internet

Bitcoin won’t be beaten as digital store of value: VanEck CEO

“It’s impossible for me to imagine some other internet store of value [will] leapfrog Bitcoin,” said Jan van Eck, making a bullish case for BTC.

The CEO of investment management firm VanEck says he can’t see a world where Bitcoin (BTC) is overtaken as the leading store of value on the internet.

“I think it’s impossible for me to imagine some other internet store of value [will] leapfrog Bitcoin,” Jan van Eck said in a Dec. 16 interview with CNBC.

The CEO — $76.4 billion in assets under management — also crushed accusations that Bitcoin is in a “bubble,” — explaining that no asset has ever been in a bubble that continues to outperform itself every market cycle. He added:

Federal judge hints at denying Sam Bankman-Fried any internet access as condition of bail: Report

The judge reportedly did not expand SBF’s bail conditions to include restrictions on the internet or VPNs, but asked his lawyers to pay for a consultant to explore the matter.

Judge Lewis Kaplan reportedly targeted Sam Bankman-Fried’s internet usage during a hearing reviewing the former FTX CEO’s use of a virtual private network, or VPN.

According to a Feb. 16 tweet from NPR correspondent David Gura, Judge Kaplan seemed to suggest that Bankman-Fried be denied access to any electronic device and the internet as a condition of his bail. Though SBF’s lawyers reportedly said there was no television in Joe Bankman’s and Barbara Fried’s California home — where the former FTX CEO has largely been confined since his arraignment in the United States in December — the judge countered that a “garden of electronic devices” was available with access to the internet.

Bankman-Fried appeared in court for the first time in days to address the legal implications of him using a VPN on Jan. 29 and Feb. 12. SBF’s lawyers claimed he had been watching football on the days in question, but prosecutors said using a VPN raised “several potential concerns.”

Prosecutors suggested restricting Bankman-Fried’s VPN usage as a condition of his bail, which also restricts using certain messaging apps and having contact with current or former FTX and Alameda Research employees. Judge Kaplan reportedly did not expand SBF’s bail conditions to include restrictions on the internet or VPNs, but asked his legal team to provide a consultant willing to explain the implications of the technology in court.

Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial is scheduled to begin in October, when he will face eight criminal counts including wire fraud and violations of campaign finance law. The debtors in FTX’s bankruptcy case have also issued a subpoena to the former CEO, ordering him to present certain documents and information related to his time at FTX to the court.

Worldwide Webb founder explains the role interoperability will play in Web3 ecosystems

NFT Steez chats with Worldwide Webb founder Thomas Webb to discuss the future impact of interoperability in Web3 and the metaverse.

In the latest episode of NFT Steez, Thomas Webb, the founder of the interoperable avatar game Worldwide Webb, discusses the integration of interoperability in Web3 and the metaverse.

By definition, interoperability is a feature of Web3 whereby a product or system can work seamlessly across platforms with other products or services. Webb defines interoperability simply as “creating a token — a nonfungible token (NFT)” since, at its most basic level, no one can control it besides the creator.

But how does interoperability function presently in Web3, and what is its potential impact?

Executing interoperability the “right” way

When discussing how interoperable applications can create a profound impact, Webb described the creativity he has seen from NFT communities and brands.

Whether it comes from “creating a product, creating ideas or creating experiences,” Webb believes that enabling the creation of intellectual property (IP) allows users to display their loyalty and, in other ways, their achievement.

Interoperability also seems to function in tandem with token-gated experiences, according to Webb. In essence, users can get closer to authentic experiences by using the token they hold as an access pass to attend events and receive perks.

This integration enables brands to cross-collaborate, reach their users and create a proliferation of value — or, as Webb said, “infinite value.”

Interoperability will be borderless

“Interoperability could be the backbone of everything,” Webb stated when asked about the sectors that interoperability could seep into.

For Webb, the more transparent and data-driven platforms are, the more collaboration and engagement there will be across tech companies. Ultimately, Webb believes that e-commerce, creative experiences and even concepts like identity and self-sovereignty will be impacted by the concept of interoperability.

