Investors and users became skeptical about any new web project. In 1998, the economist Paul Krugman infamously predicted that “by 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet’s impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine’s.”3 A December 2000 headline in The Daily Mail read “Internet ‘may be just a passing fad as millions give up on it.’”4 During a crypto bear market, public opinion is just as harsh about Web3, and then, during a bull market when prices once again soar, hackers and scammers come out from hibernation.
