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There’s a battle raging for control of the soul of the internet. Big tech and
private capital on the one side, versus creator and citizen power on the other.
Web3 is a work in progress, its foundations being built, so before the cement
dries evangelists for a more democratic version of the Web continue to voice
their concerns.
They include Tim Tully, the CEO of crypto platform
Zelcore, who has taken to VentureBeat to advise what he thinks Web2
got wrong and where Web3 could get it right.
Few would argue with his assessment of the current internet
business model, which is based on advertising. “This model is predicated on
ownership of personal data in exchange for revenue,” he writes. “As a result,
ownership of personal, behavioral data is controlled by a few central
authorities and privacy is severely compromised.”
Another problem with Web3 is the Big Tech monopoly.
“Proprietary solutions from companies such as Apple, Google,
Facebook and others have driven clients to stay on these providers’ platforms,
within their walled gardens. The risk is shared among participants, but not the
returns. Web2 is driven by the entities that have the most data and can easily
monetize the information they hold.”
Facebook might have been built as a social networking tool,
but today Meta is essentially the top global data powerhouse.
“Web2 firms are trying to hang on to this business model,”
says Tully.
He also finds the current internet far too prone to security
risks. For instance, having private data controlled by individual companies has
led to an increased risk for hacking by bad actors.
“Hindsight is 20/20, but could these and other mistakes have
been prevented? Perhaps… [but] we are already seeing a lot of this behavior
repeat itself in Web3.”
So, for example, there is already signs of centralization of
the main cryptocurrencies in Web3: it’s either Bitcoin or Ethereum. Tully
points out that “many single protocol investments, partnerships and ecosystems
are being built by private market funding from venture capitalists and market
participants.”
In other words, central control of finance is anathema to
those who believe in building a more equitable internet economy.
In addition, he criticizes the current user experience of
Web3 apps. “Projects are focused on speed and capability, with little attention
paid to actual user experience. Or they are focused on solving a particular
problem — such as transaction throughput, smart contracts, etc. — but not on
how the problem could be solved with a horizontally integrated approach.”
Given the single protocol approach to crypto, it would be
“impossible” for someone to learn, use, and be proficient in each decentralized
finance application within all protocols.
“Big central authorities fighting hard to keep their
business.”
Tully — who let’s not forget runs a platform offering users
a way to manage all their digital assets — is a glass half-full kinda guy. He
thinks it’s not too late to resolve the issues emerging with Web3 and has a
couple of suggestions in the pipe:
For instance, he advocates “a multi-asset, noncustodial
wallet which allows users to own and control the private keys to their
cryptocurrency. This is critical to Web3 adoption, he says.
“The new paradigm is real ownership in the network. Most
big-name centralized platforms don’t actually enable users to own their assets.
They are recreating the system that is in place today at well-known custodian
platforms such as Fidelity and Schwab. This “not owning your assets” is a major
problem. Many Web3 users don’t realize that they don’t truly own their digital
assets.”
Tully is optimistic that a way can be found “to turn the
model around in Web3” such that consumers “can actually ‘own’ the data
themselves and monetize it as they see fit,” though this will take a lot of coordinated
work.
I’m not so sure. If we are already at the point where Web3
is heading in a direction where it needs to be turned around, then we may
already be too late
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