The era of web 3.0 is coming: what does this mean for you and your business?

While there are still major challenges to be overcome in building the future of the blockchain-based internet, we need to start diving into this topic now. And the sooner the better.

Most people tend to succumb to advertising. Most people don’t like what they don’t understand. Most people only learn something new when it’s already staring them in the face and they don’t have a choice. It would be better if you weren’t one of them.

Most of the web 3.0 related cases are looking for quick and easy money. If you want to get involved in the longer term, it would be a good start to understand the challenges facing the underlying infrastructure on which the new virtual world will be built. Although web 3.0 is inevitable, it will take another five to ten years for the world to resolve the problems that prevent its mass adoption, namely: reduce costs, increase scalability and accessibility, and train the masses to work with new technologies. All this makes mass adoption achievable in the medium term.

When the blockchain was originally conceived, one of its main advantages was to be cheap transactions. At first it was, but after a few years, popular networks became extremely expensive and energy-intensive.

What happened? Some governments, instead of promoting progress, have taken counterproductive actions. For example, China, previously a major crypto mining hub, has introduced severe restrictions by banning crypto mining.

On the other hand, one cannot fail to note the more active introduction of energy-saving technologies, as well as hydro, wind and solar stations that produce “green” energy used for cryptocurrency mining. There are positive changes at a lower level as well. For example, many dapp developers use minimal code on the actual blockchain to avoid high transaction costs. In addition, there are more and more companies using alternative ways to monetize the network, which also reduces transaction costs.

The next issue to be addressed is the lack of scalability. The throughput of many decentralized blockchains is far from ideal. This entails a slowdown in the speed of transactions as the network grows and an increase in transaction costs. For example, on the Ethereum network, “gas fees” are used to compensate for the computing power expended by miners to process and verify transactions. At peak times, gas charges can reach tens of dollars, which makes transfers of small amounts, which are the majority on the network, extremely expensive.

Another problem is that the computing power of the hardware is lagging behind the real need.

So, according to Intel engineers, in the next five years, the computing power of microchips will increase by 5-10 times, when for the mass implementation of web 3.0 this power should be thousands of times higher. To somehow solve this problem, a growing number of projects are working with off-chain transactions in order to reduce processing time, and then return transactions “completed” in this way back to the blockchain. Solving the problem in this way creates new problems related to consensus and governance. So, while software innovation is happening faster than ever before, there is still a huge gap: hardware development is far behind software development.

Have you ever wondered why many people like to book accommodation through Airbnb and order a taxi using Uber? Everything is very simple! Thanks to a brilliantly organized service delivery process. And not the last role in this is played by platforms that provide an easy and convenient way for customers to interact with service providers. Everyone likes to work with interfaces that seem intuitive. If you try to organize something like this using web 3.0, this will entail a number of inconveniences.

The problem is that existing web browsers do not support direct access to web 3.0 features. You will need an appropriate wallet that supports Ethereum, Solano, or another cryptocurrency that you plan to accept as payment. You will need extensions or plugins to adapt the crypto wallet and web browser. In addition to mass adoption of web 3.0, it will also require educational content to teach the masses how to work with it. The task is not easy!

The last major barrier to mass adoption of web 3.0 is accessibility. A significant part of the world’s population does not even have access to web 1.0 and web 2.0. Elon Musk, with his Starlink, is still trying to provide Internet connectivity to anyone from anywhere in the world. Of course, significant progress has been made on this issue, but much more remains to be done. In addition to universal coverage, it will require a massive upgrade of server hardware and user devices, which, unfortunately, are not yet ready for the digital revolution.

Despite all this, the development of digital technologies that bring us closer to web 3.0 is happening at an impressive pace. If the car took about 50 years to become a mass phenomenon, then the Internet took half as long. And while it will take us time to create an open and accessible network, it won’t take a decade. As we noted above, 5-10 years is enough.

Now that you know that full web 3.0 is coming in a few years, what can you do now to avoid being left on the sidelines? Get started with three simple steps:

• Self-teach

How well do you understand the basics of web 3.0? What projects or programs do you follow? Choose a couple of information resources that will help you understand the main trends in your industry? Set up Google alerts and use “web 3.0” as your keyword more often. Once you do this, you will receive a lot of useful information every day about everything that happens in the digital space.

• Learn from the experience of the pioneers

Some brands are already using web 3.0 technologies. Think Nike, Adidas, Pepsi or Zara. What can be learned from them? What tools do they use and how does it help them interact with customers? How successful were their ICOs or NFT launches? What problems do they solve? How have they adapted their business models? What did they do wrong? Learn from their mistakes and achievements and you will be able to progress faster.

• Start Small

Web 3.0 will inevitably affect the future of finance as all financial transactions will sooner or later become decentralized. You, as a market participant, will need access to decentralized finance (DeFi) to stay competitive. Where to begin? For example, one of the easiest ways to get started right now is to set up a crypto wallet and purchase a web 3.0 domain that you can use to run your web applications. Consider, for example, how difficult it is to buy a simple .com domain right now. The same, sooner or later, will happen with web 3.0 domains.

Instead of renting a .com, .org, or .io domain name, as most do today, buy a web 3.0 domain and you become its actual owner. You can use the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) to purchase a domain. From there, you can link it to your wallet address. You can then provide customers with an easier way to pay instead of sending them your long wallet address. This will get you off to a great start. You don’t have to push yourself too hard – just make sure you take the time every day to learn the core concepts of web 3.0 so you can be on top of the trend when the time comes.