Web3 is a buzzword. Many, such as Gary Vaynerchuck, compare it to the birth of the internet, with similar rewards for those who gain quick entry (Vaynerchuck is a legendary Web2 marketing guru).
But like all buzzwords, fads, and trends, the majority of the population has no deep or meaningful idea as to what it really entails.
To understand what is happening with Web3 and the wider global economy, we need to investigate Web2. And we also need to look at some of the underlying philosophical principles underlying the world of commerce.
Moving Beyond Web2
Web2 relates to large centralized companies; chiefly Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon. But it further refers to any centralized online platform such as UpWork, Twitter, LinkedIn, Uber, Airbnb, etc., that provides a service for profit.
These are companies, otherwise known as “service providers”. They provide a service in return for financial compensation. In order to make this happen, the Web2 model necessarily entails a customer-business relationship. You are given a unique account number with associated details (email, DOB, subscription level, etc). A customer service representative is on board to ensure that you are happy with the service.
The issues with this Web2 model quickly became known. First, these service providers are well known for selling sensitive information. And it’s something of an open secret that Google uses the information to present you with advertisements. This goes for voice commands and keyboard input, and whether your devices are listening around the clock is not quite certain.
Another issue is the shareholder model, with corporate executives able to make decisions that benefit a small number of individuals while often destroying the planet in the meantime. Social cohesion takes a back seat to investor profits in this model.
The problems with these service providers are manifold and the scandals are too many to cover even in a million-word thesis. Unless you’ve been living with your head in the sand for the past 50 years, you know all about them. So let's move on to a solution that already exists, but needs increased awareness and adoption - Web3.
You pay heavily for Web2 in many ways. The price for these conveniences might just be too high.
Integrating Into Web3
You might be wondering how the economy is going to work without Facebook, Google, Amazon, Uber, Airbnb, UpWork, and all the rest. And the answer is that these functions will still exist but under a different model.
Web3 essentially eliminates the shareholder model and also eliminates the account model. This is the single most important thing you can ever understand about Web3. You are no longer a customer with a business. You are no longer a number in a corporate spreadsheet. There are no vultures accessing your personally identifiable information for trends and patterns.
Web3 is built on distributed ledgers, i.e, blockchains. Through distributed ledgers, your information is anonymous, but you can still access the service. The best description would be that it's a service, without a provider. It is supported by miners/nodes/servers, who take a micro fee from transactions but have no access to you personally. Your account cannot be closed or suspended arbitrarily.
At the end of the day, Uber, Airbnb, Skyscanner, Facebook, and LinkedIn - it's all just connecting people together through a software interface. It’s all automated. Software platforms built on distributed ledgers can perform this functionality without taking exorbitant fees. Aside from the obvious equality, they are far faster, cheaper, and more versatile.
You also get a vote on where the organization is going through staking mechanisms and Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs).
By getting on board with Web3, you can have all the benefits of Web2 with none of the sides - but you need to be proactive and take time to research the ecosystem and contribute towards it.
Is Corporate Commercialism Really Dead?
The days of large corporations in their existing formats are indeed numbered. Distributed ledgers are changing everything. Every single large Web2 organization has many sharp, innovative, flexible, low-cost, and dynamic Web3 alternatives. And it's not just one industry:
- Social Media - Lens Protocol, Glimpse, LivePeer, gm.xyz, Sapiens, GetZion, Minds, etc.
- Banking/Defi - Compound, Nexo, Thorchain, Akropolis, Debank, etc.
- Real Estate/Home Rental - Lofty AI, Rentberry, Cryptobnb, Ezystayz, Trips Community, etc.
- Publishing And Content Creation - Mirror, Steem, Cortex Network, Deso (formerly Bitclout), Sigle, LBRY, etc.
Yes, it's going to take quite some time and many of these companies are not yet ready to host a similar level of users as compared to the big tech firms.
But Facebook and Instagram could be closing down their European branches due to data integrity issues. As one Twitter user commented on the potential Facebook closure:
“Meta $FB threatened to shutdown Facebook and Instagram in Europe over EU regulatory concerns related to user privacy.
Imagine that…when you take away their ability to share people’s data without their permission,Meta doesn’t have a business!!”
There has also been a number of high-profile individuals that have stepped down from their positions. Elon Musk has now taken control of Twitter. Along with Jack Dorsey, Jeff Bezos of Amazon has (suspiciously) stepped down in recent years.
Web3 Builds On Web2
Remember that you’re not “losing” anything with Web3. Mortgages, property transfer, social media, publishing, banking, payments - all existing functionality is just going to be conducted through smart contracts on distributed ledgers. Web3 is everything you already know; just better, faster, cheaper, private, and secure.
Corporations will not have to adapt or die. They will simply die; they are no longer relevant.
And they will be replaced with Web3 projects where people are rewarded equitably for their contributions, not their political or financial influence.