However, even with interoperability as a cornerstone of Web3, Webb did express the inevitability of risk and challenges associated with creating a standard that suits all countries.

According to Webb, the presence of centralized regulatory bodies could continue to inhibit experimentation and growth.

To hear more from the conversation, tune in and listen to the full episode of NFT Steez on Cointelegraph’s new podcasts page or on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or TuneIn.

What is cyberpunk: A beginner’s guide to the sci-fi genre

Cyberpunk is a subgenre of sci-fi that explores a dystopian future with advanced technology, where the line between man and machine is blurred.

Science fiction’s sub-genre, known as cyberpunk, imagines a dystopian future in which advanced technology has overtaken society and divided it into classes for the haves and the have-nots. The genre frequently examines virtual reality, hacking, artificial intelligence and how technology affects people.

Cyberpunk is distinguished by its emphasis on a future society in which governments and corporations have amassed enormous power and control over people, frequently at the expense of their freedom and privacy. The genre is renowned for its grim and gloomy depictions of a world where technology has gone beyond human control and produced new kinds of exploitation and oppression.

Some popular examples of cyberpunk works include the novel Neuromancer by William Gibson, the film Blade Runner and the video game series Deus Ex. These works have had a lasting impact on the science fiction genre and continue to inspire new works of cyberpunk fiction.

Features of cyberpunk

Some common features of cyberpunk include:

Advanced technology: High-tech gadgets and systems like virtual reality, artificial intelligence, robotics and cybernetic implants are frequently featured in cyberpunk movies.
Dystopian world: Cyberpunk is known for its bleak, dystopian future where corporations and governments have gained immense power and control over individuals, often at the expense of personal freedom and privacy.
Class divide: The gap between the powerful and wealthy, who have access to cutting-edge technology and the rest of society, who are marginalized and left behind, is frequently explored in this genre.
Hacking and rebel protagonists: Many cyberpunk stories feature rebels or hackers who use their technical skills to challenge the established power structures and fight against the corrupt forces that dominate society.
Neon-lit cityscapes: Cyberpunk frequently occurs in gloomy, neon-lit cityscapes, providing a setting for the genre’s fast-paced action and high-tech adventures.
Unique style: The distinctive aesthetic of cyberpunk is noted for its emphasis on neon lights, gloomy, crumbling cityscapes, and a general atmosphere of decay and dystopia.
Exploration of ethics: The genre frequently examines complex moral dilemmas with the proper and improper application of technology, including privacy, security and blending human and machine.

How to create a cyberpunk movie

Because it offers a provocative and frequently sobering look at how technology and society interact, cyberpunk is significant as a literary and cultural phenomenon. Cyberpunk examines the opportunities and perils of a future ruled by cutting-edge technology and artificial intelligence through science fiction.

Here are some steps to creating a cyberpunk movie:

It is vital to remember that the most important thing is to stay true to the genre while also bringing something fresh and unique to the table.

The future of cyberpunk

Although it is difficult to foresee the future of the cyberpunk genre, there are some signs that the themes and ideas it explores will remain important and relevant in the years to come.

Cyberpunk will probably continue to be a source of thought-provoking fiction that explores these topics as technology develops and the concerns of privacy, security and the impact of technology on society become more and more significant. Furthermore, the continued advancement of virtual reality and artificial intelligence has the potential to expand the boundaries of the genre and stimulate new cyberpunk literary works.

Nevertheless, it is worth noting that the cyberpunk genre has developed and evolved over time and will probably do so in the future. For instance, the emergence of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology has given rise to a new subgenre of cyberpunk known as “blockchainpunk,” which examines the advantages and disadvantages of this novel technology.

Users need to go under the engine in Web3 — HashEx CEO

HashEx CEO Dmitry Mishunin summarizes Web3 as read, write, own — a “crazy responsibility” for the end-user.

Hacking in Web3 is easy because it uses the same pattern that’s been used since the inception of the internet — pretending to be someone else.

Due to the complexity and the “cool factor” of Web3 projects, one can easily — and mistakenly — assume that it takes Mr. Robot level of advanced hacking techniques to pull off a successful attack. In truth, however, it only takes a sinister ad placed on Google search results, an impostor Telegram group or a deviously-crafted email to break the security barriers of the Web3 ecosystem.

