Reaching Web3's Degenerate Culture With Regenerate Faith

Jasmine, why don't you tell us a little bit about your story?

Well, I'm born into a Malaysian Chinese family, born and raised in Malaysia, Southeast Asia, for the audiences who may not know. And coming from a Chinese family, because I'm a firstborn of the firstborn, the Lord already knew me. My grandparents immediately took me as the firstborn child of this generation, my generation, to the fortune teller. And the fortune teller said, oh, this girl, no good life. You need to spiritually enslave her to a goddess so that she can be raised. And obviously, the goddess cannot raise a person. And I was a child. I was, I guess, a difficult child to my parents in their eyes. But they are good parents, loving parents. And so how I got saved was the church. There was a church, a new church, just down the road where I lived. And they came around the neighborhood asking for kids. And they said, hey, you can give your daughter to us. We're just down the road. You can have a look. We're a church. We're good people. We'll return her back to you. at midday, fed with lunch. And to parents of an active, talkative kid, that is heaven. You know, Monday to Friday, you're working. Saturday, you're running chores. Sunday morning, you get to sleep in the bed without the kid hassling you. Yeah, go. And that's how the Lord saved me. The first of my generation, He saved me.

So you're with CW3, Christians in Web 3, and the chair for that role. And so we'd love to maybe just dig in a little bit here. What is CW3? What is Christians in Web 3?

So I'm very blessed. The Lord has decided that he put me as a current chair for the board of trustee for CW3, Christians in Web3. And the Father has given us a mission to unite Christians in the Web3 space. Now, why would we need that? I'm in the Web3 space personally. So the Lord took me out of my very comfortable, cushy banking job and threw me into what was the wild, wild west of what we call fintech. which is blockchain, DeFi, and all of those stuff. It's very lonely. That space has adopted what we call a degenerate culture, where greed, rug pull are all acceptable behavior, and even in certain quarters, celebrated. But that's not the way of our father. Web3 is one of the first few spaces to talk about, a space called Metaverse, where you live fully digitally online in an avatar. I mean, that concept is not new, but it has now developed into such a state where you can live, interact. well, may not be eat, but even earn, study, everything, live every part of your life online. Now, why would we want to set up CW3? Because Christians who are operating in this space as a marketplace believer, was feeling very lonely and we because it's digital you're flung across all different spaces in the in the world but digitally you can unite if you knew where the other person can be found in the digital space and that's how we came about it was a very loose uh whatsapp group of community and it grew it grew to such a point that we we called it see christians in web3 so we have john knox who is the current executive director and cynthia smith and john kim and we have kevin hagino and aaron lee stevenson out in singapore and cameron Yeah, Cameron, who's our CFO, I love him. So yeah, that's loosely what CW3 is. It's been an interesting time to see how God has pulled his people. Our primary mission is to pray for one another and pray for the Lord's kingdom in the digital space, in the Web3 space. How do we take on more territory? We know that Web 2 was lost to porn and all those illicit activities. But Web 3, are we going to lose that? Now there is a bigger implication in terms of what can be done in and through the technologies of Web 3. And if God's people is not at the forefront of building, of creating the culture around that, That's going to be a space that we're going to lose. And our children and our children's children are all going to be in that space. What are they going to do when they have to operate in a world that we had an opportunity, this generation has an opportunity to shape and we didn't do what we were called to do? I don't know how to answer them.

It's interesting using language like, you know, Web three degenerate isolation, you know, really feel that in the metaverse, virtual reality isolation. You're talking about metaverse in both digital. A lot of the digital community does when digital community is not done right. It feels very isolation oriented in that you're talking about like losing the technology. How do we do web three right? How do we do web three to restore it so that we don't lose the technology? How do we do web three where it's not in isolation? How do we do web three where it's not a degenerate, but a the opposite of whatever that is? What are you thinking here as you're talking about this?

So, you know, CW3 has what we call regen. So instead of a de-gen culture, we're talking about a regenerate culture. And we have pockets of gathering in different, different locations around the world where there is more than two located in the same geographical space who have now found each other to exist in the metaverse, in the Web3 space. They can come and meet. they can meet and propagate a regen culture. And this is where, how do we change that culture? By the grace of God and by the power of his Holy Spirit. And it does not run away from what he has already told us what to do. That mold doesn't change. The only delivery, the only change is in potentially the delivery method, but it still requires relationship. It still requires the Word of God. It still requires for us to pray and be steeped in His presence and discipling. He called us to disciple to the ends of the world. The world now includes a digital world. There is no difference in that. We go back to the Word. We are rooted in that. We live our lives, be it in real life, IRL, or in digital life. on the basis of God's word, on the basis of his guidance, on the basis of what his will is, wherever we are present.

