Web 3.0, Metaverse & Cryptocurrencies EXPLAINED ft. Anshul Rustaggi - FO 22 | Raj Shamani
with Anshul Rustaggi
Executive Summary
Anshul Rustaggi (IIT, IIM, ex-investment advisor in London) left a cushy career to build Totality Corp and Zionverse, an Indian web3 metaverse gaming platform. His thesis: gaming is becoming the foundation of social connection - after text (Facebook), photos (Instagram) and video (TikTok), immersive games are the next intensity of how humans hang out - and Facebook renaming itself Meta 'rung the gong' for the shift. He explains how playing Roblox with his niece revealed that kids use games as their hangout space, why his game stack borrows TikTok's remix-and-template model to democratize game creation, and how non-coders can participate: be curious, learn, join communities early, and apply whatever skill you already have - art, marketing, writing, selling - to the web3 version of it. In a rapid-fire he names his personal picks (Ethereum, Chainlink, BAT; Punx Comic, Mobox; Star Atlas, Illuvium, Axie Infinity) - his opinions as stated on the show, not advice. All views and claims are the speakers' own.
Key Takeaways
Gaming is the next social network
Rustaggi's core thesis: social connection has moved from text (Facebook) to photos (Instagram) to video (TikTok), and immersive gaming is the next intensity - where people will hang out, not just play. His evidence is personal: his niece's Roblox social life, and his own five-year Clash of Clans clan being one of his most active WhatsApp groups.
The metaverse is already happening, just unevenly
He compares adoption to the App Store in 2008: rough first experiences, then 14 years of UI learning. His prediction at the time of recording: within five years everyone will be on metaverses without noticing, mobile-first, with AR secondary and VR the smallest subset - because the devices are not yet wearable all day.
Look for white spaces where the stars align
His business-selection method, shown through his vaping venture: find a frontier category not yet big in India, check the human-behavior driver (people choose the least-effort path to pleasure), then verify every factor - distribution, market demand, scale potential, and a defensible angle like technology - before committing.
Democratize creation with templates and remixing
Totality's game stack copies TikTok's playbook: Minecraft made content creation easy but publishing hard, so they built ease of both - and templates plus remixing let non-creators (his mother included) build and publish game worlds, which also makes the resulting content more interesting because variations can be compared.
Intensity of connection is the product
Why would anyone move from Instagram to a metaverse? Deeper connection: infinite avatars, zero-gravity worlds, real-time participation - fans who can boost or block a runner mid-race rather than comment afterward. He cites Sapiens: humans survived as social beings, so tools that deepen connection always win.
Curiosity is the only entry requirement
His prescription for beginners: become curious first, learn from communities and creators, form your own opinion, and join platforms early - early creators get promoted by platforms because the platform needs success stories. Zionverse's own Discord (8,000+ members at recording) runs a 'web3 school' and takes community input on games.
Your existing skill has a web3 equivalent
For non-coders and non-gamers: technology only serves human needs, so understanding people is the most portable skill. Artists can make models and 2D art, marketers can build communities, writers can serve web3 curiosity, sellers can rethink Amazon strategy for web3 commerce - be curious, recognize the change, capitalize rather than fear.
The Conversation Breakdown
The metaverse thesis: where digital life is heading
⏱ Untimed topicRustaggi frames Totality's mission as building the future of social experience and digital interaction - the place where people live, shop and work digitally, and therefore where the digital economy happens. Adoption is already underway (2021 as the first mass-adoption year), with the mobile app era as the template: expect a seamless, mobile-first metaverse within five years, with VR as only a small subset.
From bars to vaping: the frontier-market method
⏱ Untimed topicHis entrepreneurial path: a chain of bars with an IIM Bangalore friend, then vaping in 2016 - a white space in India, riding UK studies he cites as showing 95% less harm than smoking, and his 'synthetic happiness' logic that humans choose low-effort pleasure. India banned vaping around the end of 2017, closing that chapter.
The Roblox insight: games as hangout spaces
⏱ Untimed topicPlaying Roblox with his pre-teen niece in Canada, he first dismissed the boxy aesthetics as a gamer raised on Quake - then realized the children were not playing, they were hanging out, the digital version of cycling around the colony with friends. Gaming for his generation was entertainment; for hers it is where social connections form, pre-dating and then accelerated by the pandemic.
Building Zionverse: the game stack and the community
⏱ Untimed topicTotality's stack aims for Minecraft-level ease of creation plus one-click publishing, with TikTok-style templates and remixing so anyone can build. The Zionverse Discord (8,000+ members at recording) doubles as a web3 school and co-creation community that gives input on games, art and dynamics, with NFT and game communities around it.
Why people will move: intensity, participation and status
⏱ Untimed topicThe pull of immersive worlds is deeper connection: infinite identities and physics, and real-time participation - spectators who can boost or block a racer instead of leaving comments. He treats monetization like Super Chat as another interaction layer: recognition and status inside a community are what people actually pay for.
The beginner's path into web3
⏱ Untimed topicHis three steps: get curious and learn from communities and creators until you can form your own opinion; get onto platforms early because platforms promote their first creators; and map your existing strength - art, marketing, writing, sales - onto its web3 equivalent, from NFT art to web3 commerce.
Rapid fire: coins, NFTs and metaverse projects
⏱ Untimed topicAsked for personal opinions (and flagged on the show as not financial advice), he names three crypto holdings - Ethereum (the DeFi architecture layer), Chainlink (NFT gaming infrastructure) and Brave's BAT (data-value browsing); NFT projects - Zionverse's own Lakshmi NFT (declared bias), Punx Comic and Mobox; and metaverse projects he watches - Star Atlas, Illuvium and Axie Infinity. These are his stated views as a participant, not recommendations.
Core Frameworks & Ideas
The social-intensity ladder
Each generation of social platform deepens connection: text to photos to video to immersive, real-time, physically unconstrained interaction. Platforms that raise intensity win because social connection is an innate human need - the Sapiens argument that tribes, not individuals, survive.
Stars-aligned idea selection
His filter before starting a business: a frontier category not yet big locally, a human-behavior driver (low-effort pleasure), working distribution, real market demand, scale potential, and a defensible edge such as technology - pursued only when the factors align.
TikTok-ification of creation
To democratize any creation medium: provide templates and remixing so the majority who will not build from scratch can still publish, and let variations on a template create both participation and richer content.
Monetization as interaction
Payments inside communities are not just revenue - they are a connection layer. A Super Chat-style contribution buys recognition and status in real time, which is why community members keep paying; commerce deepens engagement instead of interrupting it.
Actionable Next Steps
- ✓Spend one hour this week in a web3 community (a Discord server or forum) and just read - curiosity first, money later.
- ✓Write down your strongest non-technical skill and one concrete way it maps to a web3 or gaming business.
- ✓If you create content, test one template-or-remix format that lets your audience participate instead of only watch.
- ✓Treat any named token, NFT or project from this episode as a starting point for your own research - the guest's picks were personal opinions, not advice.
- ✓Join new platforms early when you believe in them: being among the first creators is itself an advantage.
Notable Quotes
“gaming will be the way you create your social connections.”
“we have only survived because we are a social being”
“if you give me the least effort to get to my outcome, I'll always choose that.”
“start becoming curious, right? Because that's probably the most fundamental trade that will carry you along”
“They've basically rung the gong in my opinion for every company, for every individual to say that web three is the future.”
“it is 95% less harmful than smoking”
“I'm a big believer in Ethereum.”
The One Thing to Remember
Whatever you are good at will be needed in web3 - the entry ticket is curiosity, not coding.