The Web3 industry is currently in its early developmental stages. Compared to the traditional Web2 landscape, methods for acquiring and managing user traffic remain relatively primitive, often operating through comparatively simplistic channels. As the sector evolves, we can categorize the methods for capturing this traffic into three distinct phases, based on shifting user demands.
The Evolution of Web3 Access Points
Early Stage: The Dominance of Centralized Exchanges
In the nascent period of the crypto industry, the primary user need was simply to trade cryptocurrencies. Most users accessed these services through web or mobile interfaces of Centralized Exchanges (CEXs) like the early Mt. Gox and Bittrex. Consequently, CEXs became the main traffic gateways, leading to an explosion of platforms such as Binance, Huobi, OKX, KuCoin, MEXC, and Gate.io.
Beyond trading, users required fiat on-ramps and off-ramps (methods to convert traditional currency to crypto and back). To further control this entry point, many CEXs integrated Peer-to-Peer (P2P) services. However, this concentration of market share within CEXs also introduced systemic risk; a single point of failure, as witnessed in the Mt. Gox incident, could severely impact the entire market.
Middle Stage: The Rise of Wallets and DApps
As the industry matured, individual user needs diversified to include storing digital assets, making transfers, and interacting on-chain. The birth of Ethereum and its smart contract functionality catalyzed the growth of on-chain ecosystems. A wave of Decentralized Applications (DApps) emerged.
With growing user education and an influx of new participants, wallet usage surged. Wallets began to serve as the primary gateway for interacting with various on-chain DApps. CEXs responded by expanding their own financial derivative offerings, like futures and options, to compete. Initially, wallets were limited, often supporting few blockchains and offering inferior user experiences for transfers and cross-chain functions compared to CEXs.
The launch of Tron, with its minimal transaction fees, offered a significant advantage. However, the emergence of EOS and the widespread adoption of USDT increased the demand for on-chain interactions, expanding the utility of wallets. Traffic began to shift from CEXs towards wallets, and the on-chain ecosystem started to take shape.
Present Day: A Diversified and Competitive Landscape
Today, user demands are more varied than ever. Driven by the industry's wealth generation potential, users seek direct profit-making opportunities and more complex financial services.
CEXs have adapted by introducing high-yield features like Initial Exchange Offerings (IEOs) and integrating various DApps and services into their ecosystems. For example, Binance launched a DeFi tab, mini-program functionality, and Binance Pay. Other exchanges, like MEXC and Gate.io, attracted users by listing a high volume of newer, riskier projects. Thus, the CEX's role as a critical Web3 gateway has been reinforced.
Simultaneously, wallets evolved to support multiple chains, implemented security audits for integrated DApps, and built-in features like Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs). This wallet proliferation, combined with demand for complex financial services, fueled the "DeFi Summer," which brought a new wave of users seeking opportunities in DEXs, lending protocols, and more.
This era also saw the rise of standalone applications like OpenSea and StepN, which built their own independent traffic portals. Furthermore, hybrid models emerged, using Web2 platforms like Twitter (via browser extensions) or community hubs like Telegram and Discord as auxiliary entry points.
In summary, the explosive growth of the industry has led to intense competition for user attention. Access points have diversified into a multi-faceted model dominated by exchanges and wallets, but with significant parallel growth from other application-specific portals.
The Current State of Web3 Access
A striking example of Web2's power to onboard users into Web3 is Reddit's NFT initiative. Data from NFTgo.io showed that on October 28, the total trading volume for NFTs on Ethereum was approximately $10.68 million. Meanwhile, Reddit Collectible Avatars saw a volume of about $2.5 million—nearly 25% of the entire Ethereum NFT market.
OpenSea, the largest NFT marketplace, has accumulated around 2.3 million users. In contrast, Reddit NFT has 2.83 million holders, the vast majority of whom registered a Reddit Vault (a built-in wallet). The number of Reddit wallet registrations is almost equal to the number of unique wallets that have ever traded an NFT on Ethereum (~3.43 million). This demonstrates that a single Web2 platform, by issuing NFTs, can generate traffic comparable to the entire Web3 NFT sector, swiftly surpassing the user base of the leading Web3 native platform.
This suggests that despite revolutionary innovations, Web3 still has immense room for growth in user accessibility and adoption.
Reflecting on Web2's evolution provides a useful parallel: its access points developed from portals -> search engines -> desktop social platforms -> mobile social apps. The flow of information shifted from curated, broad collections to user-driven, personalized, and fragmented content output. A similar pattern is emerging in Web3, moving from simple Bitcoin investing to a proliferation of investment vehicles (ICOs, IEOs, IDOs), and now towards community-driven research and recommendation via DAOs. The trend is consistently toward decentralization, active user participation, and simplification.
