Web 3.0 is envisioned to be an all-new online experience. Education and advocacy are essential as the realities of Web3 come to life, said Shiela Warren, Chief Executive Officer for the Crypto Council for innovation.
According to Warren, education and advocacy are essential to prevent constraints and dictate what they can do. She also said that the council is working towards inclusive growth and not just giving Web3 access to wealthy individuals.
“The reality is if we don’t provide a lot of evidence, education, and advocacy, we will wind up with a very constrained environment that will dictate what we can do,” Warren said.
“That’s problematic. Because the reality is who’s going to have access to [Web3] the same demographic that’s had access in the past: very wealthy people who have nothing to lose who can create closed doors,” she added.
Warren also raised one problem in some internet and tech platform models: they favor specific geographies and languages like English.
During the World Economic Forum, the council announced its initiative to develop an
“economically viable, interoperable, safe and inclusive metaverse” together with companies including Facebook parent Meta, Microsoft, and HTC.
According to Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, metaverse should encourage inclusivity. Its development should be a cooperation between various sectors of the society and not solely by technology companies.
“Done well, the metaverse could be a positive force for inclusion and equity, bridging some of the divides that exist in today’s physical and digital spaces,” Clegg said.
“It mustn’t be shaped by tech companies on their own. It needs to be developed openly with a spirit of cooperation between the private sector, lawmakers, civil society, academia, and the people who will use these technologies. This effort must be undertaken in the best interests of people and society, not technology companies,” Clegg added.
Warren agrees with Clegg that inclusion and providing access to everyone are essential. She also confirmed the importance of narrowing the control of wealthy companies since such technologies are intended to be universally accessible.
“I’ve always seen myself acting on behalf of, I don’t want to call them consumers, but people [should] get precedence in this ecosystem,” Warren said. “What’s been critically important for the beginning is making sure that people who are not like me that don’t have the privilege that I have in this ecosystem can access these opportunities,” she added.
An example that Warren stated was Axie Infinity, a blockchain-based play-to-earn game. This game became famous in the Philippines and other countries.
“It’s not a great example because of what happened recently [with the crypto crash], but the model … it proved [the idea]. Now you have a chance to stay in your country and earn a living,” she said.
Web 3.0 and crypto nose-dive
As the technology behind cryptocurrencies, Web 3.0 is the next generation of the internet built on decentralized technologies like blockchain, peer-to-peer networks, and other technologies that enable information access without going through centralized servers.
Web 3.0 is deemed a decentralized platform, allowing equal access to everyone without having huge companies controlling and profiting from produced content.
Immense growth is happening in the broader Web3 market. The metaverse market was worth $300 million in 2020, while blockchain was worth around $4.5 billion in 2021. Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market was estimated at $1.5 billion.
Despite the growth in the broader Web3 market, the price of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, has nose-dived.
This reality, according to Warren, can still be viewed positively.
“I like the fact that we’re gonna get a lot of the kind of like, hangers-on, if you will, out of this ecosystem, who aren’t serious about building because it’s hard,” Warren said. “It’s hard to create economic models around this stuff, and you have to be committed. And so I think we will see a lot of nonsense [around crypto] go away as we did in 2018,” she added.
Nevertheless, all related sectors in the Web3 market are expected to balloon in size and value over the next decade.