  Proponents and developers of Web3 and blockchain argue that these
technologies can revolutionize how people live and work by empowering
individuals and distributing decision-making power. While technologists often
have expansive hopes for what their technologies will accomplish over the long
term, the practical challenges of developing, scaling, and maintaining systems
amidst present-day constraints can compromise progress toward this vision. How
technologists think about the technological future they hope to enable and how
they navigate day-to-day issues impacts the form technologies take, their
potential benefits, and their potential harms. In our current work, we aimed to
explore the visions of Web3 and blockchain technologists and identify the
immediate challenges that could threaten their visions. We conducted
semi-structured interviews with 29 operators and professional investors in the
Web3 and blockchain field. Our findings revealed that participants supported
several ideological goals for their projects, with decentralization being a
pivotal mechanism to enable user autonomy, distribute governance power, and
promote financial inclusion. However, participants acknowledged the practical
difficulties in fulfilling these promises, including the need for rapid
technology development, conflicts of interest among stakeholders due to
platform financing dynamics, and the challenge of expanding to mainstream users
who may not share the "Web3 ethos." If negotiated ineffectively, these
challenges could lead to negative outcomes, such as corrupt governance,
increased inequality, and increased prevalence of scams and dubious investment
schemes. While participants thought education, regulation, and a renewed
commitment to the original blockchain ideals could alleviate some problems,
they expressed skepticism about the potential of these solutions.