For this analysis, we define Web3 as the ecosystem of decentralized applications (DApps) running on blockchain technology, which allow participation without sacrificing personal data. Therefore, a "Web3 access point" is not limited to crypto-native applications but includes any platform that can funnel users toward Web3, such as traditional Web2 platforms, CEXs, and Web2 games.
We will categorize these Web3 access points based on user behavior, summarize their characteristics, compare major players within each category, and finally, offer perspectives on their future development.
A Comparative Analysis of Web3 Access Points
To categorize Web3 entry points, we must first understand why users enter the space—what Web3 offers them:
- Changing application logic: copyright verification, data privacy ownership, asset ownership, and behavior incentivization.
- Cryptocurrency investment.
- NFT investment.
Based on these core utilities, we can map the user journey into Web3 and define two primary categories of access points:
- Account Systems (On-Ramping & Fund Management): CEXs, independent on-ramp services, ramp aggregators, crypto ATMs, crypto debit cards, OTC trading; EOA, CA, and MPC wallets; Account Abstraction (AA).
- Web3 DApps (Tools, Social, & Entertainment): DEXs, NFT marketplaces, copyright trading platforms, domain services, DeSoc, GameFi, and X-to-Earn models.
Account Systems: Managing Your Crypto Identity and Assets
This category deals with the storage, sending, and receiving of crypto assets. Beyond early CEXs, wallets are the user's main entry point, acting as custodians of identity, assets, and even reputation.
1. Fund Management
Security is the paramount concern for wallets, followed closely by convenience. At its core, a wallet is a private-key manager. The private key, generated via asymmetric encryption, gives the user absolute control over their assets. How this key is managed is a fundamental differentiator between wallet types.
Wallets are broadly divided into custodial and non-custodial varieties, defined by who controls the private key.
- Custodial Wallets (CEXs): The exchange holds the private keys and manages the assets on your behalf. The advantage is immense simplicity—users only need a password. The glaring disadvantage is counterparty risk; if the exchange is hacked, goes offline, or engages in malfeasance (like the infamous Mt. Gox collapse in 2014), user funds can be lost. Furthermore, the exchange can theoretically manipulate records or misuse custodial assets. Despite these risks, the convenience and trust in the platform's brand mean CEXs still command the majority of Web3 traffic. In December 2021, the global crypto user base was estimated at 295 million. Binance alone reported 120 million users, while the largest DEX, Uniswap, had only about 3.9 million. This highlights the trade-off most users make: sacrificing some security for significant convenience.
Non-Custodial Wallets: Here, the user holds the private key. Most prioritize security, which often comes at the cost of convenience, creating a high barrier to entry.
- Hardware Wallets: The most secure option, requiring physical possession of the device and a PIN to access funds. The downsides are cost and complexity—users must purchase the device and have it with them to transact. Loss of the device can mean loss of funds.
- EOA (Externally Owned Account) Wallets: These are software wallets (browser extensions like MetaMask or mobile apps) that offer a balance of security and convenience. However, users must still securely store and remember their private key or a 12-24 word seed phrase. Loss of the seed phrase means irreversible loss of access. According to CertiK, losses from private key leaks exceeded $274 million in 2022 alone.
- MPC (Multi-Party Computation) Wallets: A newer technology that splits the private key into multiple shares distributed among parties. Transactions require signatures from a threshold of parties, enhancing security through decentralized key management. MPC wallets can also refresh key shares, solving the problem of a lost share. Users can often recover access using email or biometric verification, significantly lowering the user experience barrier.
- Smart Contract Wallets (CA) & Account Abstraction (AA): This emerging development aims to revolutionize wallets. AA merges EOA with smart contract capabilities, upgrading an EOA into a programmable smart contract wallet without changing Ethereum's core protocol. This drastically reduces entry barriers and enables features like gasless transactions (sponsoring gas fees), social recovery of accounts, and customizable security rules (e.g., different authorization levels for different transaction sizes or DApps). Examples include Argent (social recovery), Gnosis Safe (multi-sig), and A3S (transferable wallets).
2. On-Ramping and Off-Ramping
Key factors for these services include identity verification (KYC) and the smooth conversion between fiat and crypto.
Services typically require KYC for transactions exceeding a few hundred dollars monthly. CEXs and large OTC platforms, with more legal resources, support a wider range of fiat currencies. Payment methods are usually limited to bank transfers, ACH, debit/credit cards, and third-party processors like Apple Pay.
