Why Consistent Brand Design Matters In Web3 w/Steven Dolcemaschio

Yeah, let's do it. Before all of this, I started my career in the music industry at an independent record label. It was the period post-stealing music, pre-streaming, right at the beginning of digital music and the reemergence of vinyl. For a time, record labels could actually make money selling digital music, and I did that for five years, putting out hundreds of records in heavy metal, punk rock, and the Brooklyn hipster scene. Then brands started doing more with music, and I built relationships with Converse and Nike. I got offered a job at Converse to lead brand marketing in North America. I was there for five years, working on global music marketing, building recording studios, and learning what great marketing looks like in the Nike system. Then I joined Sonos during their high-growth pre-IPO phase, lived through the IPO launch, and saw streaming music become widely adopted. After that, I moved to Europe and entered the crypto industry. I was into Bitcoin and Ethereum, and NFTs captivated me as a culture lover – digital ownership was the compelling idea. I went to Ledger through a former music industry colleague, worked on the launch of Stax with Tony Fadell, and then the opportunity came to join WalletConnect. I moved to Lisbon for the warm weather and blue sky. WalletConnect is fully remote, so I could be anywhere. I love that story. It makes so much sense, starting in music and culture, moving through tech, and now here.

Sure. WalletConnect is a connectivity protocol layer for onchain interactions, facilitating secure and seamless interactions between apps and wallets. That was the first product Reown built. In September, we announced the token and split into two companies in a labs format, with a cooler name, Reown, and established a product company separate from the foundation and the WalletConnect network. Reown provides SDKs for apps and wallets, like embedded wallets, email social login, chain abstraction, and one-click authorization. Our wallet SDK is the gateway to the WalletConnect network. The combination grows the network, and almost every wallet SDK uses WalletConnect because it's public good infrastructure.

Great question. The simplest way I describe WalletConnect is like a Visa network or mobile network, or the HTML standards foundational to building the early internet. In those days, we didn't have tokenization to reward early users. For WalletConnect, the token enables a decentralized permissionless network owned by no one. It allows us to reward node operators, enable governance staking, and incentivize users who drive usage. We have a full ecosystem of people who believe in the importance of this technology. It's like building a different kind of web where we can incentivize participation and decentralization. The staking is going really well, and governance is still early. We have to have an honest dialogue with the community about what it means to be a community member. For us, it's different because WalletConnect didn't start with a token idea. It solved a use case seven years ago, and now we have to change people's perception and educate them on why the technology is important. Basic marketing principles – clear messaging told repeatedly – are crucial. Great brands stand for something consistently. So we set parameters for community expectations and build from there. Given the market, it's gone well; you can't control that. You have to go with your gut, place smart bets, and work with the right people. You can't worry about what Trump tweets or regulatory shifts. You have to be true to who you are and educate people on why it's important.

I personally think it's gone very well given the market. You can't manage that, so you have to go with your gut. There's no blueprint, and everyone tells you different things, but at some point you have to trust your instincts and make smart bets. I can't control the market or what happens in the news. You have to be of the moment but also stay true to who you are. The community piece – why you do this and why it's important – is key.

I think every token project needs a balanced media mix. You can't just post on social media and expect it to work. After the buildup and listing moment, it's like the race just starts. For WalletConnect, the project is in almost every app and wallet, so there's no shortage of storytelling around partners. After launch, it's like putting up billboards – you can't maintain that forever. Right now we're in a weird area where incentivizing people to talk about you can be noise versus quality. You need a mix of real news, real updates, real bullish signals, and product updates. If you don't have that, you're shouting into the void. In this industry, you can't fake it; it's hard. You have to root everything in the product's ethos and continuously educate.

For Reown, it's about continuing to innovate to abstract away the crypto exchange and build products that allow builders to bring more users onchain. We're getting there. It's a mix of finding the right apps. There will always be wallets for crypto users, but for new people, they don't want seed phrases; they feel safe with their bank. That's why wallets like Privy are successful. We need to get rid of jargon and build things that are super easy. The future of fintech is merging tradfi and crypto, bringing those experiences in a way that's simple. Adoption will come through that. We're still figuring out what the silver bullet is – stablecoins might be it. You're seeing banks like Bank of America getting into stablecoins.

I hold certain things dear: creativity and culture at the center, being thoughtful about design and how you present your brand. In crypto, we're often flippant about brand, using the same agencies, creating a lot of purple and black gradients. We don't put value on design, and it shows in the UX problem. There aren't enough creative directors or product designers. We just won two Webby awards for our brand design and website. That was rewarding because we were very thoughtful in the rebrand from WalletConnect to Reown – we considered design language, words, and how branding lives in different places. Some days I have to throw what I believe out the window and lean into meme culture or KOL marketing, but I try to do it in a way that has quality impact rather than just noise.

The tool is amazing for marketers to explain what you do internally – showing that billions of impressions would have cost a lot if paid for. Many CMOs at billion-dollar companies have used that narrative. I love how it helps track sentiment and what people are saying. But I worry about financializing everything with points – it attracts low-quality users just farming for tokens. We don't value curation enough. Foundation and Art Blocks were great because of curation. Kaito itself is a great product, and it makes sense, but it's hard to curate, especially with a token and subscription. As a marketer, I use more tools than ever – June, etc. – to piece together a picture of impact.

No, not yet. Yeah.

I think we need a network dashboard that shows what's happening on the network. Those are basic tools that have a lot of value for narrative. The narrative should be what's happening on the network, the growth. Like the Visa network, you see billions flowing through, and then you can have a fee structure that institutions and retail investors can understand. That's better than making people join a project. I prefer that approach for the long term. You have to bring them in and make it simple.

