Seriously, Do Not Get Left Behind. Web3.0 Is Not New
What Is Blockchain?
Blockchain is an algorithm that has unlocked the world of Web3. Think of it as a distributed database that can record transactions in a way that makes it nearly impossible to corrupt or hack.
The simplest way to understand how it works is to think of every transaction as a collection of data that includes a code linked to the transaction before it in the chain. This way if any record is manipulated or deleted, the chain would be broken, and the ledger is exposed as fraudulent.
A critical characteristic of this algorithm is that it is completely distributed not centralized. This means no one source can be accessed to manipulate, the chain is stored and verified in a wide network of nodes making it near impossible to hack. This feature of blockchain has proven very useful where security is paramount, like cryptocurrency.
But beyond mainstreaming or over hyping Crypto, another technology that is surely here to stay with us are smart contracts. The prospect of direct, peer-to-peer interactions that are publicly auditable, fully transparent, and which remove the need for a third-party, is a tremendously attractive proposition. And this is exactly what web3.0 smart contracts achieve. Faster, cheaper, immediate, open source and transparent trusted settlements that cut out the red tape and middlemen. Any agency that has charged a commission or fee for such contract work in the past in on the redundancy horizon. Web3.0 Smart Contracts processed on blockchain will ask these legacy industries and "professions" to evolve, change and adapt or simply disappear as irrelevant and no longer needed. Think Henry Ford and the Model T production line that revolutionized car manufacturing. Web3.0 smart contracts has the potential to do the same thing to white collar contractual intermediaries, that to this point, we have paid fees for settling and handling "the paperwork". Trusted secure smart contracts conducted entirely on blockchain are already removing these barriers to efficiency, lowering the cost of doing business and now with scalability, this pace of adoption is only increasing. Witness what leading technology, banking, financial, real estate and legal firms are currently investing in and you can see a rapid trend towards smart contract web3.0 adoption. This "Adopt, Innovate or Die" (reduce costs and remain competitive via web3.0) is already very real at the corporate level. These new ways of doing day to day business will quickly flow towards every mum and dad corner store and every small business who want to also reduce fixed costs and remain as profitable and efficient as possible. Smart web3.0 on chain contracts (aka tokenization or token economics) are here to stay and will become the norm for all business transactions, no matter how large or small, within 5 years. Look at what the connected product cloud at atma,io are already doing with on chain supply smart efficiencies. World Leading Business, at scale. Cheaper, faster, secure, transparent and trusted. These on line digital efficiencies will flow to all who adopt on chain business as their web3.0 or smart contract model. It will become the default way of using the next iteration of "The Internet".
While the delta between going from no-Web to Web1 or from Web1 to Web2 is significant, even obvious and relatively easy to grasp, going from Web2 to Web3 is apparently not. A fruitful way perhaps is to enumerate the values, the principles and the goals of this coming phase, as well as the problems that we wish this new iteration to solve for us. Why is web3.0 better and more efficient?
No matter the use case you decide to research and explore, scalability, creativity and usability are three important qualifications for a successful business case within Web3. But the most important qualification is owning and sharing your unique story in a clear and understandable way. A way that is true to the future of the innovative Web3 but can still resonate with the current Web2 crowd. This is easier said than done because just as translating jokes from one language to another, seeing nascent Web3 technology through the old Web2 eyes often falls flat.
What is "web3.0"?
How and Where is "The Internet" evolving?
How Can I Keep Up?
Do Not Worry, this next iteration of "The Internet" is evolving and won't arrive overnight, despite what some shonky quick buck sales people will try and tell and sell you.
Simply remain alert, aware and abreast of foundational underlying technology and avoid the surface hype. Don't get sucked into quick fix solutions nor fast fortune crypto pyramid ponzi MLM schemes. Those crypto cowboys who ride into town all guns blazing and promising the world will die off soon enough. The old tech "proof of stake" and "proof of work" ways of doing business are already dying off and many more efficient, faster, more secure and cheaper web3.0 technologies are evolving and replacing them. This will continue and some underlying understanding should be on any business or consumer horizon so you don't get left behind.
What Is Blockchain?
What is "web3.0"?
How and Where is "The Internet" evolving?
How Can I Keep Up?
Blockchain is an algorithm that has unlocked the world of Web3. Think of it as a distributed database that can record transactions in a way that makes it nearly impossible to corrupt or hack.
The simplest way to understand how it works is to think of every transaction as a collection of data that includes a code linked to the transaction before it in the chain. This way if any record is manipulated or deleted, the chain would be broken, and the ledger is exposed as fraudulent.
A critical characteristic of this algorithm is that it is completely distributed not centralized. This means no one source can be accessed to manipulate, the chain is stored and verified in a wide network of nodes making it near impossible to hack. This feature of blockchain has proven very useful where security is paramount, like cryptocurrency.
Web3 is about open source, decentralization, frictionless transaction, collective and community base creation, data and retained IP ownership by creators, access to deeper human meaning and core values rather than simply to "profitable" corporate information, creation of meaning, creation of solutions to world issues and new ways of connecting rather than just via transactional information, all with high levels of security and privacy.
Even though the general publics interest in the hype of crypto crashes, expensive JPEG NFT collections and the gaming metaverse has declined significantly via the mainstream media since January 2022, the interest in the underlying technology (which is DLT, blockchain and the nascent DAG technology) of Web3 hasn’t been affected within the web3.0 community of creators, builders and early business use case adopters.
Those leading businesses (like atma.io) who continue to innovate using open source, pay attention by steadily contributing to and responding to community needs and can offer scalable solutions to critical global issues (like ESG) at scale, are all beginning to coalesce into what is becoming "web3.0".
The early marketing hype (especially the snake oil, get rich schemes of "cryptocurrency") is fading and a wider, broader, long term base of connected technology protocols is beginning to see a common human values community of practice base emerge. This iteration of web3.0 is sustainable for the next century via trusted shared worlds with a mutuality of lower costs for transactions, open source transparency, time stamped speed to finality and aBFT security.
Those on the ball businesses and consumers, who also own and contribute with broader visions, community values, early leverage and adopting wider open source shared perspectives will be the new community web3.0 leaders in the coming decades. Just as a few "closed wall big tech" companies dominated "the internet", data ownership and financial profits during web2.0.
Web3.0 may well be the return to a re democratized, trusted, open source web that Tim Berners Lee first envisaged the WWW to be. Let's remain aware and see what emerges on the next few months. Not years.
