When it comes to the online world, everything we do is networks. No matter where we look, this is the case.
Look at this list:
- the Web
- payment systems
- social media
- marketplaces
All of these are networks. Everything we go in the digital world, we are on a Network. Even the connection, whether phone, cable, or satellite, is a telecommunications network.
Therefore, the rules of networks is fairly important.
Of course, most are happy with how things are going. The challenge stems from permission. All our networks are accessed with approval. This is something that Web 3.0 seeks to address.
Web 3.0: Bring Power Through Decentralized Networks
A couple decades back, a small group of companies started to emerge as gatekeepers for networks they were creating. Today, they are some of the largest businesses in the world.
While many benefits were brought to average individuals, there is a major drawback. Innovation is completely stifled from start ups.
These entities do not allow experimentation and innovation to take place. No start ups are being built on social media networks. The entities controlling them will not allow it.
Our gatekeepers are highly intelligent, very competitive and understand the game. They are not going to openly allow anyone to enter their network and jeopardize what was built. Since permission is required, this is effective.
It is what creates the winner take most scenario.
Since digital platforms excel at capturing incremental increases in value and spreading them to all users, the network effect keeps growing. The problem is, with centralized networks, the financial benefits flow to one entity.
Web 3.0 enters are realm that is different from networks in the past. Where we saw a shift, and why regulation is ineffective, is traditional networks were hardware based. Even today, the ISP aspect of a telecommunication business is mostly hardware.
The Internet is full of software-based networks. This is a radical shift.
It is also what opens the door for Web 3.0.
Developing Protocols
The key to Web 3.0 is developing protocol networks. These are networks that are controlled by the software engineers and other stakeholders. This is in sharp contrast to the corporate systems that are commonplace.
By developing protocols, anyone is free to build upon them. Here is where innovation can be reintroduced to the Internet. It also opens up a host of potential in terms of reframing the ownership of what is created.
Today, whatever is build, is owned by the corporation. When it comes to the user activity, what are we really talking about.
Ultimately, everything is a webpage. Connections are not made among people. Your Facebook followers are not humans but, rather, just a list of webpages linked together. The same is true for a blog post, Tweet, or comment. Each has a URl that we can identify.
Corporate networks ensure that every page is used to not only grow the network, but also to maintain control. Again, anything that threatens that is removed.
Web 3.0 takes a different approach. Once software is released, the developer is no longer in charge. Certainly, there are proprietary code bases yet the foundation is open source. From here, anyone can build on top.
At the same time, data that is posted on a blockchain mirrors this same concept. Anyone is free to pull the data and incorporate it into an application.
We can even go one step further. By utilizing cryptocurrency, we can assign individual page ownership by using a non-fingible token (NFT). No longer are the contributions of individuals the property of the corporation.
Consider, for a moment, the idea of Reddit. This is going public with an IPO in the billions. Who is getting that money? Are the users who posted the content being compensated? Of course not.
This is going to the owners and, perhaps, venture capital firms who funded the operations. It is NOW their time to cash out.
Reddit is also selling the data, to the tune of $60 million per year based upon the agreement which was announced. Is any of this money going to the ones who submitted the data? Again, we know the answer.
Corporate networks are not to the ultimate benefit of the users. Protocol networks are a completely different story.
Read Write Own
By now, most have heard of this concept.
The first iteration of the Internet was basically read only. Web 2.0 added the ability to write as evidenced by social media.
Web 3.0 is going to provide the Web 2.0 abilities yet add ownership.
The unique thing about blockchain is how they are controlled. It is essentially a new form of computing. Hardware and software are separated in ownership. This means anyone can be a network stakeholder, enjoying the same power and economic upside previously enjoyed by the corporate overlords.
Many of the early developers of the Internet believed the potential of this medium resided in the free flow of information. That was what many envisioned. Sadly, we know it did not turn out this way.
Is Web 3.0 the opportunity to change that? It would appear this hold the potential. As powerful as software is, the true value in the present configuration of the Internet is in the hardware. Social media companies, as an example, thrived because they were able to ride the growth abilities of software. Their main defense, however, is still in the hardware.
They control the servers.
Web 3.0 alters this completely. As these two are broken apart, the advantages of software innovation becomes evident. Start ups and innovators can suddenly build on top of these network, utilizing what was already built before. This is something that is impossible in Web 2.0.
Which brings us to the timing of things.
Web 3.0 will follow an exponential growth line based upon the filling of the networks. Going to the granular level, it is the data that is the single unit of everything digital. As this expands, innovators can start developing things which end up feeding in more data.
Here is where the circular nature of digital networks takes hold.
In this instance, the power is even Greater than in Web 2.0 since we are dealing with decentralization. If we consider the fact that we are now in the information economy, what type of impact does this have?
This is the power of decentralized networks.
And Web 3.0 has the potential to unleash it in ways the originators of the Internet envisioned.