By Vikram R Singh

There is a lot of talk about companies being prepared for the future. But when it comes to adopting a future-proof technology like blockchain, most companies hit the pause button.

However, without public blockchains, institutions and individuals cannot take advantage of Web 3.0, the possible future version of the Internet.

Decentralizing and Democratizing

The importance of Web 3.0 is its decentralized nature. In essence, individuals and institutions can own and rule segments of the Internet and conduct virtual transactions without intermediaries like Google, Facebook, or Apple. Since central authorities and intermediaries do most of the data collection, user privacy can be better protected through Web 3.0.

Consider decentralized finance (DeFi), a component of Web 3.0 gaining global traction. Through this, real-world financial transactions can be executed on the blockchain without the intermediation of banks or governments. Security is protected as Web 3.0 developers refrain from creating and deploying applications that operate on a single server or store data in a single database.

Web 3.0 attracts frequent mentions of cryptocurrencies because many of its protocols are heavily dependent on cryptocurrencies. As an innovative database technology, blockchain forms the core of almost all cryptocurrencies. Since the blockchain distributes carbon copies of databases throughout the network, it is extremely difficult to cheat or hack the system.

Interestingly, Web 3.0 offers tokens or monetary incentives to those who help govern, create, contribute or improve one of its projects. The tokens represent digital assets tied to the vision of building a decentralized internet. The protocols can offer varied services such as bandwidth, storage, computing, hosting, identification, and allied online services that were previously extended by cloud entities. People can earn a living by participating in the protocol in a variety of ways, technical and non-technical.

Why Web 3.0 trumps Web 2.0

Unlike Web 2.0, the Internet will evolve into a more realistic 3D cyber world through Web 3.0. Popular use cases will include e-commerce, online gaming, and the real estate segment, all of which use 3D graphics. One of the biggest advantages of Web 3.0 over its predecessor is that the chance of corporate or government censorship will be minimized while at the same time negating the impact of DoS (denial of service) attacks. Consequently, it promotes greater privacy, trust, transparency and reliability.

Additionally, Web 3.0 protects data by preventing access by others unless the users authorize it. In addition, the blockchain guarantees direct verification of data and identities, making it difficult to create fake accounts.

Transforming games and other segments

Driven by its benefits, Web 3.0 has transformed many industries, including gaming. Today’s games rely on centralized servers to store all game-related data, which is then controlled and operated by game administrators. The lack of highly efficient centralized servers and mainstream games foster opportunities for hackers who trigger cyber-attacks/shutdowns, jeopardizing digital assets.

But Web 3.0 offers innovative solutions like DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) with decentralized gaming ecosystems, crypto-secured gaming wallets, ownership of blockchain-linked gaming assets, and metaverse gaming.

As a value exchange game model, web gaming allows people to own and trade in-game collectibles and items through unique NFTs (non-fungible tokens) using cryptocurrency. An open source web game guarantees decentralization and own sovereignty, democratizing the segment. For example, by making digital technology accessible, Web 3.0 offers equal opportunities and services for all. Consider Web 3.0 wallets that only need an Internet connection. In this way, millions of people without access to banking systems gain immediate access to the global infrastructure.

Similarly, by integrating blockchain technology and the metaverse into games, Web 3.0 has revolutionized the gaming universe. Along with DAO, these elements drive the financial side of the games. These aspects are helping players engage in remunerative activities including play to win through NFTs and in-game digital asset trading.

While Web 2.0 has made it easy to connect seamlessly with family, friends, and colleagues, traditional social networking sites are all centralized. Due to this, users face numerous pain points such as censorship, data breaches, privacy violations, platform takedowns, server outages, and more. These drawbacks mean that the disadvantages far outweigh the advantages. To avoid these problems, many companies and developers have moved to Web 3.0 social networks, considering the comparative advantages.

The development of Web 3.0 is also giving rise to a new technological era with DeFi components along with MetaFi (metadata financing), GameFi (video game financing) and SocialFi (social financing). Furthermore, it is popularizing decentralized digital assets like NFTs and SBTs (soul-bound tokens).

Empower e-commerce and content creation

In addition to people, the blockchain is becoming increasingly important in the global economy, including the e-commerce segment. Around the world, more than 30,000 places currently allow consumers to pay with cryptocurrency, including big brands like Expedia, Microsoft, and Overstock.

Blockchain has multiple applications and features in electronic commerce. The main ones include improving the security of customer data, reducing shipping costs, promoting transparency in supply chains, speeding up transactions and payments, eliminating the need for intermediaries, ensuring direct product delivery and facilitating the access to guarantees and receipts. It also drives business procedures and improves the overall consumer experience.

It should be noted that users spend considerable time watching videos, scrolling through their feeds, and reading blogs. However, most of the people do not receive any monetary benefits from this even though the platforms earn huge revenue from these users.

On the contrary, Web 3.0 incentivizes users and benefits them in other ways as well. Various blockchain-powered Web 3.0 portals, such as blogging, video-sharing and social media platforms, web browsers, and more, reward both consumers and creators with native tokens.

Thanks to such developments, content creation is set to benefit from blockchain. Currently, social media content creators don’t make as much money as the platforms themselves. This will all change soon, as many companies are developing blockchain-powered solutions that allow users to pay content creators directly for their work. The disintermediation of social media means that they can no longer keep the lion’s share and only pass meager amounts to content creators.

In a nutshell, blockchain is being leveraged to ensure that content creators have greater control over the sharing, distribution, and consumption of their content by the target audience. The same story is playing out in other domains as decentralized networks cut out the middlemen and pass the baton of power to consumers and developers. The future is already here in the form of Web3.0.

The author is founder and CEO of Antier

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