Startups of The Year: Meet the Web3 Industry

Web3 is an umbrella term for technologies and concepts focused on creating a decentralized, user-centric internet. Powered by the blockchain, it extends the applications of blockchain technology beyond crypto to offer practical solutions. The industry’s ethos centers on giving users, rather than centralized institutions, control over their data.

Although still in the early stages of mainstream adoption, Web3 is focused on addressing the shortcomings of traditional, exploitative systems. It spans various verticals, including Decentralized Finance (DeFi), community-driven governance through decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), smart contracts, tokenization, and interoperability.

Web3 startups may be seen as harbingers of a better, fairer internet. From enabling seamless cross-chain communication to developing more user-friendly wallets, they are chipping away at centralized power, creating new economic opportunities, and tackling long-standing social issues like inequality, censorship, and data privacy.

Startups of The Year 2024 & Web3

The Web3 category in Startups of The Year covers various sectors including:

• Blockchain
• DeFi
• Decentralization

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Web3 on HackerNoon

At HackerNoon, we pride ourselves in how well we have integrated multiple corners of the Web3 world into the fabric of our platform. Starting with our excellent Crypto Coin Price Page, which serves to give you a rundown of current crypto standings, pricing data, market caps, and any recent stories published on the website associated with a coin.

On the more personalized side of things, HackerNoon also offers the ability to use NFTs as your profile picture so you can be the Web3 you that you always wanted to be! Moreover, make sure you check out HackerNoon’s Web3 profile page, where you can connect your Web3 wallet to your HackerNoon account and also mint your namespace to carve out a personal .hackernoon DID just for you. And on top of all of that, HackerNoon backs up all your stories on Arweave which you can see right on the Web3 profile page, complete with name and signature.

Also, if you’re looking to have some fun in the Web3 space, HackerNoon has compiled a list of the current Trending Blockchain Games so you can stay informed about the new hotness in the Blockchain gaming space. And on top of everything else, HackerNoon is always on the lookout for more crypto and blockchain writing contests that regularly pay out in cryptocurrency and NFTs!

HackerNoon provides comprehensive coverage of the Web3 industry as it evolves. Our Tech Categories include a dedicated Web3 page, that features timely and evergreen articles on topics such as Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, DApps, DeFi, and more.

Meet Our Current Top Web3 Writers

1. Nebojsa “Nesha” Todorovic: With 127 stories published since October 2018, Nesha has amassed an impressive 1 year, 1 month, 16 days, 1 hour, and 47 minutes of total reading time. His top story, Upwork in Real Danger of Losing MILLIONS over ONE DOLLAR "Conversion Fee", has 148,413 reads!
2. Ileolami: This front-end developer is no stranger to a technical article. Having published nine stories since her debut in July 2024, her biggest success yet has been with “How to Deploy a Smart Contract to Ethereum Network Using dRPC API Key and Endpoint”, read almost 3K times.
3. Vision NP: Voted Blockchain Contributor of The Year in 2022, Vision NP’s 47 stories cover topics like opt-out, governance, and reputation-based-dao. Their top story, “How to Detect Malicious JavaScript Code,” has over 11K reads.

Explore Web3 on HackerNoon

1. We Need to Go Beyond Tokens to Unlock Blockchain’s Financial Revolution, Says Cosmos’ Ethan Buchman by Tereza Bízková

At EthCC, Ethan Buchman, co-founder of Cosmos and CEO of Informal Systems, emphasized moving beyond token launches to create sustainable and inclusive financial systems. His project, Cycles, aims to address real-world financial challenges by leveraging blockchain for collaborative finance. Buchman's unique background in biophysics, permaculture, and distributed systems shapes his vision for using blockchain to build more robust and equitable financial infrastructures. By focusing on debt-clearing mechanisms and enhancing liquidity, Cycles seeks to support small businesses and local economies, making financial systems more resilient and accessible.

2. Bitcoin: How The King Kong of Currency Is Shifting Power To The People by Max Current

Bitcoin offers a decentralized and secure financial system that can help individuals and communities protect their wealth from government control, inflation, and economic instability. Bitcoin has been used to fund protests and charities, and its adoption is increasing, with countries like El Salvador recognizing it as legal tender. However, governments are trying to regulate and restrict Bitcoin, and its future is uncertain.

3. Bitcoin: From Philosophical Ideal to Practical Liberation by Edwin Liava'a

Julian Assange's long-awaited return to freedom was made possible, in part, by the very technology Assange had advocated during its early days: Bitcoin.

That’s all for today!

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About HackerNoon’s Startups of The Year

Startups of The Year 2024 is HackerNoon’s flagship community-driven event celebrating startups, technology, and the spirit of innovation. Currently in its third iteration, the prestigious Internet award recognizes and celebrates tech startups of all shapes and sizes. This year, over 150,000 entities across 4200+ cities, 6 continents, and 100+ industries will participate in a bid to be crowned the best startup of the year! Millions of votes have been cast over the past few years, and many stories have been written about these daring and rising startups.

The winners will get a free interview on HackerNoon and an Evergreen Tech Company News page.

Visit our FAQ page to learn more.

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HackerNoon’s Startups of The Year is a branding opportunity unlike any other. Whether your goal is brand awareness or lead generation, HackerNoon has curated startup-friendly packages to solve your marketing challenges.

Meet our sponsors:

Wellfound: . At Wellfound, we're not just a job board—we're the place where top startup talent and the world's most exciting companies connect to build the future.

Notion: Notion is trusted and loved by thousands of startups as their connected workspace—from building product roadmaps to tracking fundraising. Try Notion with unlimited AI, FREE for up to 6 months, to build and scale your company with one powerful tool.

Hubspot: If you’re looking for a smart CRM platform that meets the needs of small businesses, look no further than HubSpot. Seamlessly connect your data, teams and customers in one easy-to-use scalable platform that grows with your business.

Bright Data: Startups that leverage public web data can make faster, data-driven decisions, giving them a competitive edge. With , businesses can grow from a small operation to an enterprise by harnessing insights at every stage.