If we assume that the WWW revolutionised information and that the Web2 revolutionised interactions, the Web3 has the potential to revolutionise agreements and value exchange. Web3 changes the data structures in the backend of the internet by introducing a universal state layer, often by incentivising network actors with a token – nothing changes on the front end for a user. The backbone of Web3 is then represented by the Blockchain or similar distributed ledger.
In Web2 and traditional finance, value flows inwards. Value accrues to the insiders—the founders, the investors, the gatekeepers. As a result, it’s created misaligned platforms that leaves no value flowing outwards towards a networks actual contributors.
Web3 reverses the flow of value from inwardly concentrating to outwardly distributing value directly back to its users.
Instead of Web2 platforms competing on which can capture the most attention and extract the most value from its users, Web3 structures will compete on which can sustainably create and distribute the most value for its users. The question of “How much can I extract from my users” then evolves into “how much value can I give to my community?”
As Web 3 social structures distribute value outwards, our relationships with the platforms we use are going to evolve from extraction to enablement. The capacity to compete for our attention using outward value,fundamentally changes how platforms will behave for decades to come.
Berners-Lee pioneered the early development of the internet in 1990 when he was a computer scientist at European researcher CERN and by the mid-1990s the introduction of web browsers such as Netscape ushered in the era of the World Wide Web or Wed 1.0. This was the age of static web pages retrieved from servers, a far cry from the slick content that is taken for granted today. Most internet users at that time were delighted by features such as email and real-time news retrieval. Content creation was still in its infancy, and users had little opportunity for interactive applications.
Web 2 turned the bland and static web pages of Web 1.0 into interactive, socially connected, and user-generated content. Web 2.0 makes it possible for user-generated content to be viewed by millions of people around the world virtually in an instant which led to an explosion of user-generated content. The exponential growth of Web 2.0 has been driven by key innovations such as mobile internet access and social networks.
However, most internet activity became highly centralised and centred around a handful of Big Tech companies all acting as gatekeeper intermediaries owning and monetising user information and generating huge fees for investors and themselves but not for the ordinary users who gave those networks their data and value.
The online services that we have come to use on a daily basis, farm huge amounts of our personal data. On average, people spend nearly 6 hours and 42 minutes online each day. It wouldn’t be all bad if we made money from the data we create while spending hours and hours online, but unfortunately, that’s not the case today. It is said that the average user could make around $444 a year from their personal data, but thanks to how Web 2.0 is set up today. The reality is online behemoths see your data as their own and monetise it for their own balance sheets.
Web 3.0 represents the next iteration of the evolution of the web that could potentially represent as big a paradigm shift as Web 2.0. By contrast, Web 3.0 is built upon the core concepts of decentralization, openness, and greater user utility. Blockchains immutable ledger coupled with tokenisation can now offer a distributed model away from centralised oligopolistic fee generation to one that returns value to the users that participate in a network as well as allowing them to control and directly monetise their own data. This new emerging landscape is forming the Internet of Value because it is doing for value what the internet did for information.
Where is housing and its users in relation to Web1, 2 or 3? The static-ness of housing due to non-digitisation is a far cry from even the simplistic benefits brought on by Web1. Most users struggle to get any efficiency from any asset digitisation, it’s highly siloed, it’s not interactive and there is little value creation to users.
Blockhouse is enabling housing and its users to teleport straight to a Web3 solution. Its immutable home logbook records the provenance of a home’s history throughout its lifetime, facilitating continuity of knowledge, accountability and transparency whilst overlaying a digital thread on a stubbornly analogue asset. It’s bringing Web 1 assets, users and providers together into a Web3 network that serves value to all its users, aligns incentives and rewards them for creating value and network contributions.
