The Outdoor Industry often moves slowly to adopt new technologies. This has been apparent when looking at the adoption of blockchain-enabled technologies that make up the world of Web3. Let’s take a look at some of its first movers in Web3.

What is Web 3.0? 🌐

To better understand the third iteration of the internet let’s look backward. Web 1.0 was the internet in its infancy. A world built of static websites, blogs, and message boards. The next evolution was the introduction of social media which encouraged participation instead of just passive consumption. This is Web 2.0, which soon lead to the centralization of large amounts of user data on platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc.

This brings us to Web 3.0, set to democratize the web through decentralization. Web3 provides a new level of transparency by removing walled gardens. This vision is made possible with blockchain technologies that have enabled significant evolution in finance and banking industries through the use of decentralized cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether.

Web3 is a new kind of internet service that is built using decentralized blockchains — the shared ledger systems used by cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether.

What is web3? – The New York Times

The world of Web3 continues to evolve from disrupting fintech to becoming a basis for community, creators, gaming, and brands. This is happening in the following ways:

• Cryptocurrencies 💰
  • Decentralized currencies that are built on blockchains like Bitcoin, Ether, or Matic. These currencies are managed by a peer-to-peer network that authorizes transactions eliminating the need for a central authority like a bank.
• Communities 🧑‍🤝‍🧑
  • Communities and organizations can also live on the blockchain. These are often called DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) and instead of having centralized governance each community member owns a stake in its success and the communities rules are enforced transparently on the blockchain.
• Digital Creation (NFTs) 🎨
  • Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) tie a digital asset to the blockchain authorizing an asset’s originality. This asset could be an image, a song, a video, a deed, a word document, or anything digital. Blockchain technology allows someone to show provenance, that they own the original.
• Metaverse/Virtual Worlds 🪐
  • The Metaverse is not native to Web3. AR, VR, and immersive video games have been building towards this vision for some time. Blockchain technologies have just enabled these alternative worlds to be owned via NFTs, organized autonomously via DAOs, and monetized via economies empowered by cryptocurrencies or other digital assets like NFTs.

There are several first movers beginning to adopt these aspects of Web3 in the Outdoor Industry space.

Outside.io: The Outerverse

• Cryptocurrencies
• Communities ✅
• Digital Creations (NFTs) ✅
• Metaverse/Virtual Worlds

Outside interactive, Inc. announced its Outside.io NFT marketplace in early April. They’ve positioned this foray into Web3 as anti-metaverse calling their platform the Outerverse. To bolster this position, they claim that 20% of net revenue will go to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) non-profits and that all NFTs minted will be carbon neutral. Their first NFT drop this summer and will be called the “Outverse Passport” and will give holders access to benefits and rewards that encourage them to get outside vs. spending more time in the digital world.

They’ve achieved this by building their marketplace on top of the Solana blockchain. Solana is inherently more efficient with its Proof of History (POH) consensus mechanism and a more centralized network handling transactions vs. the distributed network of nodes that Ethereum and Bitcoin use. All of this means that transactions happening on Solana (e.g. an Outerverse NFT being minted) are quicker, more cost-effective, and less carbon-intensive than on other more common blockchains. Outside even claims that one transaction uses the same amount of energy as two google searches. The increase in efficiency and reduction in cost does ultimately mean less security in the core technology.

Marketplace mechanics aside, the Outerverse holds a unique position in an ever-growing competitive set. Its focus on accessibility, sustainability, and enablement of real-world activities make it a pioneer in this space.

KlimaDAO

Cryptocurrencies ✅
Communities ✅
Digital Creations (NFTs)
Metaverse/Virtual Worlds

KlimaDAO is a decentralized bank that enables a new carbon-backed currency that drives value by providing its community access to the carbon markets. This community is built as a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) that has the mission of bridging traditional carbon markets and Web3 to increase the flow of liquidity to carbon sequestering projects.

This system is based on the $KLIMA token which is minted every time a carbon unit is locked away in the KlimaDAO treasury. The $KLIMA token is built on top of the Polygon blockchain a layer-two solution on top of Ethereum that retains the underlying security of its parent blockchain but increases transaction efficiency. Each of these tokens is equivalent to one tonne of carbon removed from the atmosphere. The community often compares their ecosystem to a “black hole for carbon”.

