Positive Framing and Communication for Web3 by Oliver JL Renwick | Devcon Bogotá

foreign [Music] okay and our next talk is on positive Framing and communication for web3 the talk is hosted by Oliver Renwick Oliver is a terminologist SBC Enthusiast and translator he currently lives near Cleveland Ohio USA with his wife and two kids he works at consensus creating and maintaining support documentation for metamask infrar and other products and in general tries to explain the madness of web3 to those who want to know more he speaks Spanish and English fluently and he get himself into trouble in Italian Arabic Catalan and French please help me in welcoming Oliver to the stage is this on yes okay cool Hello everybody um welcome to Tropical Sunset stage um uh I am Oliver Renwick as was explained in my introduction um before I get started uh I just want to say a shout out to the interpreters in the booth back there they have been doing an amazing job all week um and I will try to speak evenly and not use really strange words um so and one last note um I will be giving the talk in English the slides will be in Spanish if you see a slide that's all in Spanish don't be alarmed I'm going to say everything that's on it in English so uh okay so with that let's get started okay so uh the current state of affairs uh here we are it's 2022 uh crypto is going through its Rises and falls and we had incredible user growth during 2021 uh and the ecosystem is expanding outward and rather than sort of uh homogenizing and becoming less complex it's opening up and becoming more complex more people are doing more different things and uh we have people who have heard about this crypto thing and want to get involved or they've heard about web3 maybe and they want to get involved so how do we explain that to them so um as a terminologist as a translator I focus on Words it's my thing and what I've noticed about uh web3 and the terminology that we use to describe distributed or decentralized technology it has two sort of main features that Define it first of all it's very technical right this is the language of Engineers of computer people and second of all you can see in the terminology that we use sort of the origins of this technology that it was born in a place at a time that was rejecting the previous uh generations tech stack and their philosophy right so as a result there's this sort of uh what I call negative theology but in general it's sort of a negative framing that that permeates web3 and in its best moments uh it can be sort of like edgy and cool and like makes people interested and want to know more um but I find especially dealing with people who are new to the space um that it just confuses things um it it makes things impenetrable there's a lot of jargon sometimes people use metaphors to describe things that are a little bit like unsettling or weird um and a lot of things just get framed in negative uh negative ways instead of in positive ways so how do we go from the negative to the positive briefly in this session we're going I'm going to lay out for you what I have um what I have categorized what I have uh observed about this terminology um and then hopefully we'll have a little bit of time to uh sort of dive in and I'm going to be like pointing at people and asking for things as well hopefully hopefully we can get interactive um so I will say I do have a background in linguistics I've done qualitative studies I've done quantitative studies this is not that this is more uh you know I've been working at consensus writing documentation for end users talking to people that are new to the space explaining things to my wife over and over again um not because she doesn't understand but because probably my explanations need to be improved um and uh so uh what you've got here what I'm showing you is sort of my gut feeling about where we're at in the space this isn't meant to be a a prescriptive model of what we've got going on this is not Based on data this is trying to start a conversation so uh in my time as a word Smith uh as it were I've gotten a lot of people saying things like yeah but who cares man that's just implementation details right um that's just words if we make solid Tech if we make a solid product people are going to use it right right um I'm here to argue the opposite um I'm going to argue that if we want adoption to increase outside of our crypto bubble we need to learn to explain our technology in a clearer and a more empowering way the empowering part is important and we'll come back to it soon so um I'm going to now break down a little bit of sort of what I've observed about the way we talk about crypto first of all there's what I've been calling negative framing or negative theology um the second sort of big category of language is impenetrable jargon that should be improved got a laser here um so yes oh oh it worked okay okay it's working now um so uh the third uh so we we all know what I'm talking about and we'll get into some concrete examples of that soon the last one gets into um sort of marketing or branding a little bit and it's more subjective um and that's the question that we all have to ask ourselves is what I'm saying edgy and revolutionary and is it going to energize people or is it like kind of cringe and like edgelord so that's that's not who we want to be okay gracias okay this is I'm really excited about this topic so uh uh negative Theology and negative framing um so look at this look at this set of terms right this is terms that we all know from being in the space non-custodial wallet immutable transactions and things uh governance free trustless permissionless permissionless is one of our favorite words right there's a whole event called permissionless uh decentralized censorship resistant and arbitrary