By Neeraj Khandelwal

In today’s fast-paced and changing world, the Internet remains the primary catalyst for change. Web3 is emerging as your new growth engine that is driving the shift towards a decentralized, transparent and creator-led economy. The latest iteration of the Internet is expected to solve many fundamental problems of Web2, such as putting more control in the hands of users, more privacy over data, ending Big Tech’s monopoly, etc.

The year 2022 has laid a strong foundation for Web3 with discussion of important topics like unfair censorship and data security gradually starting to come to life. This move will eventually empower users by giving them back the power to control their own data. The digital economy without the traditional gatekeepers and intermediaries will be the next phase of the Internet.

Seamless switching between Web2 and Web3

The Web3 landscape is expanding with each passing year, 2022 being another critical year in its build phase, with $30 billion of funding flowing into blockchain projects. With the spotlight on ‘Developers and Builders’, the year saw great progress in the underlying technology and Web3 infrastructure. Emerging DeFi apps are designed to be easy to use with great user interfaces. In 2023 and 2024, many of these applications will revolutionize this space.

As the barriers and layers that prevent people from getting into Web3 applications are simplified, we will soon reach a point where users will be able to access Web3 with the same superior user experience that is currently available on Web2. The dApps (decentralized applications) on Web3 will be powered by blockchain technology, which allows them to run without the need for a central authority. It means that users can interact without revealing their personal details, leading to less censorship. Users will seamlessly switch between Web2 and Web3 applications and may not even realize that your application is powered by the underlying blockchain technology. The experience will be seamless and fluid just like current fintech applications, but with complete data privacy.

Transparency and control

2022 has essentially shown that transparency and control are the most critical aspects of this industry. The fallout from FTX, the second largest crypto exchange, and a few other incidents have made self-custody wallets more relevant than ever. However, the focus now will be on making self-guarding extremely easy to use. The industry can no longer burden the user with the responsibility of managing a 12-24 word recovery phrase.

Many stakeholders are working aggressively to address this issue, and the solution lies in the development of cutting-edge technologies that remove seed phrases, multi-layered security, assisted recovery, and much more. The overall goal is that a user should ‘own their cryptos’. The previous narrative – Neither your keys, nor your cryptography will soon be replaced by Your keys, your cryptography. It is important to resolve the single point of failure, where users lose all their funds if their keys are lost or compromised.

Increased use cases for greater penetration

While usability might be the highlight of 2023, users will gradually experience how Web3 will affect their daily life, for example Web3 alternative to email (decentralized mail – Dmaill), entertainment, games using blockchain, booking platforms for taxis, social networks revamped to incorporate Web3 Features (Twitter as an example), digital identity, DAO, dApps, decentralized cloud storage, decentralized browsers, etc. -commerce and natural language processing makes the interaction more intuitive, personalized and efficient. With more people exploring DeFi opportunities, innovative financial products like lending, staking, yield farming, swaps, and LPs will see increased user penetration.

NFTs

A great example is the evolution of NFTs, where the shift away from art-focused NFTs has already started; what needs to be seen is how quickly NFTs could become more useful to non-collectible users. This year, entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk showed how a digitized token can be used as a one-time ticket to a live event when he issued tickets to his VeeCon crypto conference using utility NFTs. In 2023, we could see more use cases like memberships, digital products, and intellectual property. Unique digital ownership, an inherent feature of NFTs, will extend to both the digital and physical realms, and tokenization of real-world assets will become more common.

Gaming

One possible route for more users to benefit from decentralization is to integrate Web3 into current applications. A hybrid of Web2 and Web3 will essentially rule the Internet space for years to come. Metaverse will be an additional element where the games will be more entertaining and will allow monetary benefits for potential players. This can be a way of redistributing wealth from game companies to the community, a Web3 promise that will make the Internet more fair and inclusive.

DEX to be more popular

The decentralized exchange (DEX) market has seen a rise in recent years as it offers a higher level of security and privacy compared to its centralized counterparts. In a DEX, trading is done on-chain, making it fully transparent with no dependencies on a third party to facilitate the completion of transactions. Additionally, DEXs are frequently built on top of specific blockchain protocols, such as Ethereum. Given the recent cases of scams and fraud, users demand more transparency along with control over the maintenance of their passwords and data. Also, as the market matures and more people become familiar with DEXs, the user experience is expected to improve, making DEXs more accessible to a broader audience.

Additionally, DEXs are frequently built on top of specific blockchain protocols, such as Ethereum. As the blockchain ecosystem evolves, it is likely that DEXs will become more integrated with various other protocols, allowing for greater interoperability and increased liquidity.

Conclution

Web3 will revolutionize the way the world does business. It will give birth to new business models, new opportunities for collaboration, innovation and productivity will emerge. The technologies used in Web3, i.e. blockchain, edge computing, VR/ AR/ are ubiquitous and not restricted to one sector, industry or organization, but allow for growth and development on a larger scale. Companies can take advantage of the benefits of Web3 through a better client interface, interoperability, greater control over security and direct access to the end user without intermediaries. Web3 presents a tipping point toward a newer and better next-generation Internet.

The author is a co-founder of CoinDCX.

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