Blockchain projects can use top-notch smart contracts, securely integrate crypto wallets and use best practices in each digital step across the board. But they still need help with the social aspect of user protection.

Web3 takes the “ownership” from central entities and distributes it to users to democratize the internet for everyone. It gives power to the user.

But, attaining this power of ownership also comes with significant responsibility. Users need to understand how crypto wallets work, how transactions are made, and how assets are stored — and the steep learning curve is not helping.

Cointelegraph sat down with Dmitry Mishunin, the CEO of blockchain auditor HashEx, at Istanbul Blockchain Week to speak about the ins and outs of Web3 from a security expert’s perspective.

Cointelegraph: You were working on Web3 before it was even a thing. How do you describe or frame Web3?

Dmitry Mishunin: I think the main feature [of Web3] is the control of funds is the users’ responsibility, and this is a fascinating paradigm.

Web1 is just a read-only experience. You can get the information and get the context, but you can’t do anything with it. Web2 is a read-write mode — you can upload something. And Web3 is read, write, own.

This is a crazy responsibility for the end-user because they didn’t have such an experience before. We see lots of problems in security because people don’t realize that this is their personal responsibility against their own assets. People are not ready for this.

CT: How do you think Web3 differs from others regarding security and user protection?

DM: It comes with a new level of security and a new level of smart contracts. It’s not only about the privacy of smart contracts; it involves all the infrastructure of wallets, users, their mission and so on.

When a huge bank lacks funds, governments can provide the funds, not as credit. They buy the bank for $1 and give government funds. The Web3 infrastructure is not ready for this because governments and huge regulators don’t think it’s worth it, or they don’t think they can trust this ecosystem.

For example, if I had a PayPal account, I’d be 100% sure that PayPal kept my funds safe. And if someone steals it from them, [PayPal] will return it to you, or maybe I can go to court. At the end of the day, they will return my funds. It’s hard to understand you have a personal responsibility for these funds [in Web3] — it’s hard to realize.

Phishing continues to be a major threat in Web3

DM: Even in HashEx, a security company, we lost about 100,000 dollars in the previous year — not in scams, not in risky investments, but in human mistakes. We had a crucial phishing experience when our employee wanted to make some swaps on Pancakeswap, searched for Pancake on Google and didn’t realize that she was clicking a link from the Google Ads, not from the search results.

It had a pop-up that looked like a MetaMask window. The pop-up said, “you have an error in your MetaMask,” and she entered her seed phrase.

CT: So, in short, smart contracts will be safer, but phishing will still be the main pain point in web security. Will the social aspect of security be the main business for companies like HashEx?

DM: We can reduce phishing attacks because it’s mostly about knowledge and understanding of how swindlers are tricking users. It’s not about the cyber police or the auditors because executing such attacks is easy. You can just create a Telegram group and message users. It’s impossible for security companies to cover all this stuff.

However, we sure can help with this level of understanding of users, and we do. We have HashEx Academy. We are making lots of content about it. After some time, people should gain a better understanding of how Web3 should work.

CT: Is it possible to stay anonymous in the Web3 environment?

DM: It’s only possible if you don’t withdraw any funds and transfer them from Web3 to the real world. If you want to withdraw funds from Web3 to the real world, the risk of losing anonymity appears immediately.

CT: Metaverse and blockchain gaming are the top trends for Web3 right now. Do we have any other trends besides those?

DM: The Internet of Things (IoT). It’s a powerful trend. It’s excellent when those devices can exchange data with smart contracts or with each other.

There are a few smart devices in my house, like a washing machine and a dry washer. I use these IoT features. It’s good for me, and I think integrating more complicated systems will be fine.

CT: Why do you think blockchain-based IoT would become a trend?

DM: It’s because the companies lack universal support for IoT. For example, there is a massive problem with availability in different countries or different regions. If you speak about Amazon or eBay, they have different databases and websites across the world and every couple of hours, or every couple of days, they synchronize them. But they surely don’t use the same database for North America, South America or Europe.

