I had never thought about how to popularize Web3.0 (Web3 for short) until I saw He Caitou mentioned the following three questions in the article "Three Questions about Web 3" a few days ago:
1. What scenarios cannot be accomplished in Web 2 but must be accomplished in Web 3?
2. If so, how many people need Web 3 products in this scenario?
3. In this scenario, will Web 3 products be more efficient in solving problems?
To sum up, it is nothing more than "What problem does Web3 solve?", so I think by answering this question, everyone can have a preliminary understanding of what Web3 is.
Part 1: What problems does Web3 solve in different fields?
1. Finance
The Web3-related products and concepts that everyone has heard of, such as NFT, GameFi, DeFi, XtoEarn, digital currency, digital collections, etc., are almost all related to finance. It is closely related to money, so the emergence of Web3 has attracted more attention than the emergence of Web2. (Maybe it’s not the emergence of Web3.0, 90% of people don’t know the concept of Web2.0 Web1.0)
For most of us, the financial products we have come into contact with are nothing more than bank deposits, YuXbao, XX financial management and stocks. There are two main problems with existing financial products:
Trust/security issues: From the P2P crashes and runs a few years ago to the recent bank runs in some XX banks, I believe this is what most users are most concerned about: where can I put my money?
Income: In addition to asset security, income is the second most important thing. I deposited 100,000 yuan in Alipay and got an interest rate of 1.7%. What is the interest rate of Alipay loans? What is the asset utilization rate? How much did Alipay earn? The disclosure of such information is unthinkable in the traditional Internet. Even if there is public information, it is difficult to verify its authenticity.
Financial products based on Web3.0 can solve the above problems very well. With the help of blockchain technology, you can clearly see how many users have deposited how much money, how many people have borrowed how much at what interest rate, how much assets the borrowers have pledged, and how much the assets are utilized, so as to see the health of the entire system. The proceeds of the loan are fairly distributed to the depositors through the code. Through reasonable restrictions in the code, as long as the value of the collateral is guaranteed, it is almost impossible to steal money from the system. This lending protocol has been running stably in the blockchain world for several years and has been proven to be quite reliable.
In addition to the above lending protocols, Web3's decentralized exchange (DEX) and Yield (financial income) protocols are also relatively mature, so I won't go into details here.
Of course, this does not mean that you should put all your money into Web3 financial products right now. Web3 is basically implemented through program code. The risk of code bugs still exists, and it will take a longer time to settle. It may not be a bad thing to introduce supervision or real-name strategies in the future.
2. Games
Games may not be the second most important thing, but as a more experienced game enthusiast, I still want to talk about it first.
2.1. NFTization of props, chaining of in-game currency, and partial chaining of in-game logic are relatively mature Web3 applications, which are what we often talk about as GameFi.
“NFTization can be understood as abstracting something into a standard digital asset that can be owned on a blockchain. It is no longer restricted to its original environment, and can realize asset transfer, transaction and other functions through code.”
For example, epic cards in card games, orange weapons in MMORPGs, rare pets, limited-time skins, virtual world land, etc. Putting these things on the chain can not only verify the true rarity of the props on the chain, but also make it easier to trade on different general platforms after NFT. There is no need for the game party to build a separate trading platform, which improves efficiency and provides users with more ways to make money. The in-game currency is similar to gold coins/diamonds, which can be traded and converted into cash more conveniently on the chain.
In addition, the logic involving trust in the system, such as opening card packs, forging upgrades, etc., can be implemented through blockchain technology to ensure that the explosion rate/success rate is trustworthy.
2.2. NFTization of game entities:
What I am more worried about is that if Steam goes bankrupt one day, what will happen to the games I bought on Steam? Can I play them on Epic or WeGame? So the distribution of games based on Web3 should be like this: What you buy on Steam or any platform is an NFT representing the ownership of the game. As long as I hold this NFT, I can play it on any platform, and the platform can get part of the revenue from the sale of the game, but it will rely more on additional services to charge, such as achievements, cloud synchronization progress, and built-in NFT trading platforms. In this way, the ownership of games based on on-chain NFTs can easily achieve a better gaming experience on different terminals, rather than buying one on PC, one on mobile, and another on XBOX.
