Jambo AMA: Access to Tech is Access to Web3

YGG co-founder Gabby Dizon joined a Jambo AMA with the company’s CEO and co-founder James Zhang, and Head of Partnerships Sam Kang, to discuss the best ways to boost web3 adoption across the world.

The challenge of onboarding new users into web3 isn’t always a matter of interest. For millions of prospective web3 users across the globe, it’s about accessibility. Although smartphone users now account for over half of the global population, according to an October 2023 report from the GSM Association, mobile usage rates in the world’s most economically challenged regions have stalled at 25 percent. 

Another major barrier to entry for web3 has been the necessary familiarity with modern information technology needed to navigate the ecosystem. Despite recent advancements in usability and scalability of blockchain technologies, anyone’s first steps into web3 can prove to be a challenge. Knowing how to distinguish scams from legitimate offerings, understanding the how’s and why’s of bridging assets cross-chain, and a whole host of web3-native concepts can quickly overwhelm less technically savvy users making their way through the space for the first time.

Recently, Yield Guild Games (YGG) co-founder Gabby Dizon appeared on a Jambo AMA, where he spoke with Jambo Technology CEO and co-founder James Zhang and Jambo Technology Head of Partnerships Sam Kang on the most important factors to continue growing web3 adoption rates across the world. Through Jambo’s role as one of the main partners of the YGG Pilipinas Roadtrip, YGG and Jambo Technology have worked together to address the onboarding barriers of accessibility and knowledge via the Jambo Phone and YGG’s Web3 Metaversity program.

Throughout the Roadtrip, Jambo Technology held giveaways for the Jambo Phone: an affordable smartphone with web3 native apps pre-installed. This includes the all-in-one Jambo dapp, which enables users to easily manage their digital assets in a single app. Paired with the Web3 Metaversity program, which aims to equip newcomers with the prerequisite knowledge and skills to thrive in web3, Roadtrip attendees had a clear pathway into the ecosystem.

The following is an excerpt from a recent Jambo AMA, where James shared his vision for Jambo, identifying smartphone adoption as key to navigating the wealth of opportunities available online. Gabby expanded on this, saying that the new web3 users onboarded this way can easily find a place in the ecosystem thanks to YGG’s community development initiatives.

Listen to the full recording on X.

Jambo AMA: Web3 for Emerging Markets: Strategies to Drive Crypto Adoption

James (13:56 - 14:52): The vision for us was always: you have a phone, you have a job. It's about tying the infrastructure together for users so they can access web3 games and have partnerships in place. They get their rewards, and they have their apps as off ramps, which I know Gabby thinks about very often. 

If you look at any emerging market, gaming will always unite people the fastest and have the fastest growth in acquiring users. You know, Garena Free Fire, PUBG, et cetera. Even in the web2 space, a lot of things can be taken out of it. It's honestly such a pleasure and saves us from doing things that we cannot do to have great gaming IPs with a built-in amazing community like YGG . Like Gabby said, it's not just the Philippines. I know we're stressing the Philippines a lot, but our other partners all around the world are tuning into this right now. It's really awesome.

Gabby (14:53 - 15:29): One thing that you said, James, that I really like is the concept of, is if you have a phone, you have a job. I think that's the power of the partnership we have with YGG and Jambo. What I really like about this is that, coming into the Jambo Phone, giving our community access to quests where they can earn USDC and other tokens, I think that's powerful. It's a new way of distributing methods to earn money that hasn't been attempted before at this scale.

Sam (15:30 - 15:52): That is amazing. You guys brought that up as we expand and we're seeing a lot of web3 adoption and impact in these regions. Let me pass this question over to Gabby. First, barriers to entry. What do you think are the biggest challenges you face in onboarding new users into web3, and how are you overcoming them?

Gabby (15:53 - 17:13): Yeah, so crypto is not an easy thing to understand, and that's why we start with an activity that everyone knows: gaming. A lot of people in emerging markets have a lot of skills that can be valuable in web3, but they don't know where to start. This is where our community outreach comes in. Our guild leaders do a lot of onboarding. We have a program called Metaversity that teaches skills to people that are valuable in web3, whether it's things like content creation, Discord moderation, game testing, or how to use AI tools. 

These are things that we do so that our community can upgrade their skill set and apply it with the different partners that we have. The main difference of working within the YGG community is that when you meet a YGG player in a game or in Discord, it's not just one random, faceless, daily active user. It's someone who is wallet-connected, has minted an NFT, and is actively part of the Discord. A lot of them are community managers. They know how to create content. A lot of them are on the leaderboards. They're in eSports. There's so much value that our YGG players, our community members, bring to the projects that we are working with.

You can listen to the full recording on X.

Follow Gabby, Sam, and Jambo to learn more about how making technology more accessible is the first step towards onboarding the world into web3.

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