Web3 is the latest generation of the World Wide Web (WWW) and its focus is on decentralization and blockchain technology. Some of the most popular Web3 use cases are Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), Decentralized Finance (DeFi), and Metaverses. In recent times, a number of major brands across industries have shown their trust and interest in the Web3. These include American Express, New York Stock Exchange and McDonalds among others. In fact, big companies like Microsoft, Google, and Apple have already started introducing Web3 experts into their respective teams. I am extremely optimistic about Web3 for 2022.
What is Web3?
Web1 was the first generation of the World Wide Web from the early 1990s to around 2004. During this period, most web pages were static. These websites are created by businesses and used by users like you and me.
Web2 is the current second generation of the World Wide Web. A large amount of user-generated content including social media content, blogs and reviews, and more. Most of this data is controlled and monetized by big companies like Google and Metaformerly Facebook.
Web3 is the latest generation of the World Wide Web and its focus is on decentralization. Web3 is expected to provide personalized content and also allow people to control and monetize their own data.
Web3 . Use Cases
1. Blockchain-based game
2. Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)
3. Cryptocurrencies and privacy coins
4. Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs)
5. Decentralized Finance (DeFi)
6. Metaverses
7. Non-Fungible Token (NFT)
8. Security Token
9. Stablecoins
10. Wrapped property
Web3 is also giving a big boost to ‘Creative economy’ by allowing artists, authors, filmmakers, musicians, and other content creators to connect directly with their supporters and collaborate without intermediaries.
Web3 projects need attention
Akash Network
The Akash Network is called “Airbnb for Cloud Computing”. It leverages “85% of unused cloud capacity in 8.4 million global data centers, allowing anyone to buy and sell cloud computingThe platform claims to offer cloud computing at one-third the cost of providers like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft.
API3
An API (Application Programming Interface) is a piece of software that allows two applications to communicate with each other. It’s like the waiter in a restaurant, who transmits your order to the kitchen and brings your food back to you. API3 allows trusted data providers to provide cryptocurrency, stock, and commodity prices for Web3 smart contracts.
Aragon
Aragon makes it very easy for anyone to create KNIFE on open source infrastructure with admin plugins. It is used by many virtual worlds, subreddits, hacker groups, DeFi protocoland even fashion brands.
Arweave
Arweave is “a shared-owned hard drive that never forgets”. It allows permanent storage of data for an upfront fee. At its core is the ‘permaweb’ – a “permanent, decentralized web with applications and platforms such as user interface (UI) storage, database storage and querying, and smart contract.
Audius
Audius is a decentralized music streaming protocol that aims to give “everyone the freedom to distribute, monetize, and stream any audio content”. Audius is built on both Ethereum and Solana.
Basic Attention Token
Basic Attention Token (BAT) is disrupting the $330 billion digital advertising industry. Brave Browser is at the heart of the BAT ecosystem. Brave blocks ads and trackers. This makes your browsing three times faster and very private.
Chain link
How can a smart contract get data from the outside world? That’s the problem Oracles solve. They act as middleware between smart contracts and external data sources. Chain link is a decentralized network of independent oracle node operators.
civic
Civic Pass is an integrated ‘licensing tool’ that helps businesses control access to dApps. It is used by crypto communities, NFT Platform and the market, and the DAO.
Ethereum Name Service
Ethereum Name Service (ENS) is a decentralized naming system based on the Ethereum blockchain. It converts human readable Ethereum addresses like sanya.eth into Cryptocurrency address like 1Mk13r5uu51F5jQ6yGuBPxkuZw91nM4MeY and vice versa.
Filecoin
Filecoin is the Airbnb for data. It is a decentralized data storage network where excess capacity can be bought and sold. It is also the incentive & security layer for the Interplanetary File System (IPFS). Simply put, it is an unused storage market – in data centers and consumer hardware.
Helium Network
Internet of Things (IoT) is a trillion dollar industry, with billions of connected devices. To work properly, most IoT devices need to be connected to the Internet.
The usual technologies for this (cellular, WiFi, and Bluetooth) are expensive, power-hungry, or have limited range. The Helium Network is a decentralized wireless network. It allows IoT devices to connect wirelessly to the Internet and geolocate themselves without the need for satellite navigation hardware or a cellular plan.
Livepeer
Video streaming, especially live streaming, is expensive because the video has to be transcoded first. It is the process of reformatting a raw video file so that it can be viewed well on all devices and bandwidths. Livepeer is a protocol that reduces transcoding costs by up to 50 times. This is achieved thanks to an interactive peer-to-peer infrastructure through an Ethereum-based marketplace.
NuCypher
NuCypher is a decentralized encryption, access control and key management system for the public blockchains. NuCypher provides end-to-end encrypted data sharing on public blockchains and decentralized storage solutions.
Ocean Protocol
Ocean Protocol allows individuals and businesses to monetize their data through ERC-20 based data tokens. The dataset can be discovered and traded on the Ocean Market.
Ontology
Ontology is a high-speed, low-cost public blockchain to bring decentralized identity and data solutions to Web3.
Network rendering
Render Network is a distributed network graphics processing unit (GPU) The rendering network is built on top of the Ethereum blockchain. It connects artists and studios that need GPU computing power with mining partners willing to rent out their GPU capabilities.
Sia
Sia is a decentralized cloud storage platform and a data storage marketplace. It encrypts and distributes files over a decentralized network.
Users control the private encryption keys and own their data. This is not like the traditional Cloud storage provider. Sia storage can cost up to 90% less than leading traditional cloud storage providers.
Steemit
Steemit is a blockchain-based blogging and social media platform. Users earn cryptocurrency for publishing and curating content.
Graph
Graph is a decentralized protocol for indexing and querying data from blockchains.
Developers can build and publish open APIs (subgraphs) that make data easy to access. Charts are currently being used by many projects including UniswapSynthetix, and Decentraland.
Theta
Theta is like Airbnb for video streaming – viewers earn rewards for sharing excess bandwidth and computing resources.
Rohas Nagpal is the author of the Future Money Playbook and the Lead Blockchain Architect at the Wrapped Asset Project. He is also an amateur boxer and a retired hacker. You can follow him on LinkedIn.
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