Unstoppable Domains Channel Head Sandy Carter Talks ‘Hard’ Web 3.0
Find out why former AWS exec Carter calls Web 3.0 “the next evolution,” and how the indirect channel will benefit.
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Sandy Carter, as most partners know, ran AWS’ public sector initiatives for close to five years. That time with AWS represents just a drop in the bucket, though, when considering her time in tech.
Carter’s work as a tech builder goes back to 2000, when she proved herself an integral creator in the mobile commerce and digital content management sectors (Web 1.0). She then spent a number of years at IBM, where she ran social media efforts (again, Web 2.0), and with startups before taking on the AWS role 2017.
Throughout her career, Carter has also distinguished herself as an early and dedicated diversity, equity and inclusion champion.
Carter makes no bones about it: “I love AWS,” she said. “They taught me so many amazing things.”
Even so, the lure of a new venture in a new tech specialty proved strong.
“The opportunity that Web 3.0 and the metaverse presents” was too good to pass up, Carter said. “There aren’t many companies today … in this space.”
Recall Carter’s background as a leader on the forefront of the internet’s growth. The chance to bring Web 3.0 into the mainstream, into the channel, fit her well.
“This, I think, is the next evolution of what I think the internet is going to be,” she said. “I’m a builder … and I like to help explain the next generation of technology that I think is really important.”
In fact, diversity, another of Carter’s passions, dovetails right into her new role.
“We’re early in the game and have the ability to insert diversity right up front,” she said. “We can create things, do things, change the game for diversity.”
Wait. How, exactly, does Web 3.0 promote diversity? Well, Web 3.0 comes from cloud and blockchain-based technologies that have morphed into these funny-sounding concepts called “non-fungible tokens.” NFTs go beyond cryptocurrency, which one can fairly call a place of privilege; they have entered the art world. So, purchasing digital art from the women and people of color who are creating it represents a way to support and foster a more diverse world wide web.
“This is going to be a really powerful way to equalize the internet,” Carter said.
When you buy into a Lazy Lion, for instance, designed by a woman, “you’re actually buying into the community and the spirit around that,” Carter explained. “It’s like buying into a country club or joining a book club.”
Web 3.0, in other words, is all about diversifying ownership, “diversifying where the domination occurs,” Carter said. “In Web 3.0, the token economy, that’s really where the individual takes control back.”
Before we get to Carter’s plans for the Unstoppable Domains channel program, it’s important to further understand Web 3.0. As Carter indicated on the previous slide, Web 3.0 puts power into the user’s hands — not a company’s. Instead, people own their data (through a domain such as one of Unstoppable’s) and decide how much of it to share, sell or use in a different way.
“If you look at partnering, that opens up a lot of opportunities for partners as well,” Carter said.
For example, your Web 3.0 website as a channel partner can contain all your information — say, company, email, wallet, NFTs, apps you use and more — but you decide who gets access. Partners can integrate their Unstoppable logins into their apps (which could be Web 2.0 or Web 3.0 apps — “the Web 2.0 opportunity isn’t going to go away for some time,” Carter emphasized.) and get to them via single sign-on (SSO). Almost 60 companies integrate logins with Unstoppable Domains.
Let’s get deeper into the partnering aspect.
When a channel partner logs in to a Web 2.0 site or app today, “you probably, as an MSP, put a lot of people around having that service available or you purchase that log-in service and are paying a lot of money,” Carter said.
Unstoppable Domains, on the other hand, provides a free SSO service that lets the partner share, as we mentioned, email addresses, apps or other information you know will better serve the customer. That’s a way for partners to dip their toes into Web 3.0 without yet signing up with Unstoppable Domains.
Before we talk about the partner program, it’s vital to have a little more insight into Unstoppable Domains. The company is a three-year-old startup that Carter says is growing 400-500% every year and showed a profit in its first year. Instead of providing “.com” URL endings, Unstoppable offers “.nft,” “.crypto” and “.wallet,” among others.
Those domains replace the “very long letters and numbers” that come with cryptocurrency purchases and sales.
“If you miss one letter or digit, you can lose everything,” Carter said.
So, for instance, a channel partner’s URL would be your name followed by .nft.
OK, but what about actually teaming up with Unstoppable Domains?