That's good. You know, we talk a lot about, you know, more of like a relational evangelism, building with this digital technology, with the virtual reality technology, but using that tool to build relationships, you know, it's almost like more of a microchurch view. And it sounds like you're trying to, even as you are talking about breaking up, you're trying to create more of those smaller, more intimate relationships within the culture of Web3. Does that sound accurate?

Well, it starts that way, I believe. But I don't think that the Web3 culture is set yet. Okay. And so while the greed is rampant because of the price of cryptocurrency and the way the market moves and things like that, but there is a deep call. And so, you know, the Lord has placed eternity in our hearts and he's written his laws, whether we call him father or otherwise, he's written his laws on our heart. So recently Vitalik, who is the founder of Ethereum, said in a conference, This de-gen culture is not good for us. We need a re-gen culture. And we've been talking about a re-gen culture since 2023, because that's what the Lord had given us. And so we are, as a ministry, as God's people, as his ambassador, we are at the tip of the spear, all of us digital missionaries. If you're a digital native, you just say a missionary. You won't distinct between digital and IRL. It's just one life. They don't have that border. So we have an opportunity in time and history. This is so exciting what the father is doing in this space. And one of the things that we also do is we take advantage of all these huge Web3 conferences like Token 2049 and Consensus. And in whichever city those conferences have, should we have a member in that city, we would love and we would encourage and we would come behind for a CW3 site gathering, site event to be listed and then all who are christians in that space can come and gather and pray over the conference pray over the country that the conference is hosted in and really call forth for the will of god so it's not just digital when we gather even though we have a digital mandate But if you're meeting in a place like Dubai, which is huge, Middle East is huge with crypto, you arrive there as a visitor, you can pray for the country as an attendee at the conference, as well as the conference and each other. And people find, I mean, we've done two. And we're going to continue doing. We've done a CW3 event at Token 2049 last year as well. And it was amazing. We found brothers and sisters out in Africa, out in US, showing up in Singapore. And we've kept in touch. iron sharpening iron happening in the digital verse because now you have a group of people that is in this space that you know speaks the same faith language as you has the same aim in life to a large extent and you're asking each other's opinion knowing that to a great degree you can trust the person's opinion which is a rare rare thing

is there like a a typical audience persona or like who's the average person that that's involved in web3 or cw3 like what what type of things are they they into how old are they what what do they look like so web3 cw3 i'm gonna separate the persona sure so web3 a lot of builders they enjoy the tech um

The purists, those who are Bitcoin purists, they would have a libertarian type attitude where they don't necessarily agree. Actually, most of them don't like authority. because they feel betrayed by their own governments or the authority that they are subjected to. So that's a reason why they've come out into the decentralized space, which is what powers a lot of Web3 building activities. And so you have the degen culture, you have the Greek culture where you are out there trying to get as much money as possible, and they are young. So you have a 20-something who can afford a Ferrari. who he does not have a base he may not necessarily have a base of character to handle so much money and so then you you have the the drugs the parties uh the after parties after conferences which um a lot of i would call them bad activities but i guess for them it's it's it's a party wine women and song plus drugs which is not a good mix i guess the good thing is because they're so young the opportunity for them to repent of that lifestyle is there but who is showing them the repentance Who's showing them a better way? So that's one of the heart's cry of CW3, right? That we're involved. We don't pull ourselves away from them, but we get engaged with them, sharing with them the love and the truth of God. That's one. That's the native, so to speak. Then you have the Christians who are in Web3, and they are also building. They are trying to build godly projects. They are trying to build projects that makes a difference in the positive way, that brings back morality, that brings back to me what I call sanity in this space. And they are builders. In CW3, we have builders, we have investors, and we have people who are coming in to learn. Because if you learn in... the unregulated, well, unmonitored space. You don't know who you're learning from. You don't know what you're learning. So within CW3, you can learn, you can glean from people of the faith. And that's awesome.

And we have investors. That's very good. So as you're talking about the people in Web3 and trying to help them understand a healthier mindset away from the quote-unquote partying scene and those types of things, like... What opportunities are you seeing through the Web3 relationship, evangelism, discipleship? And as you're maybe coaching and talking to the CW3 people, what does that relationship look like to maybe start to reach into some of these that are native to the Web3? How can you start to connect with people and help them maybe start to find some error in their ways? What could this look like?

well first thing is the relationship building portion as someone who is grounded in the Lord you would be able to immediately see when someone's life is on a trajectory of a train wreck may not be next five years may not even be the ten years but if you carry on it could it would so repentance and the opportunity to speak into their life so one of the things about web3 is we are also very we have our own lingo so you know to the moon walk me now let's go like now a lot of all huddle a lot of this kind of different terminology. And when they come into contact with each other, you can immediately relate. That gives you an opportunity to speak into a person's life. That gives you an opportunity to share what Christ has done for them, including those who are in the metaverse. that has created a brighter space, also a more meaningful opportunity to redirect life.