And, if you are a technology vendor like LG or Samsung and you want to connect all the devices across the world, you have two options. You either have different hubs in different regions and synchronize them, or you use something like a blockchain. So, for the high reliability of this process, blockchain and Web3 are helpful.

CT: What do you expect from the Web3 industry for the upcoming year?

DM: Standardization. We have to ask for more and different spheres of blockchain. We have to ask for other ways of transferring funds between blockchains. Bridge standardization — it may have more tools and more frameworks. It’s really useful.

Turkey has an obsession with crypto — Specifically Dogecoin: Study

A new study reveals Turkey is in second place for crypto-related searches worldwide and first place for Dogecoin-related searches.

The crypto market slump doesn’t mean interest in crypto is also down. A new study from the cryptocurrency education platform CryptoManiaks revealed that many countries are still scouring the internet, hungry for crypto-related information.

According to the study, the Netherlands and Turkey take the top two spots, with 8.2% and 5.5% of the population, respectively, searching for crypto-related terms. Turkey particularly accounted for 4.7 million searches, leading the searches with sheer numbers.

The study analyzed the combined number of searches for a select set of popular cryptocurrencies into a percentage of the population for each country in order to calculate the percentage of locals searching each month.

While it was in second for overall searches, Turkey came in first place for searches related to the memecoin Dogecoin (DOGE), with 812,000 monthly searches. This is nearly double that of Ether (ETH), the country’s third most searched crypto.

A spokesperson from CryptoManiaks commented on the DOGE curiosity, particularly over the last 12 month:

“Dogecoin’s popularity has surpassed that of Ethereum in a significant number of countries, with nearly 2 million more monthly searches worldwide for the coin.”

The cryptocurrency DOGE has remained a popular digital asset and crypto cultural phenomenon after it was adopted as the poster crypto for internet icon Elon Musk.

Some of the cryptocurrencies included in the search terms were Bitcoin (BTC), Solana (SOL) and BNB (BNB), among others.

Following the Netherlands and Turkey in the ranks were Germany, Canda and the Czech Republic.

While the United States and the United Kingdom are major players in the global cryptocurrency industry, neither ranked in the top spots due to the number of searches equivalent to their population sizes. The U.S. ranked 15th with 1.9% of the population searching for these terms, while the U.K. takes the 12th spot with 2.6%.

Recent research from Cointelegraph also revealed that despite market conditions, major institutions still remain interested in the industry and continue to pour millions into crypto-related projects.

Can internet outages really disrupt crypto networks?

While some security issues do exist, major internet outages like the one witnessed across the EU recently cannot really threaten cryptocurrencies or their associated networks.

In the wee hours of Oct. 18, several parts of Europe, America and Asia were left without any internet due to several undersea internet cables being “cut,” causing a chain reaction of connectivity problems across the globe. France, Italy and Spain, in particular, were faced with significant outages, with many experts claiming that vandals were to be blamed for the same.

According to Jay Chaudhary, CEO of Zscaler — an American cloud security company — there is no doubt that nefarious third-party agents were to be blamed for the cut cables that resulted in packet data losses as well as latency for various websites and applications, adding that despite their best efforts authorities have been unable to pin down the individuals responsible for the attacks.

Furthermore, it bears mentioning that over the last couple of days, there has been a slew of cut internet cables in and around the United Kingdom. For example, on Oct. 20, an underwater submarine cable was slashed near the coast of northern Scotland. While several reports have suggested foul play from rival government agencies — with the tense geopolitical situation in Europe amid the Russian-Ukrainian war — there is no hard evidence to substantiate these claims.

That being said, it is worth delving into the question of how events like these can potentially affect cryptocurrencies, especially from a network resiliency and security perspective.

Internet cuts and their effects on digital assets

To understand how internet outages, such as the one highlighted above, can affect cryptocurrencies, Cointelegraph reached out to Nikolay Angelov, head of blockchain for cryptocurrency lending institution Nexo.