KlimaDAO solves these core problems of the existing Carbon markets:

Illiquidity: Carbon Credits come in many different varieties; carbon brokers and middlemen are used by buyers and sellers, fragmenting the total liquidity of the market.

Opacity: Trades occur often behind closed doors, allowing buyers to underbuy the market.

Inefficiency: buying and retiring carbon credits comes with friction and barriers, by utilizing the polygon ecosystem, it removes this friction for all users.

KlimaDAO

National Parks NFT

Cryptocurrencies
Communities ✅
Digital Creations (NFTs) ✅
Metaverse/Virtual Worlds ✅

National Parks NFT is a community that gives holders of the Park NFT access to gated benefits including member-only events, access to outdoor expert guides, discounts, and the ability to earn Park Points. Park Points can be earned by attending real-world or virtual events, participating in the National Parks NFT Discord community, and purchasing sets of different Park NFTs. National Parks NFT is not associated with the National Parks Service, but do give back to the parks and environment.

Park NFTs represent 63 different National Parks and consist of different traits (e.g. Atmosphere, Earth, Sky, etc) making 4,825 unique pieces of art. Different combinations of park location and traits give each NFT different levels of rarity.

Outside of focusing on community enablement through their membership, Web App, and Discord Community the organization donates a sizable portion of their NFT sales to the parks. As of May 2022, they’ve been able to donate $76.8K to National Parks and similar nonprofits. This only accounts for 11% of their total volume (343 ETH) using today’s current ETH to USD conversion rate. They also claim to offset the carbon impact of minting and exchanging NFTs through Offsetra.

Ultimately, Park NFT holders are incentivized to purchase and keep a National Park NFT in two ways:

• Membership benefits
• Increase value of park NFT value for eventual resale

Similar propositions for NFT holders can be seen with successful projects like Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks. As National Park NFT builds its community it will be interesting to see if it can continue to drive value for its holders.

Why Does the Outdoor Industry Remain Skeptical?

• Opposition Between Metaverse and the Outdoors 🥊
  • Fears of a dystopian world resembling what was depicted in Ready Player One where people choose virtual reality worlds to escape their own existence are real, but not the only concerns about the expansion of the Metaverse. This future has potential negative externalities ranging from privacy, identity hacking, and access inequality for those with less access to financial means.
• Web3 User Experience Hurdles 🧗
  • Why are wallets so complicated and why does this most advanced version of the web need me to write down 12 random words on a piece of paper? Setting up crypto wallets like MetaMask or Coinbase are some of the highest friction activities on the web. Mark Cuban, a key investor in several high-profile Web3 projects, has even been quoted saying wallet setup is “awful”. Even if you already have your wallet set up, things don’t get that much easier.
  • Once you have your wallet set up, you will need to navigate a fractured marketplace full of multiple blockchains and myriads of cryptocurrencies. To participate in different projects sometimes it can take multiple transactions to convert one cryptocurrency or token to another kind. Each interaction in this journey has a gas fee or exchange fee taken off the top to enable the transaction.
• Impact on the Climate 🌏
  • Every blockchain is dependent on computers to verify transactions and keep track of them on the public ledger. The electricity powering those computers isn’t always solar and the amount of energy it takes is not trivial. For instance, the electricity consumption of Bitcoin is more than an advanced country like Sweden. Web3 is not alone in its impact on the environment. Things like online advertising and the banking industry both have as much or more impact than crypto and the Outdoor industry could not operate without them.

What is Next for Web3 and the Outdoor Industry?

Like the iterations of the internet preceding it, Web3 could have the ability to change how humans experience our world and the outdoors. The outdoor industry should remain curious as blockchain technologies continue to enable new ways to enable outdoor engagement. This could be through NFTs that fund charitable outdoor organizations, on-chain carbon sequestration, education opportunities in the metaverse for those who do not have easy access to the outdoors, or retail opportunities for outdoor brands. My two cents, stay curious and learn a few Web3 terms.