Carter is working to create a formal Unstoppable Domains channel program. The company does have partners reselling its domains. It also does some work with ISVs, integrating apps “just like I would with AWS, an SAP app on top of AWS,” Carter said.
“It’s similar, but it’s a whole different world.”
How, then, do partners get in on Web 3.0 early?
“My vision right now is that we would first make it easier to partner,” Carter said. “Part of that ease would be [making] the user interface more self-service, so taking page out of AWS’ book.”
Unstoppable Domains has a sales engineering team that works directly with partners to help them integrate data. But that’s about as far as things go in terms of formality.
“Now, with three years under our belt, we would like to develop a formalized partner program to make it really clear what your choices are, the clear benefits and how to register,” Carter said.
She knows she needs to move quickly.
“Right now we’re serving hundreds and hundreds of partners but here very shortly it will be thousands and thousands.”
To achieve that, Carter first intends to lead the way in simplifying this new approach to the internet.
“Web 3.0 and the metaverse have to become more consumable,” she said. “It’s too hard, frankly. It’s way too hard.”
To jump-start that conversation, Carter plans to keep talking with partners. On the day she spoke with Channel Futures, she had four meetings set up with partners she used to work with at other companies.
“They don’t want to be left behind.”
The key is to start understanding what sets Web 3.0 apart.
“Web 3.0 is starting out on the cloud, so it has the benefit of being able to spin things up, pivot, because of access to the cloud on day 1,” Carter said. “If you think about blockchain, it’s all running in the cloud. … Many of my past partners are reaching out to me because they see the promise of blockchain,” Carter said.
Look for Carter to educate the channel — and the industry — as much as possible. In fact, she just got chosen to deliver a keynote speech on Web 3.0 at the annual South by Southwest festival.
Don’t worry if you’re confused by Web 3.0. Wrapping one’s head around the concepts and capabilities will take time. Carter gets that.
“It is hard and I do think that is a big inhibitor to further adoption,” she acknowledged.
However, don’t expect the difficulties associated with Web 3.0 to slow Carter in evangelizing the future. She has some advice for partners.
“You’ve got to learn and be curious,” she said. “Learn the terminology. Start going down the rabbit hole and really exploring, and then experiment and play. The very first place you start is a domain, which is where Unstoppable Domains comes in. It’s a gateway to that Web 3.0 world. And then you start playing around. … If you’re a business, go look at decentralized finance. … Then play around on forums like Discord and Telegram. … This will be interesting for MSPs and consultants to start looking at and asking, ‘Do we need to consider these decentralized apps?’”
Don’t worry if you’re confused by Web 3.0. Wrapping one’s head around the concepts and capabilities will take time. Carter gets that.
“It is hard and I do think that is a big inhibitor to further adoption,” she acknowledged.
However, don’t expect the difficulties associated with Web 3.0 to slow Carter in evangelizing the future. She has some advice for partners.
“You’ve got to learn and be curious,” she said. “Learn the terminology. Start going down the rabbit hole and really exploring, and then experiment and play. The very first place you start is a domain, which is where Unstoppable Domains comes in. It’s a gateway to that Web 3.0 world. And then you start playing around. … If you’re a business, go look at decentralized finance. … Then play around on forums like Discord and Telegram. … This will be interesting for MSPs and consultants to start looking at and asking, ‘Do we need to consider these decentralized apps?’”
Former Amazon Web Services (AWS) exec Sandy Carter is once again at the helm of the internet’s next big transformation: Web 3.0.
Recall that Carter helped lead the way during the e-commerce craze (Web 1.0) and then its subsequent social media phase (Web 2.0). Now, she’s working on Web 3.0 and once again as a head of channel. And if you’re not yet familiar with the so-called “metaverse,” don’t worry, you will be. Carter, for one, will make sure of that.
Unstoppable Domains’ Sandy Carter
That’s because Carter now runs the channel program at Unstoppable Domains, where she is senior vice president and channel chief. Unstoppable Domains builds blockchain-based identity platforms. It mints its domain names as NFTs, so users can replace cryptocurrency addresses with their names. This simplifies transfers and helps prevent error. The domains also can host decentralized websites, act as a chat ID and more. NFT domains are user-owned and controlled.
Check out our slideshow above for takeaways from our exclusive chat with Carter.
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