Augmented Reality and Web3 - The Infrastructure Waiting for Its Moment

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Why AR-Web3's first wave failed on execution, not vision — and why the infrastructure now exists for a successful second attempt.
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The first wave of decentralized AR companies (2021–2022) largely failed — but not because the idea was wrong. OVR survived by rewarding users for real contribution (map2earn); Cult1vate collapsed because its mint math required constant price appreciation to make sense. Since then, the infrastructure has matured: Apple Vision Pro and Meta Ray-Ban brought AR hardware to consumers, Layer 2 networks cut gas fees from hundreds of dollars to cents, Niantic's SDK lowered the development floor, and DePIN models replaced speculation with contribution. Mass adoption still hasn't arrived, but the conditions that made 2021 premature are gone. The next generation of AR-Web3 projects needs utility before tokens, interoperability by default, and real onboarding — but the window to build is open now.