The friction in conversion (exchange rate fees, distributor markups, network fees) means that generally, the fewer the intermediaries, the lower the cost: CEX = OTC < Independent Projects < Aggregators.
- Centralized Exchanges (CEXs): The most common ramps. They are often globally licensed, support the most fiat/crypto pairs, and offer the lowest fees. Some, like Binance Pay, also enable crypto-based payments for goods and services, creating a novel form of off-ramp.
- Independent Ramp Projects (e.g., MoonPay, Transak): Operate like small, specialized exchanges focused solely on fiat-to-crypto conversion. They offer simple interfaces but include distributor markups.
- Ramp Aggregators (e.g., Transit Swap, MetaMask's buy feature): Aggregate offers from various independent services and CEXs to find the best rate, taking a commission. Their key potential is becoming a one-stop shop by integrating DEX swaps, staking, and NFT marketplaces.
- OTC (Over-The-Counter) Trading: Often uses a P2P model. Platforms like Binance P2P act as a trusted escrow to facilitate trades for a low fee. Payment methods can be more flexible but carry the high risk of receiving "black money" (funds from illicit activities), leading to frozen bank accounts or forced refunds.
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Web3 DApps: Tools, Social, and Entertainment
1. Tooling Applications
Tooling DApps arguably have the greatest potential as Web3 traffic drivers. They aren't just Web2 improvements but represent cross-generational innovation. Apps like DeBox (social payments), Monaco (social media), and Skiff (collaboration tools) essentially add token economics to Web2 models, leveraging blockchain for privacy, transparency, and trustlessness. However, they often rely on token incentives to attract temporary usage rather than providing a compelling reason to fully abandon their Web2 counterparts. Therefore, DEXs and NFT platforms remain the most significant tool-based entry points.
- DEXs (Decentralized Exchanges): DEXs are crucial in the user journey. The invention of Automated Market Makers (AMMs) eliminated the need for order books and professional market makers, dramatically improving on-chain liquidity. Liquidity mining further optimized this experience. DEXs allow users to instantly convert yield farm rewards into stablecoins like USDT or USDC directly on-chain. The core issue with AMMs is slippage—large trades in pools with insufficient depth can lead to significant losses, as seen in events like the cUSDC incident on Uniswap V2.
- NFT Marketplaces: NFTs are a powerful, intuitive Web3 entry point. High-profile sales, like Beeple's $69 million artwork, brought digital asset ownership into the mainstream, spurring projects in metaverses (The Sandbox, Decentraland), PFPs (BAYC, CryptoPunks), and collectibles (NBA Top Shot). NFTs are easy to understand—digital art has value, and blockchain verifies ownership and enables easy sharing, feeding into social status and炫耀心理 (show-off psychology). Copyright NFTs empower creators with new revenue streams. Marketplaces like OpenSea are the core of this ecosystem, providing the liquidity and discovery that makes NFT investment viable, and guiding users into broader Web3 interactions. They are supported by a stack of auxiliary services like NFT lending and fractionalization.
2. Social Applications
Decentralized Identity (DID) concepts, including domains and DeSoc, are typical Web3 entry points, mirroring the role of DNS and social media in Web2.
- Domains: Services like the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) transform complex blockchain addresses (e.g.,
0xAb...eC9B) into human-readable names (vitalik.eth). This drastically reduces errors and adds identity and brandability to addresses. While still early,.ethnames are increasingly used as unified social identities across Web2 and Web3, bridging the gap between these worlds. While other chains (.bnb, .apt) and services (.bit, .crypto) offer alternatives,.ethremains the dominant standard due to Ethereum's network effect. - DeSoc (Decentralized Social): Vitalik Buterin's paper on "Decentralized Society" proposed a future built on Soulbound Tokens (SBTs)—non-transferable tokens that represent credentials, affiliations, and reputations. This vision aims to move Web3 beyond pure finance toward a more transformative, pluralistic future. Current applications include platforms like Galxe and Quest3, which issue SBTs for completing tasks (often on Web2 platforms like Twitter or Discord). These tasks, with the promise of future airdrops, effectively onboard Web2 users through earning potential. Binance's BAB (Binance Account Bound) token is another example, using a KYC-based SBT to funnel its massive user base into the BSC ecosystem and grant access to exclusive projects.
