Web3 businesses are more likely to endure when they solve practical customer problems rather than simply promote blockchain technology. In comments gathered by BlockTelegraph, industry leaders identified security, product design, trust, operational performance, verifiable reporting and sustainable demand as central to building durable Web3 models. Together, their observations point to a business test that extends beyond launch: whether a product can attract users, protect them, deliver reliably, demonstrate its claims and retain demand when speculation fades.

Secure Assets Through Rigorous Audits

Cache Merrill, founder of Zibtek, said users need to understand and verify how a Web3 platform handles their assets. A new idea may attract attention, he said, but customers also need confidence that transactions are processed as intended and that the platform has been properly tested.

Through Zibtek’s work auditing DeFi platforms on the Wantoo project, Merrill said he had seen how weaknesses in smart contracts or transaction logic can place users and their funds at risk. Such problems may not be visible to users, making the work behind the product particularly important.

Security should be addressed while a product is built, tested and updated, rather than after users arrive. A useful product can encourage people to try it, Merrill said, but confidence in the way it handles assets gives them a reason to continue using it.

Cache Merrill is the founder of Zibtek, based in Salt Lake City, Utah. The company’s website is

Make Blockchain Benefits Invisible

Justin Belmont, founder and CEO of Prose, said successful Web3 companies should stop trying to sell customers on Web3 itself. Customers generally want faster payments, lower fees and less bureaucracy, rather than more blockchain in their daily lives.

He cited Shopify’s integration of USDC stablecoin payments as an example. Customers can pay with crypto while merchants can receive traditional money in their bank accounts. Belmont said this approach delivers blockchain’s benefits without requiring customers to become crypto specialists.

He recommended a “grandmother test”: a company should be able to explain why its product is better to someone who is not interested in blockchain. If it cannot, the company may have created a solution in search of a problem. The strongest businesses, he said, will be those that make the technology practically invisible.

Solve Daily Problems Beyond Speculation

Kevin Baragona, founder of Deep AI, said a Web3 product must address a genuine problem even if its token generates little price movement. Many Web3 projects depend primarily on speculation and disappear when the hype fades, he said. Projects that last give people a reason to use them regularly.

Baragona cited Uniswap as an example. The protocol lets users exchange tokens through a smart contract rather than a centralized exchange, using shared liquidity pools that anyone can join and from which liquidity providers can earn fees. He said the mechanism is straightforward, the use case is clear, and both users and liquidity providers have a reason to participate.

Add Function Through Portable Memberships

Kruno Sulić, founder and SaaS product builder at Cliprise, said durable Web3 models provide utility that solves an ongoing user problem even if the token or blockchain layer is removed from the marketing message. Projects that last generally use decentralization to support a product people already want instead of relying on speculation to create retention.

Drawing on his experience building SaaS products and digital subscription models, Sulić said users remain when the value exchange is simple: they know what they receive, why it matters and why they should return. Web3 can be useful when ownership, access, incentives or payments work meaningfully better than in a traditional arrangement.

A blockchain component can support a real business model by reducing platform risk, enabling portable assets, giving creators clearer revenue participation or reducing friction in cross-border transactions. Sulić gave the example of a creator platform using on-chain passes or memberships to unlock tools, content or community access. Such a pass can provide access, status and portability if it is verifiable across platforms, resalable by its owner and connected to benefits such as premium features, revenue sharing or gated collaboration spaces.

A pass with no durable utility beyond price appreciation is more likely to struggle once excitement fades. Sulić said the distinction between durable and weak models is whether a product can explain its value without leading with a token chart. Utility should drive engagement, with token mechanics reinforcing that behavior.

Limit Admin Powers Through Immutable Contracts

Carlos Vendrell Felici, founder of Zealynx Security, said users should be able to determine what a protocol’s team can still change. As an auditor, he said he first examines the administrative section of a codebase to identify who can upgrade or pause contracts, mint tokens or move user funds, and what delays or controls apply.

