As many people in the Web3 space continue to build for the future, it is easy to overlook the areas of Web3 technology that are impacting our lives today.

In this expert interview with Nikolas (Nik) Moore of Utiliti, Nik provides us with a forecast roadmap of how Web3 will impact our lives in the short term, medium term and long term.

Current and Short term Web 3 Applications

According to Nik, short term adoption of Web3 is most prevalent in the gaming industry and brands looking to introduce digital loyalty programs.

Gaming studios are providing skins, weapons, other items in game as NFTs so they can compete better in the marketplace for players. It removes the black market for player assets and allows game studios to provide an safe environment for players to sell their items while the gaming studios can get a percentage of the transaction fees.

Luxury French brands and larger retailers in North America are pursuing digital assets and NFTs to relate better to their customers. Effectively they can put their NFTs on a mountain and then get their best customers to climb the mountain to get them, so brands know the people holding them are their best customers. Brands will then offer these NFT holders discounts, bonuses, rewards for going in store and invites into a community, building a strong and engaged customer focus group at a fraction of the cost.

Medium Term Web 3 applications

In the medium term, people will be looking to digitalize anything they own that they can transact freely and build on top of, for example their spending habits, internet history or social media profile or content.

In this timeframe, transactions that often involve non value added middlemen are likely to be impacted. This is likely to disrupt industries such as travel, entertainment, ticketing and booking hotels. For example, airlines will sell their tickets as NFTs and facilitate transfers in the marketplace where a user no longer able to fly on that date can sell to someone who does for the same price. The cost to both the airline and customer is likely to be less so both parties benefit.

Longer term Web3 applications

The longer term implications of Web3 center around building a better relationship between consumers and their data.

Currently, businesses holding consumer data on their balance sheet is a risk given the potential for regulation. As data is a digital asset that can be owned by consumers, in Web3 corporations can serve offers, unlocks, bonuses, newsletters and anything else without having to hold a customer’s email address, home address or transaction history on their database, they only need the customer’s data consent.
Nik forecasts that customers can choose which businesses hold their data and which parts of it, people will own their own social graph and the world will end up on-chain with real time tracking your receiving payment for your work by the second and real time payment of car leases or insurance claims and sharing of medical records between doctors (with the patients consent) for the best care.

Conclusion

Ultimately, as Web3 progresses, many aspects of a person’s life will be able to commoditized into a digital asset to benefit users.