Harnessing the Power of Blockchain and Web 3.0 for Business

There is major buzz around blockchain and Web 3.0 and how they are set to transform the online world through decentralising the Internet. But are these just lofty aspirations or the start of something truly revolutionary? Here we give the low down on blockchain and Web 3.0: what they mean, why they matter, and how you as a business can take advantage.  

The attraction for many organisations when it comes to harnessing Web 3.0 and blockchain technology is the ability to build your own economy.  

Take our work with motorsports and media giant Veloce, for example. We launched Vextverse, a fully decentralised platform with its own cryptocurrency: VEXT. Creating a new ecosystem for the brand and offering its millions of fans a new way to engage in and be rewarded for their fandom.   

The ultimate goal for many organisations is to generate income while they sleep. After initially seeding and jump-starting an online economy, companies can then reap the rewards as the economy grows. 

But becoming your own central bank is not an easy achievement. Whether a business will be successful in doing so relies heavily on the number of users that participate in the economy and the technology that underpins it.  

Regulation and law are constantly changing. For businesses looking to harness emerging technology, and build an online economy, expert strategy is required – and that is where we come in. 

The Evolution of Web 3.0

Platforms like MySpace epitomised the early 2000s era of the Web and the significant shift of users from passive content consumers to active creators and interactors. Yet, while the content evolved, there wasn’t necessarily a huge leap in technology, but rather an upgrade in infrastructure.  

We talk about Web 3.0 as if there were a Web 1.0 and Web 2.0, but these labels are more retrospective. This was when the internet’s primary purpose was information dissemination. Berners-Lee envisioned a “semantic web,” where it wasn’t just read by humans but understood by machines. 

Web 1.0 represents the beginning of the Internet with read-only web pages. Web 2.0 marked the explosion of social media giants and e-commerce, seeing the global network become the Internet of reading and creating. Web 3.0 represents the next step in the Internet’s evolution, where we’ll be able to transact value directly: the Internet of reading, creating and owning. 

Now it is the first time ever that an Internet user can transfer digital property directly without needing to involve any intermediary or ask a server’s permission in a truly peer-to-peer exchange. 

The Web 3.0 community aspires to a future in which this will be embedded into the existing infrastructure of the World Wide Web. So that not only can you send and receive information, but you can send and receive value ubiquitously. But can this happen? 

The future of Web 3.0

The World Wide Web was gifted to us 30 years ago, allowing us free and easy access to the Internet through simple-to-navigate web pages. However, innovation is not typically funded with a view to giving things away for free. It’s created by people building something revolutionary and then creating a monopoly. The real test for Web 3.0 is whether the proponents will remain true to their ideals once they are successful. We hope so, and we believe in the dream of Web 3.0, but the proof really will be in the pudding. 

There are countless examples of organisations that promote what we now consider to be “Web 3.0 ideals” including democratisation and interoperability before they make it big, only to quickly sweep this aside when they obtain a dominant market position. 

Take Facebook as an example: fifteen years ago, you could embed your Facebook wall on your blog or website using its API. Facebook’s objectives here were clear: they aimed to ensure that Facebook content was visible to a broad online audience, as web users were scattered across various websites, and Facebook content needed to be easily accessible everywhere on the Internet.  

The moment Facebook became the behemoth we know today, the API access was shut down and interoperability ceased. Again, Facebook’s driver was commercially obvious: the majority of eyeballs were on Facebook, so why would they want to reward the users that were elsewhere with their content? The notion that interoperability isn’t technically possible is usually nonsense; it just doesn’t pay. 

A totally ubiquitous, interoperable payment and transaction layer underpinning the World Wide Web is a beautiful dream, but one that remains a complex business model away.  

Businesses can still harness blockchain and Web 3.0 technologies to innovate, create profit and drive unique user experiences within their own communities and brand circles. Cryptoassets are now recognised as being capable of constituting legal property, and the opportunity to build valuable economies founded on property rights presents itself.  

Increasingly these technologies, combined with Machine Learning (ML), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the Metaverse are paving the way for a new evolution in how technology serves and enhances our daily lives.  

Get in touch

At MDRx we are the only consultancy in the world that provides an all-in-one solution, offering sound strategy, cutting-edge technology, and world-leading legal expertise at every stage of your digital transformation. Saving you time, money, and a lot of headaches.  

Backed by best-in-class lawyers, our expert team of business strategists, software engineers, and data scientists harness emerging technologies to fuel genuine growth.  

If you want to find out more about how Web 3.0 and blockchain technology can create value for your business, then get in touch.