A business built on customer deposits functions only while depositors trust those permissions, Vendrell Felici said. He cited Liquity V1, which launched in April 2021 with immutable contracts and no admin keys. LUSD’s peg is maintained by a redemption mechanism available to anyone rather than by a team decision. He said nobody has been able to change the protocol’s rules since launch and that it has continued operating.

He contrasted this with Humanity Protocol, where three valid signatures upgraded a token proxy and minted 300M new tokens, worth roughly $36M. The audited logic did not control that action, he said.

Prioritize Flawless Execution

Ace Zhuo, CEO and sales and marketing executive at TradingFXVPS, said execution quality matters more to users than incentives or community narratives when core functionality fails. Tokenomics and airdrops do not matter to a user whose transaction cannot complete during a volatile market move, he said.

Zhuo cited Hyperliquid, which built its own chain around its order book rather than placing a perpetual-futures exchange on a congested general-purpose chain. He said the execution of orders and cancellations is close to that of a centralized exchange, and that volume has followed completed trades rather than marketing hype.

He said the same pattern applies at TradingFXVPS, where clients care about whether their expert advisors execute within a couple of milliseconds and whether servers remain online at the opening of the London session. A single outage can cause users to leave. Web3 users may be even less patient and can be similarly affected by a single change to wallet connectivity.

Zhuo said decentralization is a feature many end users tolerate, while trading-system latency is something they directly experience. Successful teams, he said, invest in node operations, RPC replication and stress testing rather than relying primarily on influencer campaigns.

Clarify Redemption and Settlement

Sunil Vallath, a product leader and founder in fintech and digital assets, said lasting Web3 products need a trustworthy and clearly explained way for users to exit. Web3 products may attract users quickly, he said, but durable businesses make redemption, withdrawal and settlement equally clear.

Vallath cited PAXG. Paxos must maintain a London Good Delivery ounce behind every token, obtain monthly attestations from KPMG and process redemptions. Since December 2025, Paxos has operated that business as a national trust bank under OCC supervision, he said.

According to CoinGecko’s 2026 RWA report, PAXG and XAUT accounted for about 89% of the growth in tokenized commodities between the start of 2025 and March 2026. Vallath said he evaluates new token launches by examining the redemption process rather than focusing first on yield. If the way out is unclear, he said, the business model is unclear as well.

Build Infrastructure That Outlasts Crypto Cycles

Alex Yeh, founder and CEO of GMI Cloud, said Web3 businesses that last are those whose value does not depend on token prices. If revenue works only when the market is rising, he said, the business has a bet rather than a business model.

Yeh said he saw this in crypto mining before founding GMI Cloud. Operators that survived downturns treated their companies as infrastructure and energy businesses rather than crypto companies. They focused on power costs, uptime and operational discipline, all of which retained value regardless of Bitcoin’s trading price.

GMI Cloud began by building and operating data centers for Bitcoin mining. When market conditions changed, the company still had power capacity, facilities, hardware-supply relationships and a team experienced in running high-density computing around the clock. Those assets supported its move into AI infrastructure. Yeh said a token-dependent business would not have had comparable assets to carry forward.

Create Habits With Useful Products

Kerry Anderson, co-founder of RankingCo, said a successful business model needs a clear acquisition loop rather than only a clever token. After more than 15 years turning search, advertising and analytics into revenue and scaling businesses from $1m to more than $200m, Anderson said the key Web3 factor is utility that creates repeat behavior.

If users appear only because a token might rise, Anderson said, the company has a campaign rather than a business model. ENS is an example of a product that solves friction through human-readable wallet names. Each time a name is used or displayed, it also creates a form of distribution. Anderson compared this with search engine optimization, where useful assets are shared, referenced and remembered.

Win Skeptics Through Search Authority

Brandie Young, co-founder of RankWriters, said search and content visibility can act as a trust-building layer. Web3 projects often focus heavily on community platforms while neglecting what a skeptical outsider sees when searching for the project, she said.

