In traditional tech, it was common for teams to disappear for months, heads down, and re-emerge with a polished product. In Web3, that approach often fails. Projects that thrive are the ones that bring their community along the journey.
1. Trust is the New Currency:
Web3 runs on open infrastructure, permissionless systems, and community governance. If your code is open-source but your process is closed, there’s a mismatch. By sharing progress, even in raw form, you create evidence of execution. People don’t need to “trust” your words; they can see your work.
2. Feedback Loops Save Time:
Closed-door building assumes you already know the market perfectly. That’s rarely true. Sharing early prototypes, dev updates, or even “half-finished” features creates feedback loops. Community input can point out blind spots, UX pain points, or demand signals you’d miss in isolation. This doesn’t slow you down; it reduces wasted cycles later.
3. Narrative Matters as Much as Code:
Every project needs adoption. Adoption requires a story. By building in public, you document the journey: why certain choices were made, what trade-offs were considered, and what you learned from failures. This creates a living narrative that new users and contributors can catch up on. A Batcave team drops a finished product with zero context, harder for people to connect with.
I will drop a part 2 version of this post. There are 3 more points I need to cover on this.