3. Entertainment Applications
Entertainment, particularly GameFi, is a vital part of Web3. Its天然优势 (natural advantage) is a powerful, inherent吸引力 (attractiveness) to a massive audience, including traditional Web2 gamers. Many GameFi projects are Web2 games modified for blockchain, giving them excellent破圈能力 (circle-breaking ability).
The success of Axie Infinity and the subsequent "X-to-Earn" model popularized by StepN demonstrates this potential. These applications are primarily profit-driven but are bolstered by gamification, attracting vast external traffic. While challenges remain (e.g., high on-chain interaction demands), phenomenal successes continue to emerge. These projects often use creative onboarding, like StepN's centralized app that guides users to create a wallet, effectively converting casual players into full-fledged Web3 users.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the simplest way for a new user to enter Web3?
For absolute beginners, a reputable Centralized Exchange (CEX) is often the simplest entry point. It handles private key management, offers intuitive fiat on-ramps, and provides a familiar trading interface, significantly reducing the initial complexity and technical barrier associated with self-custody wallets.
Are non-custodial wallets safer than keeping crypto on an exchange?
Generally, yes. Non-custodial wallets give you sole control over your private keys and funds, eliminating the counterparty risk of an exchange being hacked or collapsing. However, this shifts the security burden entirely to you; losing your seed phrase means losing your assets permanently, with no customer support to help recover them.
What is Account Abstraction (AA) and how does it improve wallets?
Account Abstraction is a concept that allows a wallet to be a programmable smart contract instead of a basic key-pair account. This enables features like social recovery (regaining access with help from trusted friends), spending limits, batch transactions, and having a third party pay for your gas fees. It aims to make wallets as user-friendly as Web2 apps without sacrificing self-custody.
Can a Web2 platform like Reddit really be a meaningful Web3 entry point?
Absolutely. The Reddit NFT example proves that leveraging an existing Web2 user base and integrating Web3 features seamlessly (like a simple vault wallet) can onboard millions of users who might never actively seek out a traditional crypto exchange or wallet. This demonstrates the power of familiar platforms as bridges into Web3.
What is the biggest challenge facing Web3 adoption today?
The primary challenge remains user experience (UX). The complexity of managing private keys, understanding gas fees, and navigating a fragmented application landscape creates a high barrier to entry. The future of Web3 access hinges on abstracting away this complexity through technological improvements like Account Abstraction and better design, making the technology invisible to the end-user.
How do DEXs differ from Centralized Exchanges?
DEXs operate on blockchain networks without a central intermediary. Users trade directly from their personal wallets, maintaining control of their funds at all times. CEXs, in contrast, are companies that custody user funds and facilitate trades internally on their own order books. DEXs offer more privacy and self-custody, while CEXs typically provide higher speed, liquidity, and simpler fiat integration.
The Future of Web3 Access: A Consolidated Landscape
The trajectory of a project like StepN is instructive. Although its plans were impacted by market conditions, its phenomenal success demonstrated that a breakout DApp can, for a time, create its own independent gravitational pull, bypassing traditional exchanges and wallets as the primary entry point. Its ambition to leverage that traffic to build an entire ecosystem—including a launchpad, DEX, and metaverse—charts a potential path for future Web3 entrepreneurs.
However, we believe this ability for a single app to capture traffic independently is likely a feature of the industry's current immature and不平衡 (unbalanced) developmental phase. As the sector matures, we expect valuable traffic to consolidate around a few leading applications.
This mirrors the evolution of the internet: a period of explosive experimentation and fragmentation eventually gave way to consolidation, where most services aggregated into a few dominant platforms. This is not merely a result of capital but a reflection of human nature—users gravitate towards convenience and integrated, one-stop-shop experiences. While Web3 applications can decentralize their backend, the user-facing frontend is inevitably pulled toward centralization by user habit.
Therefore, the most probable future is one where Web3 access consolidates around a handful of major portals, likely following the "surface-to-point" model (from a broad platform to specific DApps). Currently, CEXs and multi-chain wallets are best positioned to become these consolidated gateways, provided they can develop intuitive, user-habit-aligned interfaces—like Binance's integrated mini-program menu.
This consolidation of access does not inherently violate Web3's decentralized ethos, as long as the underlying protocols and backends remain open and permissionless. The central challenge is to optimize this potentially centralized front-end experience without compromising on decentralized principles.
A major wildcard is the potential for Web2 giants to integrate Web3. Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter, one of the largest traffic hubs on the internet, presents a fascinating scenario. Should he pursue significant Web3 integration or reform, it could fundamentally reshape the entire landscape of Web3 user access, potentially breaking existing models and creating a new, hybrid paradigm for the future.