Young said the first information surfaced by search engines and AI tools can determine whether a person ever reaches a project’s community. In a fintech case study conducted at RankWriters, a company moved from being invisible in organic search to becoming dominant by consistently publishing material that answered real user questions. The company captured hundreds of keywords from the category’s largest player.

Web3 projects can apply the same approach by establishing authority around their category before competitors do. Trust begins before someone joins a Discord community, Young said, and projects that do not provide clear answers to skeptics’ questions may lose users before they enter the sales funnel.

Let Public Records Prove Claims

Jonluke Davis, founder of Data’s Alpha Circle, said verifiability is a key source of trust. A Web3 business earns credibility when outsiders can compare its claims with a public record. Blockchain transactions can be examined through a block explorer, allowing users to check claims about fund transfers or rewards without relying solely on the project team.

Davis said the same principle applies to crypto trading groups. Groups that retain users publish complete records showing the date, entry, stop and outcome of every call, including losses. A collection of winning screenshots reveals little because it does not show what was omitted. A complete record allows prospective customers to evaluate a group before spending money.

Davis said a promise without a verifiable record is a warning sign. He also cited the FTC’s statement that only scammers guarantee profits or large returns.

Measure Repeat Transactions and Margins

Roman Surikov, founder and CEO of Ronas IT | Software Development Company, said a Web3 business model should be evaluated by whether customers need to use the service often enough to return after its novelty fades. The relevant questions include the customer’s current need, the alternative already in use and the cost of moving to a wallet.

A token may coordinate participants in a network, Surikov said, but it cannot create demand for an unwanted transaction. Repeat use must support the economics after the full cost of serving the customer is included.

He offered a cross-border payment service for small exporters as an example. Customers may return if they can receive funds and convert them into local currency with less delay and lower total fees than with their existing provider. However, the full journey also includes funding the wallet and cashing out locally. Compliance, support and acquisition costs must be included. If those costs eliminate the customer’s savings or the operator’s margin, a fast on-chain transfer will not sustain the service.

Surikov recommended measuring repeat completed transactions and margins after service costs before designing token incentives. Customers who continue paying without subsidies provide a clearer indication that the technology supports a business they value.

Turn Technical Capability Into Operational Value

Joshua McAfee, CEO and founder of McAfee Institute, said Web3 businesses must translate technical capability into practical use. The institute trains investigators, intelligence analysts, military personnel and private-sector professionals in areas including cryptocurrency forensics and threat analysis.

A token, wallet or protocol is not sufficient, McAfee said. Useful Web3 businesses help non-Web3 stakeholders understand risk, trace activity, document findings and make defensible decisions. In high-stakes situations, utility is more important than novelty.

Tie Token Economics to Real Demand

Matt Bowman, founder of Thrive Local, said sustainable token economics should be connected to product-level economic activity rather than continuous demand from new buyers. Token models should reflect measurable contributions and real customer demand, he said.

Bowman cited Filecoin as an example of a decentralized storage marketplace whose token economy is tied to economic activity. Storage providers receive incentives for dedicating resources to the marketplace.

He said founders should test whether a business can generate enough revenue to cover expenses before launching it and should design token economics around actual use rather than speculative cycles.

Hide Blockchain Behind Familiar Experiences

Corina Tham, sales, marketing and business development director at CheapForexVPS, said familiarity helps Web3 businesses retain customers. People are more likely to adopt new rails when the behavior built on top of them feels familiar, she said.

Tham cited Polymarket, where users participate in markets concerning events such as election outcomes or possible Federal Reserve rate cuts. Users deposit dollar stablecoins, while the interface resembles a news website and presents the odds as part of each headline. The underlying crypto infrastructure operates in the background.

Projects that ask users to learn a new vocabulary, wallet and belief system are making three separate sales to one customer, Tham said. Familiar experiences should be the entry point, with the decentralized infrastructure introduced gradually.