arbitrary is in bold and we'll come back to it um so uh let's see here uh can can somebody tell me what permissionless means anybody yell it out and I'll repeat it you don't need permission to use it yeah I think that's actually what it means yeah um but like uh but from from like imagine like wipe your swipe your brain clean and imagine you've never heard of crypto imagine you've never done this stuff and you're like oh it's a permissionless computer network what like that doesn't yeah you decide how you interact with it that's a really cool definition but it's I I don't feel like that's inherent in the word you see what I mean like if I'm completely tabula rasa like I don't know what what that means um and and trustless is a similar thing trustless I love right because trustless is like old Bitcoin OG speak right and they're like it's a trustless system and that's so cool and people like I've had I've used that word and people have been like that's bad right like you can't trust it um and I've had to be like no no it's because like you don't need to trust it it's it's provable it's math um and a lot of this comes down to it being technical so we'll move on to that in the next point but I want to talk about non-custodial because non-custodial is one of the biggest uh examples of this kind of language in our space I I threw up a screenshot of what is a non-custodial wallet look at all these explainers bit pay uh Gemini I can't tell what that one is uh but by bit um economictimes.com um so uh I was up I was upgrading rewriting the metamask uh documentation for users last year and I decided to try and translate some of them into Spanish and so I sat down with the first article that I was going to translate and it was called metamask is a non-custodial wallet and I just sat there staring at the title like how am I going to say that in Spanish um and so so I ended up sort of as they say in Spanish and I ended up with uh metamask is a self-custodial wallet so this is what I was saying about making our language empowering so if I say to somebody check out this wallet it's a crypto wallet and it's non-custodial they say what's non-custodial and I'm like oh the bank isn't the custodian you're the custodian so I'm telling somebody this is a good thing because screw the banks man you're in charge right so I'm automatically putting them into this like power struggle right and that can be exciting and that can be interesting but it's also like a lot of information whereas if I said to somebody here's this crypto wallet man it's self-custodial whoa right there I've given them the power the crypto is theirs right and they understand it immediately so that's the difference in framing things negatively versus positively um you don't have to do that mental gymnastics to work out how the negative thing is a good thing the same way what we're saying with permissionless and trustless right you don't have to figure out oh I don't have to trust it because the math proves it and that's a good thing like anyway so um okay gracias okay there's a lot going on here um impenetrable jargon that should be improved um uh so RPC Network what's our PC remote procedure call that's right what is an RPC Network a network of computers where you can do remote procedure calls so where does this come up this comes up in your metamask like you're you're like oh I want to get onto polygon how do I do it oh I need to add a custom RPC Network um it doesn't make sense so RPC RPC is from Json RPC which is an old web 2 era uh standard for passing Json blobs which is a type of data around computers right so um so we we refer to our evm mostly not necessarily actually we refer to a lot of our public blockchain networks as RPC networks as a sort of technical shorthand um and those of us who are like initiates into this technology we get it but for users this is this is putting too much on them we had a lot of conversations I I brought this up in a slack Channel and was like we need to change this um and we had some conversations and we didn't settle on anything firm so this is an area where I think we as a community could maybe come up with something better in a way just saying network is a better option like add a new network or add a new blockchain network if you want or or I don't know a connection Point connection Point might be good right because sometimes like let's say you're somebody who wants to connect to different endpoints within metamask wallet for the same network we might need a term there to differentiate between well yeah I'm connecting to arbitrum but I'm using a private node right and so what's the term for maybe we call it Network endpoint right and maybe that's a a better option so RPC network is a great a great example there's this whole mess how many of you do you think know the difference between a wallet versus an account versus an address versus a public key private key seed secret recovery phrase and you use them correctly every time you do good job good job um so like a lot of the time we sort of shorten it right we're like yeah I sent it from my wallet yeah you sent it from your order I sent it from my address or I sent it from my account like they're kind of different things um and getting so I work in customer success within consensus right so I help um like I'm writing the documentation and in coordination with a lot of our support agents and the support agents kind of have to work with users who might be using these things interchangeably right like the coins got stolen from my wallet the coins got stolen from my account what do you mean so there's a lot going on there um so smart contracts they're neither smart nor contract I know I know I've read about the history of them I know where they come from but I'm like a word geek and I care about that most