He started off by saying that the regions affected by recent cable disruptions (primarily France) account for just over 3% of Bitcoin nodes globally and just under 3% of Ethereum validators, adding that the decentralized nature of these two largest digital asset networks counters the effects of such attacks since the flow of transactions streams to nodes with internet access and connection to the blockchain. He then added:

“Not to undermine the seriousness of the incident, but such localized events cannot have a lasting effect on cryptocurrencies, as blockchain transactions can still be validated by other active nodes. In other words — almost every single Bitcoin node has to lose internet connection for the Bitcoin blockchain to seize. Admittedly, it’s been a massive inconvenience, but a temporary one at that.”

On a somewhat similar note, Nukri Basharuli, founder and CEO of SuperProtocol — a trustless and permissionless cloud infrastructure — told Cointelegraph that while people need to understand that decentralization is not a silver bullet: If you pull the plug, you’ll feel the consequences. Web3, by its very design, is highly resistant to breakdowns emanating from cable cuts. He pointed out that applications hosted on a decentralized network along with their users won’t even notice if some of their nodes go offline.

“Such scenarios happen all the time where nodes constantly switch on and off while the data stored remains intact and fully accessible. The network will automatically reconfigure itself in order to provide the highest quality service possible,” he added.

Some concerns do exist

According to Victor Ionescu, co-founder and chief technical officer at decentralized exchange Hashflow, when analyzing incidents like these, the main thing to worry about is the decentralization of the infrastructure versus the decentralization of the network’s stakeholders.

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To elaborate, he noted that as adoption scales up, many software companies will continue to utilize reusable infrastructures for running nodes, providing blockchain data feeds and other related tasks. He added:

“These companies consolidating their infrastructures could spur a centralization of their networks. For example, if all Ethereum validators were to run in one AWS region, the region going down could take down the network. This problem is less prominent in Bitcoin, but I expect mining hubs to become targets over time.”

Daniel Nagy, chief scientist and vice president for Swarm Foundation — the organization behind the Swarm decentralized storage and communication system — told Cointelegraph that such events might only be consequential for high transaction-density blockchains such as Solana. “The majority of networks below 100 TPS have enough redundancy not to be affected in any way by the loss of one cable in the internet backbone infrastructure,” he noted.

That said, it is worth highlighting that we currently live in a technologically advanced era, one where vulnerabilities associated with cable internet connections could soon become a thing of the past thanks to the advent of innovations like Starlink, which stand to counter acts of vandalism.

Safety implications of outages on digital assets

Herbert Sim, an adviser at Solidus AI Tec — an AI infrastructure provider — told Cointelegraph that the only way major outages can have an effect on a digital asset is if a large mass of computers that make up the network are affected at the same time, something that is extremely rare and hard to pull off, adding:

“Major blockchains have millions of users around the world. What this means, in essence, is that unless this sort of outage simultaneously affects millions of computers in different parts of the world at once, it does not have a chance of affecting the safety of digital assets.”

Similarly, Angelov believes that these outages present safety risks to crypto networks, primarily in theory rather than in practice, since most blockchains are capable of adjusting their performance to reflect geographical power and/or internet outages by lowering their mining difficulty when the number of active nodes decreases because of said outages.

“This, in turn, can pose risks to network security, as transaction verification is executed by less nodes or validators, but as mentioned above, a great many nodes must be affected for this to happen, which is not the case currently. Transaction processing times are less likely to be impacted as in Bitcoin’sinstance, its blockchain is designed to decrease mining difficulty when the hash power lowers to maintain a steady number of transaction blocks,” he said.

Providing a technical take on the matter, Basharuli claims that when it comes to security, connectivity issues such as the one mentioned above could potentially open an attack angle for malicious actors, one where they could imitate the behavior of the nodes that went off the grid and convince others that some transactions are valid. “Then again, making such an attack impossible is part of the design 101 rulebook for decentralized networks,” he added.

To counter such issues, Basharuli claims that developers could leverage the latest technologies available in the market (such as IntelSGX) designed to make confidential computing possible. He closed out by saying:

“Confidential computing protects the data in the very moment it’s being processed, which leaves no entry point for the malicious actor to somehow temper with it, or even get a glimpse of what’s going on inside the system.”