Eliminate Painful Intermediaries

Timur Rakhmatullin, senior software engineer at Softline Solutions, said successful Web3 models solve genuine data-ownership problems rather than adding blockchain to products that already work without it.

Projects that gain traction generally address situations in which centralized control creates real friction. Rakhmatullin said Uniswap succeeded not simply because decentralization is inherently superior, but because traditional exchanges presented problems such as opaque order books, withdrawal restrictions and counterparty risk. Its automated market-maker model addressed those specific issues while remaining accessible to anyone with a wallet.

He said Web3 models should identify where centralized intermediaries add friction, cost or risk that users actually experience and remove those problems with protocols that are demonstrably better on the relevant dimensions. In Web3, he said, decentralization should be the mechanism rather than the product.

Simplify Benefits for Everyday Users

Gonçalo Teixeira, founder of Portraits de Famille, said successful Web3 businesses deliver clear customer value while keeping most of the underlying technology out of sight. Consumers generally do not want to manage complex wallets or understand smart contracts. They want practical benefits such as verifiable ownership, transparent scarcity, fair access and trusted provenance.

Portraits de Famille applies this approach through its Collector’s Club. Customers receive a digital pass, enter a draw and, if selected, gain access to a limited-edition physical garment. Web3 supports transparency and verification in the background, while the customer experiences what Teixeira described as a fairer and more engaging release.

Technology alone does not create a viable business model, he said. Web3 must solve a genuine problem more effectively than conventional infrastructure and allow users to experience the improvement without first becoming blockchain experts.

Lower Acquisition Costs Through Organic Demand

Zack Bowlby, CEO of ROI Amplified, said sustainable customer acquisition through organic inbound demand is a major indicator of Web3 viability. Bowlby has managed more than $100M in advertising spend to drive client revenue.

He said struggling models rely entirely on paid hype cycles, while stronger businesses build conversion funnels and search visibility that continue acquiring users when speculation cools. Bowlby cited Brave Browser, which gained adoption by addressing search and digital privacy needs before adding attention-based advertising rewards.

If a Web3 platform cannot generate predictable customer lifetime value through consistent organic traffic and clear attribution, Bowlby said, its business model will not scale.

Build Security Architecture First

Orrin Klopper, CEO of Netsurit, said durable business models are built on infrastructure rather than technological novelty. Drawing on nearly 30 years of operating companies across multiple continents, Klopper identified security architecture as a foundation of trust in Web3.

He said projects gaining traction treat wallet security, smart-contract auditing and access governance in the same way that established enterprises treat identity and access management and endpoint protection. Security, he said, is part of the product rather than an optional feature.

Publish Verifiable Business Metrics

Vishnuvardhan Reddy Kaithapuram, a software development engineer at Amazon, said many Web3 business failures are not technology failures. The token moved, the contract executed and the dashboard updated, but users could not verify claims about reserves, revenue, user numbers or payouts.

Public on-chain data does not automatically constitute a reliable business account. Activity can be inflated, wallets can belong to related parties, and a technically accurate metric can still fail to describe meaningful economic activity.

Businesses should explain how each headline figure was produced, which wallets and contracts were included, what was excluded and why, and how off-chain revenue was reconciled with on-chain records. Teams that build reporting lineage early will be better prepared when investors, regulators or large customers ask them to prove a figure.

Make Ownership Reduce Customer Friction

Jennifer Bagley, CEO of CI Web Group, said Web3 models work when ownership creates practical utility rather than hype. A token, wallet or digital asset should make something easier, faster or more valuable for the customer; otherwise adoption stalls.

She offered a wallet-based HVAC maintenance record as an example. If the record belongs to the homeowner rather than a single platform, it can remain useful when the home is sold, the contractor changes or warranty support is required. Such a record could improve service, trust and follow-up.

Bagley’s test for a Web3 model is whether customers still have a reason to use it every month after the buzzwords are removed. If they do, she said, the model may represent a business; otherwise, it may be a feature searching for a market.

Source: BlockTelegraph