What is Web3?
A comprehensive overview of the trends, technologies, important sectors, key players, problems and potential of Web3.
Few people truly understand the potential of Web3.
It’s not – as most people think – simply the “next version of the internet”. Instead, it’s creating the world’s first autonomous digital nations.
Seemingly disparate verticals such as cryptocurrencies, DeFi, NFTs, smart contract platforms and DAOs will combine to form the building blocks of “borderless” economies that operate outside of the purview of the existing financial, legal and political ecosystem. These new organizations can eliminate many of the costs, restrictions and regulations that hamper us today, and may also help overturn centuries of inequality and economic oppression.
To understand why this is so relevant now, consider the fact that we are becoming a digital species. Over 5 billion people use the internet and the average American spends more than 8 hours online everyday (over 50% of our waking hours!). The technology has revolutionized information sharing, communication and connectivity, becoming arguably the most efficient system for organizing people that has ever existed.
5+ Billion People Use the Internet, Spending an Average of 8 Hours Online per Day
Despite all this, the internet is still a vassal to legacy economic systems. It is almost entirely controlled by third parties – we make transactions in national currencies such as the US Dollar, digital goods are created and controlled by companies such as Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple and the space is subject to a patchwork of local laws and regulations – such as the European Union’s GDPR or China’s Great Firewall.
The technology behind Web3 changes all of this, and allows us – for the first time in history – to create fully sovereign, self-sufficient online economies with their own:
Money: Cryptocurrencies will replace national, fiat currencies as the new nation’s money
Financial System: DeFi will replace banks as the native financial system
Native Goods: NFTs – assets which are entirely created, used and owned online – will become the native goods of this new economy
Laws: Smart Contract Platforms will replace local administrations and legacy legal systems as the governing law
Corporations: DAOs will replace corporations as the primary economic entities
The potential for this shift is massive, as liberating the trillions in value created by the internet into its own sovereign entities could change the world in ways we can’t even imagine.
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