Building to stay, not just for hype

Some people discover entrepreneurship by accident. For me, it was always the plan. As a kid, I was running side hustles, and by the time I reached high school, I knew I wanted to build something that would create impact on a global level. Even during my time at Microsoft, it was obvious to me and my boss that this was just a stepping stone, and I would eventually go and start my own projects.

So when I discovered crypto back in high school in 2017, I knew it was a perfect fit because it combined two of my biggest passions: finance and tech. Over the years, I explored different ecosystems to understand how technology, economics, game theory, and psychology could work together in harmony to create the resilient, permissionless systems we now call Web3.

That curiosity is what led me to the Polkadot Blockchain Academy (PBA) in Hong Kong.

My path into Polkadot wasn’t about chasing trends. It was about following a vision that I had since childhood: to create something global and lasting. And in many ways, the Academy was the spark. What came after was the reality of building a startup, discovering why technology is only part of the equation, and learning why Polkadot is the ecosystem best suited for founders who want to build for the long term.

That single decision gave me the perspective, connections, and conviction to build Peer3.

The builder’s reality: Tech is not the hardest part

Being a founder is never easy. You have to be comfortable wearing many hats. Beyond building the tech, you are responsible for everything, from fundraising to hiring to setting the vision and culture. It is a constant commitment, and the only way through it is genuine passion for what you are creating. You also have to be comfortable hearing “no”, which is a lot more common than hearing “yes”. Beyond your own competence and ability to execute, forming a great team is probably the most important thing you’ll do as a founder. You probably won’t get it right the first time, but slowly and surely, with persistence, you’ll get there.

For Peer3, the Polkadot Blockchain Academy was more than a learning experience. The Academy created a network of trusted peers and provided a direct funnel of talented builders who shared the same ethos. Many of our team members came directly from the PBA, which took enormous pressure off one of the hardest parts of being a founder: building the right team.

Combined with early support from the Web3 Foundation and the Polkadot Treasury, the Academy gave us the foundation to grow Peer3 with confidence. That combination proved that Polkadot is one of the best (if not the best) ecosystems for long-term builders, not just for hype.

There's more: Watch Luka Stanisic's Into the Blocks interview on X.

What is Peer3?

Peer3 was created to show that Web3 can deliver products as seamless and scalable as the Web2 systems people use every day. Our flagship product, Peer3 Poker (launching soon), is a true permissionless implementation of poker that executes in real time. It gives players the same smooth experience they expect from centralized platforms, while staying true to the philosophy of Web3.

We deliberately chose poker as our first mass market product, since poker is a very large global market worth more than $100 billion, without a practical decentralized implementation. If Peer3 Poker succeeds, it can bring entirely new audiences into Polkadot while generating value that fuels the next wave of innovation. At the core of this vision is the Peer3 SDK, technology that allows real-time smart contracts to run directly between users without transaction fees. Thanks to the support of Polkadot’s on-chain treasury, we are making this SDK available as a public good for the entire ecosystem.

Choosing Polkadot

The vision and culture I try to set at Peer3 is that we never want to compromise or cut corners on our quest to provide truly resilient and scalable systems. The same ethos is deeply embedded in Polkadot. From a business perspective, Polkadot provides the most resilient and cost-effective computation on the market, and it does so in a predictable way, which is very important for any business. Peer3 uses Polkadot’s infrastructure as the ultimate shared security layer, or as I like to call it—the Supreme Court. This Supreme Court must always be available and resilient. This single factor eliminated many of the ‘faster’ and ‘cheaper’ networks/ecosystems that occasionally experience downtime, where the network halts. 

Apart from the tech, as I mentioned before, the Polkadot Blockchain Academy is one of Polkadot’s greatest assets. The educational course is by far the most advanced in the industry, but the true value of the PBA is all the doors it opens and the amazing hiring funnel it creates.

Further, Polakdot has the most advanced onchain governance mechanism in our industry. The capital it can allocate is unmatched by any other DAO in any other ecosystem. Once again, we’re very fortunate and grateful to the Polkadot community for the trust and capital provided.

Where we would love to see improvements in Polkadot is on the VC (Venture Capital) side. Many VCs in crypto (that we spoke with) in crypto are short-term driven and just want to pump and dump their bags. They don’t really care about long-term and lasting impact, and you’re just a number to them. We don’t blame them, since the majority of crypto use-cases thus far didn’t have any long-term utility and mostly relied on short-term hype and Ponzi economics. With Polkadot and Peer3, we’ll try to paint a different story—Web3 that brings real utility, is practical, and solves problems for end users. Generating real and lasting intrinsic value.

A call to action

Keep an eye on peer3.to and x.com/peer3_to for updates. We’re launching a testnet soon and will have an early adopters program to distribute some rewards and collect feedback before mainnet.

You can also request early access to our Vanguard Program, an incentivized community/ambassador program (details yet to be announced). Email vanguard@peer3.to and briefly tell us why you want to be part of the story.

If you’re super passionate about the mission and think you’d be a good fit working with us full-time, send your resume to jobs@peer3.to—we’re always hiring!

And if you are a developer, a founder, or simply someone curious about building in Web3, there has never been a better time to get involved. Polkadot is the platform for serious builders who want to create products that last, and the Academy is the perfect place to begin that journey.

If you are ready to take the first step, PBA is where it all begins. Learn more and submit your interest in the next PBA campus.