Co-marketing is a funny word. It's one of the most overused words in our space. For Reown, co-marketing is showing our product in other people's products. It's low key. Users don't even know it's there. It should be a key part of your go-to-market strategy. It's hard to launch something without partners. It's not a traditional sales cycle. We need a bevy of content and launch partners. Co-marketing is part of the go-to-market mix. Partner story time is something we always do. Most of our posts have to be about partners to drive attention and incentivize sharing. On the product side, there's the ecosystem side, showing how to use different chains. It's a central part of developer marketing. You have to have a mix: events, ecosystem calls, assets for different teams. If my product team says they have no awareness, I have to dig in. Are we not loud enough? Are we talking to the right people? Do they have the right sales enablement tools? We just launched a report with Nansen, which is a great awareness driver. On social, I was talking about Exit X taking over, making it a good place to advertise now. It's quantity over quality, but you can do smart targeting. There are very few paid media platforms that work. Google search doesn't work for our product. Reddit is great but expensive. It's where builders and normal users are. How do you efficiently optimize a very small audience? It costs more to reach them because they know their value. Performance marketing is dying a slow death. Our industry doesn't work like that. We have to find a better solution. That's what makes marketing hard. There's no formula. Brand is important. Look at Liquid Death. A strong brand matters. It helps the vibe of the community. Their founders came from a PR background.

Events have always been part of my background. WalletConnect is our big thing. We do it twice a year. The first one was at ETH Denver 2023, then at DOP 2024. We usually bookend ETH Denver. We'll do a dev event. Events are super important. They are the pinnacle expression of your brand. It's about curation. People come if they know good people will be there and they'll learn something unique. In this space, it's like booking talent. We think about what topics will fill the room. I believe in the Apple mindset: twice a year, you create moments, announce things, get attention, and have content for days. It pays for itself if done right. You also need the right partners to subsidize costs. You don't want to just take money for a slot on stage. Events done well are highly impactful. Your branding is solid. Kudos.

I love what Solana does. They have a great ecosystem. The events are community-driven. Breakpoint was stellar. It felt like a consumer event. They build products for their audience. I think Base does a great job of creating noise and awareness. Jesse said there are not enough users. We need culture to bring new people in. We can't just build more DeFi or token launch pads. That's not useful.

We see at Reown that email, social login, etc. create a lot of dust wallets. People open wallets per app and can't keep track. Blackbird is a great example of something that is not viewed as crypto but uses it under the hood. It's the closest we have to consumer-driven scale. But if those wallets are not portable and locked to a provider, it creates fragmentation. Normal users won't export private keys. Even as a power user, if I create a wallet and there's not enough value, I won't use it much. The reason Blackbird works is because it's a universal experience: people love food and going out. It's like a members club. People want curated experiences. That's why gambling apps are exploding; there's an overlap with crypto. Sports are culture. For crypto to get mainstream adoption, you need something like Grand Theft Auto integrating it. There are rumors that Pokémon might be on Sweet. Gamers hate crypto, so it has to be subtle. You need top pop culture influencers like Kanye or Taylor Swift to move behavior. Everything is becoming financialized, but for 90% of people, that's not the point. They want to know how it improves their life. Blackbird helps you feel special at restaurants. There's potential in hospitality and travel. AI agents were overhyped but will be important for simplifying the experience. Account abstraction is key. We need to abstract away the crypto and create valuable points. I'm excited about someone building a travel concierge using these technologies.

For Reown, we're doing a lot of work on smart sessions, which ties into the AI narrative. Keep an eye out for us at Accelerate. We're growing into new ecosystems like EVM, Bitcoin, Solana. There's so much happening on other platforms. We need to serve builders sustainably while growing in high-growth ones like Solana. Bitcoin L2s and DeFi are important. We need to deliver UX innovations and abstract the experience to make it easier for wallets and apps to bring in consumers. For WalletConnect, we just launched the token. The next phase is about community growth and thinking about different ecosystems. It's an interoperable protocol, so we need to think about what that means for the token. Coming soon.

The main thing is that the foundations were mobile. We are still a very desktop-driven industry. WalletConnect fuels mobile adoption and mobile UX. We need more mobile applications and usage. Wallets work better on mobile. That's bullish for WalletConnect. We continue to push standards that improve the mobile experience. As the ecosystem grows, WalletConnect's growth is tied to that. More adoption means more usage. It's hand in hand. We are invested in growing the pie. Also, WalletConnect is used by custodians and exchange wallets, so it's integral to the ecosystem. Network effects.

Consistency. Just being continually high quality and good. Being on message, having a consistent tone. We undervalue consistency. If you're consistent, you're not chasing narratives. There's a way to do that while being who you are. Otherwise it's hollow, no brand.

Shitpost and make noise. We equate noise with quality. They don't go hand in hand. Sometimes noise is just noise. Bad mind share is worse. We adopt the mindset that any press is good press, which is not accurate. The need to make noise versus too much yapping for no purpose. Yapping when you're bullshitting. I don't view yapping as a positive word.

Solana is still doing a great job. The foundation is doing great. I love what Magic Eden is doing, maintaining momentum with a multi-chain wallet. They keep evolving. Phantom is a beautiful product, great design. Those are obvious but consistent.

You have to go with your gut a lot. When you're in frontier tech, there's no blueprint. You're often operating blind. I'm thankful for my background because I have a foundation. But you have to be fearless and not afraid to fail. We're all figuring it out. In a high-stakes industry with a token, there's a lot of pressure. So go with your gut.

Follow Reown on X. Check out the state of launch UX report. Leave feedback. And I'm on X as well. I try to yap better. I come from a marketing world where I have to talk, but I'm getting used to it.