So have you had any opportunities yet? Either you or people in the team, any success stories, any experiences, good or bad?

So in our gatherings, we've got people. So this is the side event. People come, they look at this and they're like, and It's not that the side event was the one that caused the conversion. The Lord has obviously been working on this person's heart. It's just that when they came to a side event, suddenly it all clicked and they want to receive Christ. They come to a side event, they come for a physical prayer gathering that the community members hold in any space or capacity, and they say, I want. And we have converted. I mean, we have saved, seen salvation coming through. for the Lord. And it's exciting. And we don't leave these people in the space. We want to plug them into our physical church, but we still keep the digital relationship because digitally it's possible now. And we're still able to stay in touch. We're still able to share love, share truth, share word, all of these things. while they are prayerfully plugged into a physical community sometimes because of the nature of web3 and the business done there you travel a lot like a lot and even the physical church is not necessarily able to keep up with or support fully and be where you are but in the digital we are able to We can reach out, we can run monthly connects and discipling and just updating prayer, weekly stuff. Nothing's stopping us in maintaining that relationship.

Yeah, I love this. And this is really where the Church Digital, where I'm excited about coming alongside CW3 and starting to help. Yeah, there's an opportunity to connect into a physical church, but a lot of times physical churches may not be the best solution, or there may not even be a viable church in that area, especially as we look at the global scale. And that's where empowering digital missionaries and starting... web three churches and block crypto churches and you know i i for one you know in the grand scheme of things i've been obsessed with dowels and and trying to figure out how to best and encapsulate that within a micro church environment conversation for a different day but really if for me it would be there's an opportunity to to start to empower CW3 personnel to maybe up the level of discipleship, up the level of evangelism, and even understanding what a church could be in digital so that CW3 could be the church in some of these spaces. Maybe it is physical, but like you said, a lot of Web3 people constantly on the go, constantly moving, and having a digital representation of church may actually be the right answer. for people in this season. And so put an asterisk on that. We'll come back to that conversation. Jasmine, our relationship is new, but that is something that really excites me about CW3 and the potential that I'm seeing there in that space. Go ahead.

And the thing is this as well, Jeff. I don't believe CW3 can do it all. While we are out there engaging, The discipling relationship is everyone's. And it's a question of just building that relationship and keeping it and maintaining it. And that's where I believe that all of us are called into the digital space. The digital native will never call it digital missionary. You're just being a missionary. And what can be darker than the dark web?

It's interesting. My chair of the Church Digital, Charlie Barham, he says that to me all the time. What can be darker than the dark web? And so I'll have to tell him. I was like, hey, Jasmine said that. That's so good. Yeah, and the collaborating, the working together, there's so much opportunity of this digital. And so looking forward to pulling that thread and getting... getting to know you and the org a little better in the weeks and months to come. Well, let's do this. What's next for CW3? What do you all have coming up?

Well, this year, we've got an exciting project in September where we are doing, this will be the second year, our All Generations Conference, the CW3 All Generations Global Conference, where we believe that technology would point all generations to Jesus. September 30th in Singapore we've got a lot of partners and we'd love to collaborate with Church Digital to see what else we can do together at the conference really enabling and empowering bringing the digital workers the space to come together to enable support encourage and exhort each other and learn from one another and just yeah that's that's the big big project for us because we're also very much volunteer driven And, yeah, I look forward to having you and Jason, if you guys can make it.

Yeah, I mean, my passport's still valid. I don't know about Jason's, but I'll have to get clearance from the wife before I jump on another intercontinental flight. My daughter's actually, at the time of this recording, my daughter's in Tokyo. for a school trip, completely other conversation. But yeah, no, that would be real exciting and start to, you know, even deeper, deepen the relationship towards discipleship in the Web3 community space. And so I love it. Hey, Jasmine, if anyone's interested in CW3, where's a great place for them to get more information about you and the organization?

So we've got a website, cw3.global.com. And if anything, I'll post up my LinkedIn, my WhatsApp. Get in touch. We're open. And we are so excited to see what God has in store for his children in this space. Just seeing his hand move in codes. You know, the Lord codes too.

Very cool. Jasmine Ong from CW3. Check out the website, cw3.global. So, Jasmine, thank you very much for hanging out with us today.