2.3. New game types: This is also a part that excites me. One of the biggest features of blockchain/Web3 is openness, which is open to all games to achieve data interoperability. Imagine that you can use the full-level necromancer in World of Warcraft to hold the lightsaber in Star Wars and your friend wearing the Master Chief helmet to play a car race in the scene of Red Dead Redemption. In the end, you lose to your friend, and your friend upgrades a level and wins a Gundam armor. Maybe you can wear it next time you go to kill the dragon in a group. Does it have a taste of the cloud universe in Ready Player One? So let's call this new game type the metaverse game.
Ready Player One
3. Registration/Login/Usage
Web 1.0 vs Web 2.0 vs Web 3.0
Some problems with the existing registration/login/usage methods:
3.1 Security Issues
In the Web1 era, many users reuse one or several sets of passwords. As more and more products are registered, the risk of password leakage increases. According to news reports in 2020, at least 15 billion account passwords have been leaked.
Web2 uses single sign-on methods such as Google and WeChat, so there is no need to expose passwords to each product, but its security still needs to rely on the security of these large manufacturers' products.
What kind of scheme is Web3's connected wallet? Let me explain it with an analogy: The wallet can randomly generate a pair of keys and locks offline. The lock is public, and the key is completely confidential and only kept by you. When you register a Web3 product, you will give the lock and the username you want to register to the APP. The next time I log in, in order to prove that I am the owner of this username/lock, the website will put a confidential content in a box and add my lock to it and send it to me, saying that if you are the owner of this lock, you should open the lock and tell me what is in the box. At this time, we use the key in the wallet to open it and tell the website that the content in the box is "ABCD". The website confirms that you are the owner of this account/lock and allows you to log in.
In this process, the name of each lock is the wallet address. The key is the private key stored in your decentralized wallet. This login verification process is a zero-knowledge proof process, that is, the website does not need to know what my key looks like, but can confirm that I have this key.
3.2 Information not shared/low efficiency
After Web1 registration/login, the account is blank for the website, and the user needs to provide various information for the website starting from personal information. Web2 based on Google WeChat login can have the authority to obtain some information of the account, such as avatar, nickname or email and mobile phone and other basic content.
Since Web3 uses a universal account address or decentralized identity (DID) for login, these identities or addresses carry a lot of information, including your asset information, friend relationships, and as Web3 content becomes richer and richer, the address can contain almost all information, your hobbies, occupation, habits, etc. Therefore, Web3.0 is more friendly to new products. It can more quickly understand and find users suitable for its products, and no longer needs to purchase user data from other products. The money saved can be given directly to users in the form of airdrops to directly promote and attract users to use the product, and users will also benefit from it.
4. Social
From the initial QQ space, Xiaonei to Weibo, WeChat, and Twitter, every time you switch to a social platform, you will lose most of the content on the old platform, including friend relationships and various content posted on the platform. This is one of the biggest problems of Web2 social networking: the content and relationships posted on the social platform do not belong to you, and they will be lost when the platform disappears. At the same time, the platform has the highest power to deal with these contents: banning accounts, deleting posts, restricting logins, etc.
Returning social relationships and content to users is what Web3 social networking needs to do. There are already many Web3 social products/protocols that can store users' social relationships and content on-chain or in other decentralized storages, which means that users can share this data on different platforms. For example, you can view your WeChat friends and Steam friends in World of Warcraft, and see the updates or pictures you posted on Twitter and Instagram on Weibo.
Secondly, with the opening of various information, it will be easier to promote social interaction in various vertical fields, such as a fan club of a niche singer, a guild of a game, or a car club. In existing Web2 products, this is generally done through forums, Douban, and WeChat groups, but this form is inefficient and cannot verify identity.
