WEB 3.0 – Can it Succeed ?

 The internet has always been used as a tool for education, research, and the distribution of information, spawning the term “information highway” in its early days.  Over the years it has evolved into a tool that can be manipulated and censored, giving rise to serious concerns about personal privacy, data ownership, monetization, and freedom.     A few internet based companies have powerful ways to control what happens on the internet. We now have companies like Facebook, Google, and Amazon that wield tremendous power over the free exchange of ideas on the internet. The power to manipulate the internet through the banning of certain users, certain web sites, and reshaping internet search results is a power that is being tapped into by national governments and international advertisers. Most users see examples everyday of targeted advertising, and realize that their actions on the internet are being constantly analyzed and used in ways they may not appreciate. The most valuable resource for the big tech companies is User Data – it is the key to generating those huge profits, and the data owners (users) are certainly not sharing in those huge profits.

So what can be done to alter the course of internet freedom, manipulation, and data usage?  Blockchain technology may provide an answer. What is being called WEB 3.0 is being developed to provide distributed processing and storage across thousands of computers around the world, all contributing to a new foundation for internet social media platforms and search facilities. The Blockchain foundation is widely distributed by design, which eliminates the choke points in the current WEB 2.0 foundation. These choke points facilitate widespread control and manipulation by a small number of large tech corporations, who will continue to be influenced, ordered, and incentivized. What is required is large scale adoption of new social media platforms and web search facilities on the Blockchain WEB 3.0 foundation, and that may not be easy given the number of users and advertisers committed to platforms and services in the control of large corporations like Facebook, Google, and Amazon. What may turn the tide is if a significant number of users demand to take back control of their data and start to earn a share in the profits that advertising can generate.

The promise of WEB 3.0 includes the concept of data portability, where a user can quit one platform and port all their data over to WEB 3.0 infrastructure, where there is the choice to opt in or out of data sharing. Opting in could generate advertising profits when user data and posts generate significant web traffic. The currencies used on WEB 3.0 would all be crypto tokens, and profits could be made via blockchain mining and opting to market your data to advertisers. Web 3.0 can integrate artificial intelligence (AI) in ways not seen before. For instance, instead of a Web 2.0 Search Engine merely generating a list of web sites, a query on Web 3.0 will invoke a “computational knowledge engine” to provide you with all the information you want on the queried subject. This will be like having SIRI, ALEXA, or BIXBY on steroids, where the system can decipher meanings and emotions, based on the user’s choice of words or other input.

Blockchain technology ensures that all data is secure and cannot be altered, as it is stored in multiple global locations, free from the grip of governments and the direct control of the tech giants. This would be much more in line with Net Neutrality and the free flow of information that the internet should provide. Just like today, not everyone will agree with what is being said on the internet, so it becomes the responsibility of each internet user to search out those sources of information that are trustworthy, factual, and reliable. Journalism used to provide that kind of trust and reliability, but with the internet giving everyone an easily accessible voice, it has come down to each individual to separate the good stuff from the rubbish.

The purpose of TREND DISRUPTORS is to discover and monitor scientific and technical developments that have the potential to DISRUPT a market sector. We look for the best ideas, so that we can generate actionable investment recommendations for our subscribers. As a general rule, our recommendations are speculative, and we advise caution, discretion, and thorough research. We strive to identify investment opportunities that can lead to success for the well informed investor.

Stay tuned !

Note: Subscriber to Trend Disruptors Premium will be receiving a new recommendation in the Web 3.0 space later this week. If you are not a subscriber but would like to receive this and all  other recommendations, click the button below to access a $200 savings off the regular price.