Nikolas Moore (or Nik) from Utiliti.ai likens Web 3.0 technology to a big pie, which can be broken down into the following components:

• Cryptocurrency
• NFTs
• Decentralised computing and file storage
• Social platforms moving on chain
• Banks moving on chain
• A move towards decentralised governance so users of any platform can have a better experience
• A new way for people to relate to each other on the internet
• Some financial instruments

What Is The Value Underpinning Web3 for Social Media Users?

One of the biggest advancements in Web 2.0 was to allow businesses and people to begin sharing their own content on the internet. However, ownership and control of this content has traditionally been held by a few larger search engines and social media platforms.

There is tremendous value in this content being created and one of the core objectives of Web3 technology is to bring a level of transparency and fairness to content sharing where ownership reverts back to the creator.

A great example of this is Lens Protocol, which effectively allows you to own your social graph, being both your followers and content, on a social platform. Taken then to its extreme, if you decided to you wanted to move to another social platform, you could then simply take your social graph and move it entirely to the new platform.

This is a big step away from what is currently happening where if you got blocked or banned on a social media platform you lose all of your content and history.

Consumer Data Ownership & Web3

One of Nik’s visions for web 3 making a difference to the world is for consumers to share in the value they create for companies. It is a notion of “The value I’m creating for the world by being a person in that world comes back to me”.

Challenges Being Faced In Web3

There is no doubt Web3 is facing challenges in acquiring mainstream adoption. First and foremost is the number of bad actors in the space listing a speculative cryptocurrency coin or token and then running off with the proceeds, known as pulling a scam or rug in the industry. Combined with the collapse of FTX and Luna, consumer confidence in the space is low.

At the same time, it is also complicated for someone new to Web3 to enter the space. It is this ease of access that Nik and his company Utiliti are aiming to solve, addressing the question of:

“Hey, what is new set of infrastructure look like to support mainstream people onboarding into this space without having to change their lives meaningfully in order to get access to the benefits that can be found here”.

At the same time, baseline education in web 3 that used to be the domain of mainstream media which is now more interested in sensationalism of bad actors is also required.

On a more positive note, Nik gave the example of how a blockchain class being run at Stamford University was heavily oversubscribed, so there is a real level of interest in understanding this new technology.

Conclusion

Web3 is far more than speculative new investment opportunity and has the potential to meaningfully improve people’s lives, for example through data and content ownership where you can own your own social graph.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on the What is Web 3.0 video above. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.

We’d also love to invite you to watch all episodes of Web3TV where we share inspiring stories of all things web 3.0 at www.web3tv.com.au/watch