Three insights you may have missed from the Monaco Crypto Summit
The Internet we know today, often referred to as Web2, is dominated by companies that provide services in exchange for user data. Web3 represents the Internet that may soon become prominent, characterized by decentralized finance, blockchain-powered applications and participation in the metaverse.
The world of cryptocurrencies has already seen its share of ups and downs. After reaching a value of over $60,000 in 2021, the price of bitcoin has fallen below $25,000 this year. In recent months, crypto exchanges have had to pause withdrawals, citing market volatility. Still, the Web3 industry is driving its own wave of innovation, attracting entrepreneurs focused on building companies in anticipation that blockchain technology will support new ecosystems around enterprise computing and the global economy.
This vision made up much of the agenda at the Monaco Crypto Summit in July. TheCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s live streaming studio, joined a select consortium of cryptocurrency and blockchain experts at the gathering to discuss Web3 and its future implications. (* Disclosure below.)
Here are three insights you may have missed:
1. The blockchain is gaining a foothold in public services.
The blockchain appears as more than just a platform for recording cryptocurrency transactions. An increasing number of governments are also finding use for the immutable ledger.
“Government adoption is arguably the most exciting and important thing happening right now,” said Lauren Bissell, founder and CEO of Immutable Music, during an interview with theCUBE.
Blockchain use cases among governments are becoming increasingly widespread. The Securities and Exchange Board of India has instructed depositories to use the blockchain for record maintenance, and a pilot project is underway for secured voting. In Colombia, the national government has issued guidelines for the implementation of blockchain projects at the state level. In the US, IBM highlights federal government blockchain use cases on its website, ranging from information sharing in the Office of Personnel Management to public health data collection by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“The best use for blockchain, in my opinion, is to record data and have that data permanent,” said Rachel Wolfson, senior reporter at Cointelegraph, in a conversation with theCUBE. “A lot of governments around the world are going to see this use case and say, ‘Oh wow, blockchain is a great technology for this kind of thing’.”
Here’s theCUBE’s full video interview with Rachel Wolfson:
2. NFTs and metaverse innovation can dramatically reshape the ad market.
In today’s internet world, advertisers generate brand awareness and consumer engagement through online campaigns. The general approach has been to flood popular websites with pop-up ads and hope something sticks.
However, this process has become more challenging through plans to limit tracking cookies on major browser platforms such as Google. Advertisers are going to need a more efficient solution, and the metaverse gives a glimpse of what that might be.
Liquid Avatar Technologies Inc. is about to launch the Aftermath Island metaverse, a global virtual game where users can buy and sell virtual land and other items through collectable non-fungible tokens. This metaverse will be supported by digital identity verification, meaning customers will have personal information voluntarily stored in a verified avatar and brands can interact directly with them.
This is the kind of one-to-one relationship that advertisers want, and Aftermath Islands represents a virtual economy where marketers and consumers will come together in a much more immersive and interactive environment than can be found in Web2. Practitioners believe that a combination of advanced gaming, NFT and blockchain technology will offer a new opportunity to reshape online advertising.
“We have a world in front of us that is valuable to marketers, valuable to brands and valuable to individuals,” said David Lucatch, co-founder of Aftermath Islands, and president, CEO and chairman of Liquid Avatar Technologies, during an interview with theCUBE in Monaco Crypto Summit. “Brands can now connect with you and provide you with promotions and products based on the information you are willing to share with them about your real person. Your avatar becomes your intermediary, and your payment information is stored in your digital identity.”
Here is theCUBE’s full video interview with David Lucatch:
3. Will ‘top centralisation’ lead to ‘open salvation’ in Web3?
The gathering in Monaco highlighted one of the key themes driving cryptocurrency and metaverse technologies. Web3 projects attract interest because today’s technology world has become too centralized.
This is a point of view that has been developing for some time, as the technology industry evolved into a model where five companies – Google, Apple, Facebook (Meta), Microsoft and Amazon – have come to dominate the landscape. By 2021, these firms alone generated revenue estimates of $800 billion on the low end to $1.4 trillion on the high end. Even with the lower estimate, this has been calculated to be more than the economy of Saudi Arabia.
Startups looking to develop offerings in the metaverse see this as an opportunity to disrupt the status quo. Ryan Gill is the founder of the Open Meta Association, a group formed with the mission of being the organizing force for decentralized governance in an open metaverse with community control.
There are signs that some of the biggest technology players intend to take an active role in metaverse governance as well. In June, Microsoft and Facebook created the (Meta) Metaverse Standards Forum to promote interoperable templates for augmented and virtual reality.
“We are reaching peak centralization,” Gill said in a discussion with theCUBE. “Anything past this point, it becomes more and more unhealthy, and an open metaverse is just one way to build a solution. I think if we just let companies build and own the metaverse, the problems will get bigger and bigger and more significant. So why not try something else?”
Here’s theCUBE’s full video interview with Ryan Gill:
To see more of CUBE’s coverage of the Monaco Crypto Summit event, here’s our complete video playlist:
(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner of the Monaco Crypto Summit event. Neither DigitalBits, the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor any other sponsors have editorial control over the content of theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)