After logging in through Web3, you can quickly and accurately find communities that truly share your interests based on the relevant NFTs, POAP (Proof of Attendance Protocol), SBT (Soul-bound NFTs), etc. For example, a group that owns the Bored Ape avatar NFT, a group that gets the corresponding POAP after participating in a certain event or concert, and a corresponding NFT may be given to you when you buy anything of any brand. The Web3 social platform can automatically obtain the group information corresponding to these NFTs through the wallet address you log in, making it convenient for you to join.
5. Music/film/entertainment, etc.
Although it is very convenient to listen to music on music platforms such as NetEase Cloud Music and QQ Music, I cannot listen to Jay Chou's songs on NetEase Cloud Music due to copyright issues, and I don't want to switch to QQ Music. At this time, I miss the way I bought Jay Chou's tapes when I was a child. Even after many years, these tapes are still my youthful memories.
So similar to the NFTization of games mentioned above, music, movies, and e-books should also provide NFT sales methods. Let NFT be the carrier of these assets and truly let users own them. Users can listen to/watch/read the music, movies, and books they already own on any platform.
In addition, these NFTs also enrich the social content in the Web3 vertical field mentioned above, and find the real fan circle.
6. Creation/Copyright
Although it is said that high-quality creators have always been the core competitiveness of major short video, long video and various article creation platforms, and creators can get very good treatment. However, Internet products will eventually move towards monopoly and the dominant power will be reversed. For example, in the online car-hailing competition in the past few years, who has more drivers to a certain extent determines the user experience. At first, when the competition between platforms was fierce, the drivers' interests were the greatest. But as Didi defeated Uber and dominated the market, more and more complaints from drivers were heard. In fact, this is how Web2 Internet works. The creation platform will be like this in the future. Your works and fans on a certain platform are all in the platform. To migrate, the threshold is much higher than for drivers to change order-taking software.
The decentralized storage of Web3 can solve the ownership problem of works. With decentralization, my works belong to me and can be easily displayed on different platforms. It allows creators to pay more attention to the content. At the same time, the work on the chain solves the ownership problem to a certain extent. It is clear who created it and when. At the same time, fans are also bound to your universal decentralized identity.
7. Reviews/Reputation
Whether it is Taobao, JD.com shopping or Dianping, the review system seems to be on a strange path. Either it is filled with a large number of robots that make orders almost meaningless, or it is malicious bad reviews. For example, on food delivery platforms, it is often heard that bad reviews are used to threaten the deliverymen to make all kinds of outrageous demands. In addition, there are platforms that charge for deleting bad reviews and good reviews, etc.
The core reason for these problems is that the evaluation system is not transparent enough.
If we can know whether the account of the person who gave a 5-star review is a real user, whether he really bought the product, and whether any of my friends have bought the product, people who maliciously give bad reviews can be known by people around them. If all reviews are bound to the reputation of the person, then I believe this evaluation system will be more real and reliable. The Web3 universal identity can easily achieve the above functions, and ultimately build a truly credible personal reputation system.
“It sounds a bit like the scene described in the first episode of the third season of Black Mirror, Hypocritical Score. If you are interested, you can go and watch it.”
8. Company/Organization DAO
DAO: The emergence of decentralized autonomous organizations not only solves the trust issues of some existing companies/organizations, but also, because of this code-based decentralized organization, these organizations have unlimited possibilities in terms of function and scale. It can be a decision-making DAO between several founders, or a national election DAO. The more mature DAOs in terms of functions include DAOs for parameter adjustment or profit distribution within the DeFi system, such as CurveDAO MakerDAO, etc., DAOs for joint investment management, ConstitutionDAO, THE DAO, etc. There are many types of DAOs, which are a supplement to traditional corporate organizations.
