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What is Web3, and when will crypto take over the world?

Viktoriia Pushkina

Journalist

Jun 16, 2022 at 12:39

Another AI Waves online conference was held last week. Three blockchain experts discussed the state of the market and answered some questions about Web3 and crypto.

The answers to everything you need to know are below.

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Panelists:

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Dr. Jane Thomason — Chair of the Board at Kasei Holdings

Sophia Shluger — Managing Director for Europe at Amber Group

Sandra Mianda — Founder at paypr.work

Speakers at AI Waves Discussion about the Web 3.0, Blockchain, and Cryptocurrencies (from left to right): Dr. Jane Thomason, Sophia Shluger, Sandra Mianda
Speakers at AI Waves Discussion about the Web 3.0, Blockchain, and Cryptocurrencies (from left to right): Dr. Jane Thomason, Sophia Shluger, Sandra Mianda

What is Web3?

Sophia Shluger answers:

Web3 is a natural progression of what we have seen from Web1 and Web2.

With Web1, we had static websites that provided information. Web2 presented new socio-economic business models, including e-commerce and social engagement. And Web3 is focused more on machines and provides a more data-driven and semantic web.

The whole idea is that it will be more open, connected, and intelligent.

Also, Web3 includes dynamic applications that interconnect with data in a decentralized way, providing a quicker and more personalized experience.

Why is Web3 cool?

Sandra Mianda answers:

What resonates for me from a consumer perspective — is to have much more control regarding how you want to interact with applications and how your privacy is being handled.

Sophia:

One of the crucial distinctions between Web2 and Web3 is that in Web2, the monetization of your data was on the corporate level. So all of us have engaged with social media, and we have given up information about ourselves, and companies have utilized that information and data and monetized it.

Whereas Web3 is taking that paradigm and putting it over its head wherefore you own the data, you have ownership and engagement, and then you can monetize it yourself.

What technologies are used in Web3, and how?

Dr. Jane Thomason answers:

Web3 is going to allow a platform for the convergence of a number of different technologies, including Ai, IoT, and extended and virtual reality.

The big thing for Web3 that I do not think has come across strongly enough yet is that people are talking about it as the internet of value as opposed to Web2, which is the internet of information. That is why the significant change that we are going to be able to see is these token economies that can be created using blockchain.

How can Web3 change the world?

Dr. Jane:

Gaming is super important because now, when there is a combination of games and blockchain, people can take the digital assets they get in the game out and create it into fiat money or swap it into other games.

But we see other examples as well. For instance, the government of Seoul has announced that it is going to put its public administration in the metaverse. In Saudi Arabia, they are building a new economic zone called Neon and spending a billion dollars on making a metaverse for Neon. The regulator in UAE has bought a plot of land in Decentraland, and they are going to set up the blockchain regulator in Decentraland.

Sandra:

Gaming is vital because now it is beyond the thrill of the entertainment aspect. It can actually be utilized with the ecosystem. 

Dr. Jane:

Yes, for example, you can come up with a way to gamify and reward people for exercising, eating more healthily, or losing weight. And then, you can track this with data, and they will receive tokens when they achieve certain milestones.

There is a project called Genopex where you have these pets, but the pets only grow and develop and get stronger if you exercise. So people are coming up with these fantastic ways to incentivize behaviors that in a healthcare setting or a social setting are going to be positive behaviors. And I think monetizing data and rewarding behavior will be a massive part of this new metaverse experience.

Is metaverse going to be only about gaming?

Dr. Jane:

Of course, no. I am very interested in healthcare, and I have been thinking about what we will be doing with health in the metaverse.

AI will be involved in almost all aspects of this, from the avatars that will be programmed to meet you when you go to have an interaction with health services to many of the clinical applications that are already in existence, for example, the reading of X-Ray films.

Sophia:

There may be a much more significant influence in the healthcare industry. Consider the world issues we have had recently, such as COVID. With metaverse, you can safeguard the efficacy of medications, monitor vaccine usage, and reduce transport issues.

Besides, blockchain and metaverse can support international trade. It can be more efficient and transparent.

Also, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have huge actual use cases for real estate, whether it means the tokenization of those real-world assets that can be fractionalized and divided into smaller units or exchangeable with others.

Is Web3 something absolutely new?

Sandra:

For me, yes. For me, it is a whole new economy, so it is a whole different new business model.

Sophia:

It is new, but we would love to see more institutions come in and innovate and change their business models — upgrade legacy systems, etc. I think the institutional adoption of blockchain technology is happening slowly, but there is a lot of interest.

When do we start entering a new era — for example, start using only crypto?

Sandra:

I think that we are probably a little bit further. However, governments are talking about it, and industries such as cars and insurance are adopting it. But they come to market, and it just does not resonate. It is because firstly you need to explain to people why they need it.

So I would say we need 5–10 years.

Is crypto for everyone?

Sophia:

Sure. Because if we talk about what businesses can benefit from blockchain, the answer is all of them, though in different ways.

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