people don't care about that anyway smart contracts I feel like that that ship maybe has sailed and maybe I shouldn't fight that battle um so I wanted to point out this example though I saw this while I was like months ago and I was I was like this is perfect so this is from mirror.xyz and for those of you who don't know mirror it's kind of trying to be like the medium of web3 maybe don't don't at me um and so this is a little snippet this was like a clickable thing this was supposed to make me want to click and read more for the first time ever convex users will be able to collateralize their vlcvx positions allowing them to earn yield I.E bribes and leverage their assets at the same time this will be accomplished through new technical collaboration with tribe Dao and redacted cartel all right so um I work in this space and I don't entirely understand what's going on there um so thank you thank you um here's here's another great one this is from one of my favorite articles uh front running the Mev crisis or Mev whatever I don't care how you pronounce it um so this is a great article explaining crazy stuff about uh how Mev Works um and so what is Mev definition minor extractable value is a whole paragraph of definition um then we get to the next paragraph the term Mev can be misleading as one is would assume it is miners who are extracting this value foreign cool cool that just makes me want to be like I don't I don't know how words work anymore um so uh one one thing that we've been talking a lot about um that I've been talking a lot about during here during the conference is uh layer twos and ZK snarks love ZK snarks they are like the most empowering revolutionary technology not just for the web 3 space but like web3 plus ZK snarks is we could do so much with it um they're called ZK snarks I don't know what else I need to say uh so obviously like any discussion of ZK snarks could be sort of massaged right so you could be like okay there's this new technology it's called ZK snarks this is what it does what does the ZK snark do anybody you don't know well right that's the whole point right we don't know that's good um seriously could anybody offer me like a succinct succinct explanation of ZK snarks prove a true or false statement without any other information being shared yeah yeah um or or prove prove that you know something without revealing what it is or something prove that you know a secret without revealing the secret maybe um say what without interactions yeah um yeah so I don't know that's like I love the technology and I want to be able to talk about it better um and Roll-Ups right Roll-Ups are really cool um anyway okay I'm running out of time I'm getting I'm getting excited okay last one uh so this is uh branching out from sort of terminology into sort of softer stuff well softer uh marketing branding perception right um like I was saying our technology has the potential to do really amazing things we can change centuries old power dynamics with our technology and that's what a lot of the biggest uh Advocates and Minds in our space say that we want to do and say that we're trying to do that's awesome for some people that's going to bring them in the door right they're like I want to I want to burn it all down I want to start over other people are like uh I I don't want to burn everything down um right so the question of how you brand your project is a delicate one um moloch Dao they're sort of my favorite example of this uh they're like a cool public goods now right um they do awesome stuff and they have satanic branding um uh it's cool Dogecoin maybe maybe they kind of nailed it with like yeah we're a coin but we're a meme and apparently that caught on right um dark Phi I had the privilege of sort of encountering them at East Barcelona over the summer and they had this awesome patch that had this logo on it and it said like I don't know something really sketchy about like you are your keys you are your Finance or something in red lettering um their their Manifesto is really powerful it goes into some some pretty hardcore they're they're trying to work on uh uh more more Anonymous D5 if I remember correctly um really cool project uh but like it's very much like are you into Edward Snowden this is for you right uh so there's a lot of people into Edward Snowden and sure in this room um but you gotta you know as as you're come as you're coming at it you are you are you pitching for a public audience are you who are you pitching for uh I'm gonna I'm gonna chill mildly here um and say that I feel like ipfs kind of nailed it they kind of got a middle a Middle Road for their product um this is on their home page you scroll down a little bit you find this the resolution isn't great but um they've got sort of these web 2 uh esque friendly diagrams explaining what their technology does right it kind of illustrates it and they've got brief um uh um Pro like like statements about what their product does uh so this one down here let me see if I can back up and read it a little bit read it here uh it says today's web is addicted to the backbone ipfs Powers the creation of diversity resilient networks that enable persistent availability with or without internet backbone connectivity so that sentence there it's a mixture of techy people talk and normal people talk right they say it enables persistent availability that's sort of like signals to the people who care about cloud computing what what it is but then they they gloss that by saying internet backbone connectivity right so they're saying these are these are two different audiences they're speaking to this means better connectivity for the developing World during national natural disasters or just when you're on flaky coffee shop Wi-Fi this is a very powerful like sort of value