- the new digital space without borders

What is web3

Web3 is the new internet in the making. It is a digital ecosystem based on decentralization, equality, transparency, and trust.

It is decentralized because it does not rely on big corporates owning the digital space. It does not create barriers that centralized entities, currently controlling huge chunks of the web and data stored on it, created. It gives back the power to users of the space. Power to control and own their data and power to transfer value.

Another principle on which web3 is being built is equality, meaning that everyone can take part in building and using the ecosystem freely, without any limitations.

Transparency and trust are assured on the web3 through usage of blockchain or other similar technologies, which allow for direct connections and dealings between users, without having third parties involved. This means that any value can be transferred between users directly.

Web3 will be mainly built on blockchain and AI. AI applications will help to organize and use data (which create a digital value) and the blockchain technology will help with its ownership and transfers.

Sharing and open-source mechanisms are also core to web3. It is the direct answer to the currently closed off internet of today, where big players do not allow for free data sharing.

What are the premises of web3

Web3 is working with the following premises: (i) What can be digitized (tokenized) will be digitized (tokenized). (ii) What can be automated, will be automated. And (iii) what can be networked, will be networked.

(i)          What can be digitized (tokenized) will be digitized (tokenized)

We already see this happening. Every day more and more real-world assets are being transformed into their digital counterparts. We can now tokenize, i.e. store rights to an asset in the digital form, pretty much anything. The only thing that is slowing down this process are obsolete systems and technologies.

The digitization in the web3 space usually takes form of different “tokens” – data containers holding and representing specific rights or values. These can be either fungible, meaning that the tokens are interchangeable (like bitcoins, for example) or non-fungible (so called NFTs), meaning that they are representing a right towards some unique set of data (like pictures, videos, any other art or media, but also certificates, etc.).

Tokenization allows for quick, safe, and cheap (because it is done without fees of any middleman) rights and values transfers and also creates opportunity for better transparency, because all the transactions are typically visible on the distributed ledger.

Token-based crowdfunding then leverage from the network of crypto natives all around the world and can be a very potent way how to raise funds, again, in a very flexible and agile way.

(ii)         What can be automated, will be automated.

Automation comes into play in web3 especially via usage of smart contracts, which are programs stored on blockchain that run when predetermined conditions are met. They are typically used to automate executions of decisions or agreements so that all members or participants of the given deal can be immediately certain of the outcome, without any intermediary's involvement or time loss.

Smart contracts are used so that people can rely on the expected outcomes in the digital world. This means that unless the smart contract’s program is changed, it will always create the same results after it is triggered by pre-defined conditions. Things that would otherwise have to be done manually can now work without anyone’s intervention.

This will, of course, ease up many processes, because the only thing that we will have to care about is the right setup of the smart contract network.

(iii)        What can be networked, will be networked.

The web of digital data - ownership, use and transferability of which will be automated - will then create networks of human-machine relations, which will allow us to do our activities much faster, more accurately and in a much more organized way. New possibilities of human organization will emerge.

Attempts for such new types of organizations, so called decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), we see already today. When we finally figure out for them the right governance structure, when we assure technological reliability and provide for appropriate legal solutions to ensure compliance with applicable laws, these new types of organizations will become the new norm.

Web3, finance, and science

The decentralized nature of web3 gave rise also to decentralized finance, or DeFi. DeFi is the way how to leverage the possibilities of the distributed internet and give power back to regular people in activities like lending, borrowing, trading, investing or insurance. All these financial operations now can be done peer-to-peer, directly, without relying on any centralized platform of any financial institution, like a bank or insurance company.

What DeFi still lacks though is in the general orientation and goal, which is only profit. And in this sense, it has rather degenerative than regenerative effect on individuals, organizations and the whole planetary ecosystem.

ReFi, or regenerative finance is a type of decentralized finance which aims, rather than on profit, on restoring our ecosystems and maintaining the natural resources, thus creating on our planet a place of happiness and overall well-being. This cannot be really achieved when our ecosystems are being constantly misused and natural resources exploited for the benefit of the corporate world and its constant thriving for economic growth and overconsumption.

DeSci, or decentralized science, similarly as all the other applications of web3 mentioned above, aims to give the science community more control over their organizations and platforms. The main goal is to decentralize and therefore set free the following three parts of the scientific process:

(i) The process of selecting reviewers and recognizing their work, using a reviewer reputation system in which review reports may be rated, (ii) the server-less research dissemination, by distributing academic articles through the peer-to-peer network, and by default provisioning an open-access by-design infrastructure, and (iii) the transparency of the whole peer review process, through the use of blockchain technologies.

Conclusion

All the above-mentioned use cases of the web3 space are emerging for one reason – to give back power to the people. So, they can do their activities on equal basis and without reliance on any unnecessary third parties.

Also, thanks to digitization, automation, and the network effects of web3, people will be able to spend less of their time on tasks without added value and can do more of that what they like to do or feel like they are meant to be doing. Which is to be creative, authentic, and express themselves in the society through their personal art, whatever that may be.

When it comes to peoples’ interactions with the automated world of machines and computers, for the time being, people still will have to take care of the maintenance of the digitized automated networks and training of the machines and robots. Soon though, even this will be taken over by the machines through enhanced machine learning capabilities.

Using the data received through different IoT sensors, oracles and other data gatherers, machines will soon do all the work when it comes to non-creative repetitive tasks, including any data collection and management, predictions, transactions, interactions with humans, other machines and so on.

Like this web3 not only gives back power to the people, but also builds a foundation for the future machine-administrated digital world, which will hopefully ease the burdens of repetitive tasks and tedious manual labour.