Original Sin!
Sins of the Internet. What was the original sin of the internet?
“We forgot to add a money protocol!”
Without a money protocol the main objective of the Internet is advertising and this is a direct consequence of not being able to build payments into the browser.
The Internet without a money protocol is essentially what we would call today Web2 and Web2 publishers are in the business of selling eyeballs.
Let’s jump into the future (actually the now) and we have Web3. A money protocol built into the browser. Web 3 can fundamentally change the business model of the internet. We can bake value mechanisms directly into a browser.
What if writers, like us, could sell our articles as NFTs, allowing our biggest fans to support us and become early investors in their work or musicians or any creator for that matter?
What if loyal followers could send tips directly and split them with collaborators in a few clicks—no banks or credit cards required.
What if you could create and send tokens to your supporters as a reward and build a vibrant community or start a DAO?
All of this is possible today thanks to the world of Web 3.
Web 3 is all about ownership; data ownership and the ability to have a payment protocol built in so as not to need a third party who will own or sell your content/data.
The three crucial foundations of Web 3 are:
- Artificial intelligence (AI)
AI will help in decoding and filtering online data and offering the most relevant choices to users.
- Internet of things (IoT)
IoT will help the interoperability layer of Web 3 to connect the Internet to smart devices.
- Blockchain technology
Blockchain will help in achieving decentralized data storage and foster faith in the virtual world.
Web 3 will reverse the current mechanism and make the users sole owners of their data.
How will Web 3 transform the digital era?
Web 3 has the potential to guide in a consumer centric future web which will be open sourced and focuses on security and privacy and allow exchange of data and assets from peer to peer between users and machines. It will change the way humans and machines interact by creating and allowing trustless data transfers, automated cryptocurrency payments and easy ownership transfers.
Currently Ethereum is leading the way to many of the Web 3 applications called decentralized applications (dApps).
Ethereum hosts these dApps on user operated nodes directly on the blockchain. This allows anyone to use them without needing to monetize the data of the users.
Let’s look at some examples of web3 in practice:
- Bitcoin – The original cryptocurrency has been around for more than ten years, and the protocol itself is decentralized, although not all of its ecosystem is.
- Diaspora – Non-profit, decentralized social network
- Steemit – Blockchain-based blogging and social platform
- Augur – Decentralised exchange trading market
- OpenSea – A marketplace for buying and selling NFTs, itself built on the Ethereum blockchain
- Sapien – Another decentralized social network, built on the Ethereum blockchain
- Uniswap – Decentralized cryptocurrency exchange
- Everledger – Blockchain-based supply chain, provenance, and authenticity platform