added statement right they're they're breaking it down for you and they're saying look at what ipfs can do asterisk what does ipfs stand for interplanetary file system right so this is where we get that mixture of like yo man we're the interplanetary file system we're ready to go to the Moon um but but then they bring it back down to earth and they're like look we're going to make it better to browse Wikipedia at the coffee shop um okay uh so okay I talked a lot um these are these are the takeaways that I I wanted to sort of dissolve uh distill all of that down into um as we're writing as we're talking about our space as we're branding our space we need to find ways to phrase things in the positive rather than in the negative overall in general because it empowers people it it is a lower cognitive burden right and that's what we want uh we need to find ways to approach the technical jargon from the point of view of somebody new to this base table arasa we need to use phrasings metaphors and explanations that assume as little knowledge on the user user's part as possible um making comparisons to web 2 might help sometimes it might hinder sometimes um think about whether your users want to be empowered on their own so this is the example of like self-custodial right here it's a self-custodial wallet now you have the power versus they were part of a social political economic technological movement right like it's non-custodial because screw the banks right there are two different audiences uh so last Point consider whether you're you're branding your image your slogans Etc are culturally bound um culturally bound this gets into translator Theory stuff but um basically does it translate well is it uh is it something that means something else in a different language or sounds like something else in a different language and if you think I'm overreacting ask a Spanish speaker about the Mitsubishi Pajero uh okay this is this is the the final uh the final run here siente before this is a comedy in three parts this is from Twitter if you guys remember when the axi chain got hacked like a year ago um so much money got stolen so this guy's this ape is narrating it you cannot make this up hacker steals 600 million in Eve from Ronin blockchain the one underlying axi hacker then goes short Ronin and axis axi token knowing as soon as news breaks that tokens will plummet but no one notices and they get liquidated on short before news breaks seconde what is Eve who is ronin what's an axi what's axi token no clue what short is what language is this um and then somebody very helpfully explains it's a cryptocurrency it's a blockchain network it's an nft it's another cryptocurrency and says asserts that this is English um I have my doubts [Applause] um so this I I thought this is a really good illustrator a really good illustration right of like we're on crypto Twitter we're like oh my God they shorted the position and they liquidated in the Arbitrage and the I don't know like um and and normal people are like I'm gonna learn about crypto oh I hear it's big on Twitter I'm gonna follow people on Twitter okay okay I'm done um so now is the time for Q a I've got four minutes here um I have lots of examples but questions with respect to at educating designers and people who work in crypto ux how would you best want to disseminate this knowledge through like workshops or like blog posts or companies um yeah no that's that's a good question um uh yeah I mean this space is supposed to be the space that's all about how do we collaborate together right um I don't know are there are there already like ux Dows is that a thing yeah okay so I'm just still informed um so I don't know um as a terminologist like my approach to this is very much like I'm gonna make a glossary and I'm gonna study the terms and I'm gonna say this is what this means this is these are synonyms these are homonyms and I'm gonna map it out and make decisions about which one I like and then I'm going to with an iron fist enforce it um so that's maybe not the most crypto attitude um I don't know I don't have a good answer to that beyond that one more super quick question I hate to put you on the spot it is a super quick question yeah uh if you could uninvent one word with using this space what would be the one word oh man sorry oh no no what was it I was talking about it this morning oh man um no no there is one huh mining oh God it is it is harmful but don't worry about it we're on proof of stake now that's fine um uh I don't know I I hate so much of it um oh come on I mean I said okay I'm I'm All About clear communication right so I don't know I'll think and uh so real quick there is something that I failed to mention um I had lots of examples but obviously I'm not gonna have time uh one thing so within consensus we're we're aware of all this we're looking at this we're seeing this um this education Gap and I think across the field lots of people are seeing the education Gap right and what I'm excited to see is that during this bear Market lots of people are bringing out educational resources um and if any of you saw the my colleague James Beck speak a couple days ago uh he pitched a thing called metamask learn um it's a thing he and I are working on together along with a lot of people at consensus um and uh it's we are sort of relearning a lot of these lessons in there we're writing we're trying to make um sort of that intro that intro platform to the people who maybe maybe bought some eth but don't know about web3 right um so that's going to be launching hopefully at the end of November and we're very excited about it so um man oh yes on Twitter I am mapachuro like mapa m-a-p-a churro like the cinnamon sweet stick uh thank you all very much I'll get off the stage thank you so much [Applause]