Among the existing organizations, I think the most suitable for DAO is the charity organization such as the Red Cross, which requires trust and is closely related to money. How much money is raised, who can participate in decision-making, and where the donations will eventually go can be made transparent and credible through Web3 DAO.
9. Others
There are some other directions that may be more interesting, such as
Dating/job hunting: Log in to the corresponding dating or job hunting website through the wallet address to automatically match you with a partner/company that matches you
Sports/Outdoors: You can make NFT (SBT) out of the games or activities you participated in during sports, outdoor summit certificates, etc., such as participating in cycling along the Sichuan-Tibet line in 2019, completing the Beijing Marathon in 2022, participating in the Shenzhen Park Frisbee event on April 1, 2022, and climbing Mount Everest in 2018. Many of these activities now have photo certificates, and some have physical medals, but I think NFT (SBT) is more commemorative and more environmentally friendly. It is also convenient to provide you with more personalized services through big data analysis, such as matching you with a soul mate who also loves sports in the dating software mentioned above :)
Any assets, products and information that you think are valuable can be transformed into Web3:
Medical information, sleep time, eating habits, travel and commuting, etc. I feel that there are many opportunities in any field, and things can be made more efficient and trustworthy through reasonable decentralization.
Part 2: My thoughts on Web3
1. What is Web3?
Web3.0 is about decentralizing valuable data or assets. First of all, everyone should have a concept that the action of decentralization itself is inefficient, which is equivalent to putting your information on the blockchain and synchronizing it to the servers of all nodes. Its cost will also be higher than centralized storage. So we say that the content to be decentralized must be valuable. It is impossible to put all information on the chain. As for what is valuable, everyone has different ideas. It can be a song you bought, a video posted by Douyin, or our friendship. Decentralization is to synchronize the information and assets originally stored on various Internet platforms to the blockchain through blockchain technology. With the help of the openness, programmability (smart contracts) and a series of standard protocols of blockchain technology, the circulation of data and assets is safer and more efficient.
"Trading the inefficiency and high cost of storage for the security and efficiency of data and assets" is the meaning of Web3
2. How can I experience Web3?
All user information and assets on Web3 are stored on the blockchain, but if users want to interact with the blockchain, they must have a wallet to manage their private keys and addresses as well as all assets associated with your address.
Web 3.0
“So now a lot of digital assets in China are not really experiencing Web3 in a sense, because you don’t really own those assets.”
How to experience Web3.0? First, you need a decentralized digital wallet. You can download the TokenPocket wallet: https://tokenpocket.pro, and then slowly explore decentralized login, DeFi and NFT, etc.
3. The development of Web3 requires not only technological and product updates, but also changes in people’s understanding of assets and ownership. This part is relatively abstract and may require an opportunity or a Web3 product with a wide audience. Of course, it is also inseparable from the improvement of policies and regulations.
4. The advantages of blockchain/Web3, such as openness and programmability, will also bring many problems, such as privacy, program loopholes, lack of relevant laws, etc. Therefore, Web3 is still in a very early and chaotic stage. You need to open your eyes and learn more.
5. An immature thought
In 2019, there was such a product that encouraged users to upload e-books to IPFS (decentralized storage) for sharing. Since IPFS is a decentralized network, these books cannot be completely deleted technically. Although they are pirated, I think if school textbooks can be obtained for free in this way, it may be a good thing for those children who can't afford to read books and go to school. If combined with free videos, children can read at home as long as they have an Internet connection and an electronic device. After all, e-books and teaching videos are not like paper books and classroom teaching. The cost of 10 million people is not much different from that of 10 people. But it is meaningful for the development of the whole society and the improvement of the average education level. So I think that basic knowledge e-books can be read online for free, and those who want to collect them can spend money to buy an NFT and put it on their virtual bookshelf. Is this model feasible? If you are a writer, would you accept it?
6. Finally, I want to say that the transformation of Web3.0 will not happen silently like Web2.0.
“Let Web3 happen in China”