What is Web 3.0?
Web 3.0 is a concept first put out by Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, and was evolved by Gavin Wood, co-founder of Ethereum. The decentralized dream that is the underpinning of Web 3.0 is not new. In fact, ideas like Web 3.0 have gone by many other names since the inception of the internet. It may be surprising to many that Web 3.0 is more of a collection of political concepts than it is technological. It is based on an architecture of distributed blockchain applications, AI technologies, and XR hardware. However, anonymous, decentralized computing encrypted across multiple computers on the public record and experienced virtually is a social choice at heart.
Computer Politics
Movements like Open Source in the 1990s, Net Neutrality in the 2010s, and now Web 3.0 are organized around the same thing—decentralization, freedom of communication, open collaboration, and privacy protection. Open Collaboration and Open Source are technological innovation and production ideas that rely on philanthropic participants without commercial allegiance who interact to create a product made available to contributors and noncontributors alike.
Net Neutrality is a preemptive measure to prevent corporations, Big Tech in particular, or political bodies from controlling data or information. In 2014, former president Obama issued the following statement.
“An open internet is essential to the American economy and increasingly to our very way of life. By lowering the cost of launching a new idea, igniting new political movements, and bringing communities closer together, it has been one of the most significant democratizing influences the world has ever known. Net Neutrality has been built into the fabric of the internet since its creation — but it is also a principle that we cannot take for granted. We cannot allow ISPs to restrict the best access or to pick winners and losers in the online marketplace for services and ideas. That is why today, I am asking the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to answer the call of almost 4 million public comments and implement the strongest possible rules to protect Net Neutrality.”
Detractors of Web 3.0 cite the potential for the proliferation of harmful content in an environment of low moderation. Liam Proven, the journalist for The Register, concludes that Web 3.0 is “a myth, a fairy story.” Bloomberg states that the ideas surrounding the metaverse and Web 3.0 are “hazy.”
Web 3.0 vs. Metaverse
How is Web 3.0 different from the metaverse? In a way, these are not different. Instead, they are extensions of the same idea. Both of these human concepts stem from philosophies and not physics. Web 3.0 is rooted in hardware like processors, VR lenses, displays, and IoT; and in software like code, data, and AI. Both Web 3.0 and the metaverse come from the same source—computers. However, the metaverse describes how users interact with software or applications delivered through evolving display technologies like 3D headsets. Web 3.0 is used to express technologies and data that no one owns, is viewable and editable by the owner, and is anonymized by tokens on the blockchain.
What This Means for Your Business
For businesses, this can mean everything and nothing. The meanderings of computer scientists are important to civilization, but in most cases, these ideas have minimal bearing on your core products. If you’re in finance, the future of global currency and transactions that will be recorded on the blockchain should be high on your list of concerns. However, if you’re in consumer goods, the practical application of Web 3.0 and the metaverse are related to your brand and consumer tracking data. Do your customers think that shopping, travel, work, and education should be experienced in a virtual format or that blockchain is the ultimate form of recordkeeping and commerce? In that case, you should be building a brand presence on platforms like Meta Horizon or Decentraland. Furthermore, you should offer transactions in currencies like Ethereum or Bitcoin.
How do you know if your target market is a Web 3.0 market? Before SliiceXR can recommend the right metaverse project for you, we start with a deep dive into your brand and your customer profile. Our signature BrandStorm™ session is designed to move you past the script you’ve been reciting about your company for years. We lead you through a series of creative exercises to get to the heart of how your customers think and what they want. We write and design your brand script, customer avatar, and a style guide from this interview. These deliverables become the immersive narrative of your company’s metaverse experience.