Unleashing Blockchain, Web3, & Cryptos to Build Better Communities: Onchained with Rachel Brissenden
🎯 Summary
Podcast Summary: Unleashing Blockchain, Web3, & Cryptos to Build Better Communities with Rachel Brissenden
This episode of Pathways Unleashed features Rachel Brissenden, a blockchain industry professional, discussing the transformative potential of Web3 and crypto, focusing heavily on community building, true digital ownership, and the global impact of decentralized technology. The conversation weaves together Rachel’s personal journey, including the emotional significance of co-authoring a book following her father’s passing, with the technical and social evolution of the blockchain space.
1. Focus Area
The primary focus is on Blockchain/Web3 technology as a tool for community building, achieving financial sovereignty, and fostering a new global on-chain economy. Secondary themes include the creator economy, real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, and the importance of bridging Web2 education with Web3 innovation.
2. Key Technical Insights
- True Digital Ownership: Blockchain technology provides a permissionless solution for individuals to become the true custodians of their assets (crypto), contrasting sharply with centralized banking where assets are technically “spent” by the institution.
- Immutability and Trust: The permanence and immutability of legitimate contracts written on the blockchain prevent fraud, highlighting a core technical strength often overlooked amid regulatory scrutiny.
- On-Chain Content Incentives: New platforms like Farcaster and Zora are gaining traction by directly incentivizing creators through on-chain mechanisms (e.g., turning a JPEG post into a coin), offering better incentive alignment than traditional Web2 platforms.
3. Market/Investment Angle
- Focus on Impact over Price: Rachel advocates for prioritizing industry innovation and impact over short-term price action, believing that focusing on utility will naturally lead to market success.
- Emergence of RWAs: The tokenization of Real-World Assets (RWAs), such as brokering physical real estate and linking it to an on-chain NFT symbol, is identified as an interesting and gaining traction sector.
- Global Business Development: Blockchain has facilitated significant global business development opportunities, leading Rachel to travel extensively (Japan, Thailand, Dubai) for events like Token 2049, driven by use cases in various countries.
4. Notable Companies/People
- DeSo Labs: Rachel currently leads Business Development here, sponsoring activations at major industry events.
- LBANK: Mentioned in connection with sponsoring events and participating in tea ceremonies, highlighting international industry engagement.
- Base (Coinbase): The focus of a live stream Rachel was scheduled for, emphasizing their philosophy of fixing the broken creator economy.
- Farcaster & Zora: Key emerging decentralized social and content platforms gaining traction, even attracting figures like Vitalik Buterin.
- Own the Doge: A company whose CEO stewards the Doge IP, mentioned in the context of metaverse events.
5. Regulatory/Policy Discussion
The conversation briefly touches on the historical regulatory pressure on crypto in the US, noting that the technology is “under attack” despite its inherent security features (immutability). However, the overall sentiment is that a more favorable regulatory climate is emerging, leading to positive industry trajectory.
6. Future Implications
The industry is moving toward a global on-chain economy characterized by borderless collaboration and better incentive structures for creators. There is a clear push to integrate physical reality with digital assets through RWA tokenization. Furthermore, the industry recognizes the need to use Web2 platforms (like Instagram) to educate and onboard the masses into Web3 concepts, rather than operating in a silo. Metaverse events (like ClankerCon) are also becoming sophisticated venues for business networking.
7. Target Audience
This episode is most valuable for Web3 professionals, entrepreneurs, business development specialists, and community builders interested in the practical, real-world applications of blockchain technology beyond pure speculation, particularly concerning global impact and the creator economy.
🏢 Companies Mentioned
💬 Key Insights
"I'm starting to talk to a project called Revolve and they're brokering real estate and selling properties. And they also have an NFT to symbolize this property on a chain."
"I still see the importance of using platforms like Instagram, like TikTok and others, but through using Farcaster, Zora and these on-chain platforms where I take a JPEG in a picture, I post it on Zora, it becomes a coin and, you know, that week I get creator awards for."
"there are platforms that have emerged recently that are really gaining traction like Zora, Farcaster, these new social media and content creation platforms, where you're actually incentivized for your creations as a creator."
"In another country, you could have money in your hand and you can't open a bank account. Yep. And that is the most simple way of saying like you think that these people, or if they do have money in the bank, the government can take it at any time."
"when you entrust a bank, a big centralized bank with your assets, it's not really yours. The bank typically has this money spent and with crypto, when you own your assets in a wallet, you are the custodian of those funds, you truly have ownership of it."
"what crypto is, what blockchain technology does for people is it gives you a solution to truly own your money in a permissionless way, right?"