April 2014. She teaches in the University of Montana College of Business and writes for Montana Business Quarterly and other publications.
