Starbucks deserves plaudits for embracing Web3 technologies such as non-fungible tokens and the metaverse in its latest marketing push, but the company still doesn’t fully understand the merits of decentralization, to the detriment of the customers it’s trying to reward.

That’s according to a recent op-ed by Jack Vinijtrongjit co-founder and CEO of AAG, who states that while Starbucks’ approach to the metaverse is the correct one, its Web3 strategy is completely wrong.

The main problem with Starbucks’ Web3 strategy is that it has simply recreated the kind of “walled garden” that has become synonymous with Web2 under a different banner. In doing so, it has trapped its customers within its own ecosystem and denied them the opportunity to interact with other brands and experiences.