IT department heads look set to increase their interest in the array of opportunities Web3 is ushering in, according to a leading analyst. Yet is Web3 configured to provide these advantages that businesses are seeking?
There is much hype, as a well as potential, around the Web3 concept. This latest iteration of the Internet embraces personal data, apps, eComm, fintech, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, blockchain, the Metaverse, smart contracts among other concepts.
One area that has received less attention are the human aspects. These are important considerations because some aspects of Web3 are not ready to perform. If people do not control their interactions and their data, they risk losing control of their very lives.
While emerging Web3 peer-to-peer protocols have made great progress, and Web3 applications are already generating real benefits for enterprises and users, these protocols have not replaced existing network infrastructures.
The real needs of a digital interaction-dependent world
This means that Web3 is potentially failing to support the real needs of a digital interaction-dependent world, one where technology is integrated into human interactions. This is the view of Anantha Krishnan, founder and CEO of Sarva Labs.
Krishnan tells Digital Journal: “While Web3 is poised to be a transformative technology, much of the hype around it has created unrealistic expectations—especially given where the technology is in its lifecycle. Much of the articulated use cases have been off the mark, missing critical opportunities for productive communication around the technology, while also fostering a poor foundational understanding of its intention and practical usefulness.”
Krishnan believes the transition to Web3 is not about simply improving technology. Instead, Krishnan says, what is required is a foundational paradigm shift that breaks existing perceptions that seem too narrow to instead see its full potential.
According to Krishnan: “To establish a network that will mimic the complexity of human interaction and better enable a digitally interacting world, people on the Internet must elevate control of the infrastructure they use: their ID, their data, their storage and even their conception of value, so they can choose their own road,” Krishnan explains.
“Today, the Internet works according to a system designed for the Information Age. The current framework of the Internet hands all power over businesses and individuals to a handful of intermediaries like Amazon and Facebook. These unavoidable, controlling intermediaries strip users of any rights or privacy over their digital lives.”
Krishnan says that, in these early stages of Web3, the focus should be on developing a global network whereby value is not another currency, or cryptocurrency, but rather an outcome of a free form value discovery—one that supports the inherent creativity and individuality of each participant. He goes on to explain that it should be one that puts them in control as he believes it was meant to be, ostensibly leaving them—and the global collective—happier on a perceptible level.
To address what has been deemed major impediments to Web3 adoption, Krishnan’s own company is pioneering a new computational model: The Interaction State Machine (ISM). He underscores that this ISM-based protocol differs from previous Web3 protocols by incorporating participant context and preferences—such as trust—into the computational model itself. “The first of the ISM-based protocols is ‘My Open Internet,’ or MOI, which is a context-aware peer-to-peer protocol and a blockchain network that empowers its users to dynamically control their identity, storage and digital assets based on their unique needs,” he explains. “Uniquely flexible, MOI is designed to work for almost any type of interaction.”
