Judge someone by the ideas they bring to the table not their credentials. Sounds simple in concept but is way more complicated once you take a closer look at it.
I've been involved in the web3 space for a decent amount of time now. I do not know the names of the folks I've met online (just their alias). I have no idea about their background, just visibility into the ideas they bring into the anonymous chat gated by wallet ownership.
They don't know anything about me either, however in this vacant space where one is only identified by the ideas they share I've managed to find some incredibly sharp people. The upside of making value judgments on ideas over credentials means everyone thinks before putting ideas out and most of the mediocre ideas (and personalities) are drowned out.
So is this how things should be? Unfortunately no. The flip side of credentials vs. ideas is that individuals with malicious intent can also have good ideas. We've seen this play out countless times in crypto - people giving their money to a smart young person only to find out they're doing unethical things with it.
I've grown to definitely ignore credentials and focus more on what ideas one wants to work on, but we are definitely nowhere close to leaving all forms of credentials behind.