Web 3.0 has been hailed as the future of Internet. Making a case for Web 3.0, Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood once said: “Centralization is not socially tenable long-term, and government is too clumsy to fix things,” while calling the current web a “big baby” which “has grown old without growing up”.
Web3 is considered to be a disruptor in that sense, which marks a shift away from large platforms that centralized control. With its core focus on decentralization and blockchain technology, Web 3.0 or simply Web3 promises to democratize the internet. “Web3 innovations will take the internet into new realms and give rise to applications not previously possible,” said Avivah Litan, Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner.
Globally, Web 3 market has been booming, with the Web3 blockchain technology sector estimated to surpass six trillion dollars and continue its growth at a CAGR of 44.6% from 2023 to 2030 (Market Research Future). Closer home in India, Web3 received $30.5 Bn of VC funding in 2021 alone, and over $14.5 Bn in just Q1 of 2022, led by investments in DeFi and NFTs, according to Nasscom. The association estimates that there are more than 450 Web3 startups in India, as of H12022.
While figures certainly paint a positive picture, skepticism towards Web3 has been high in the recent past. Pundits like Peter Schiff has implied that cryptocurrencies, which is one of the building blocks of web 3, will extinct.
Nevertheless, experts argue that it’s too early to predict the end of this revolutionary technology. “This industry will not be defined by speculative booms and busts but instead by what it is built on: revolutionary technology that will eventually touch all of our corporations, governments and individual lives,” wrote Jordan Calinoff, VP, Strategy and Revenue at Horizen Labs in a blog for Nasdaq. He believes that 2023 will see more Web3 enterprise adoption.
Experts also re-emphasize the fact the Web3 is not crypto and the potential of this technology should not be decided by the volatile nature of cryptocurrencies. Interestingly, the Indian start-up ecosystem that focuses on Web3 are in fact focusing less on cryptocurrency trading.
A Nasscom report says that Indian startups are instead focusing on building diverse solutions across major application areas such as finance, entertainment, infrastructure and decentralized communities. Non-fungible Token (NFT) and Metaverse are the top horizontal use cases that are seeing faster adoption at this stage.
In the entertainment sector, for instance, startups are combining NFTs and gaming to offer whole new experiences to consumers. In the finance sector, web3 and smart contracts have already made waves in the form of DeFi.
Web3 will however need to overcome regulatory and privacy challenges and evolve into a more seamless technology that can offer holistic customer experience. Security and fraud will emerge as other major concerns. But as with any disruptive technology, Web3 too holds the potential to transform industries and businesses.