Ionescu believes that as a result of these outages, being able to attack a statistically significant number of validators could pose problems for specific networks. One concerning factor is the fact that a majority of infrastructure for several projects lies in the cloud, and the cloud provider space is split among two or three major players. Among these players, some locations are generally preferred by developers due to their proximity to the development hub.

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For example, United States east coast developers tend to prefer servers in Virginia. The usage of cloud data centers thus tends to be distributed in correlation with the locations of the development teams. Moreover, network partitions at scale are not something that developers have in mind when devising systems. “Network connectivity has been a luxury that we have been taking for granted. In reality, we need truly decentralized cloud infrastructure, but the technology isn’t there yet,” he said.

The future is decentralized, and rightly so

One of the more fascinating aspects of blockchain technology is that it corrects some of the most significant flaws of traditional computer networks, i.e., a lack of decentralization. In this regard, Sim believes that as long as we continue to have the power of different networks concentrated in a few computers, outages will always have an effect on them. “Because the blockchain is distributed across so many computers worldwide, it is immune to it. That is why you rarely, if ever, hear of a blockchain collapsing,” he concluded.

Therefore, as we head into a future potentially being affected by internet outages and other such issues, it stands to reason that more and more developers will continue to understand the true potential of blockchain technology and move in a decentralized direction.

Web3 must bridge back into Web2 for real cash flows — Checkout.com VP

“The seamless payments infrastructure and user experience derived from Web2 will be the backbone of Web3’s success,” said Max Rothman.

The real economic utility of Web3 — a broad term that refers to some future iteration of the internet — can only be realized by utilizing existing payment onramps and offramps, according to Max Rothman, vice president of crypto and digital assets of Checkout.com.

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Rothman explained that companies operating in Web2 and Web3 are largely siloed from one another, which means they cannot access each other’s benefits. “Web2 companies have mastered seamless online payments and the user experience,” he said, referring to businesses that operate in the current state of the internet. “For Web3 companies to continue to grow, they need a steady supply of new and existing users providing them fiat currency conversions into crypto.”

While crypto payments remove middlemen and offer higher security, merchants still have to manage volatility and apply for tax, among other issues.

An executive for Checkout .com claims mass adoption will be inevitable when those issues are dealt with. https://t.co/CpLyrRj3QU

— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) July 27, 2022

While the value proposition of Web3 lies in blockchain technology and the tokenization of the internet, the industry lacks payment processing capabilities. According to Rothman, this gap makes it unlikely that cryptocurrency ever becomes a viable everyday payment method. To bridge the gap, Web3 innovation must tap into Web2 payments infrastructure:

“In some ways, Web3 innovation can be led by the Web2 payments infrastructure, as most companies have the ability to adapt and invent. Ideally, the increased speed and security that Web3 promises can co-exist with the ease of use, seamlessness and regulatory compliance that Web2 already offers.”

Checkout.com is a global payment processor that enables businesses to integrate flexible payment options. The company employs what it calls “local expert teams” to assist merchants in improving their payment performance and ensuring that regulatory requirements are met. As reported by Cointelegraph, Checkout.com concluded a $1 billion Series D funding round in January at a valuation of $40 billion. At the time, the company said it would use the funds to further expand its crypto payment processing capabilities.

As part of its crypto mandate, in June, Checkout.com launched a round-the-clock stablecoin settlement system based on Circle’s USD Coin (USDC). The company said more stablecoins and assets would likely be incorporated into the settlement system over time. As Rothman explained, Checkout.com made its first major pivot into digital assets in 2019 when it enabled fiat payment processing for 12 of the 15 largest crypto exchanges.

Global payment processor @Checkout’s new stablecoin settlement system will allow merchants to process crypto payments in real time.

(Reporting via @forgeforth_) https://t.co/GkBeQ9qfcW

— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) June 7, 2022

When asked about the current bottlenecks to greater Web3 adoption and understanding, Rothman explained that most companies operating on the internet today don’t understand the value of this new paradigm:

“The narratives and themes derived from Web2 introduced users to concepts like decentralization, censorship resistance and permissionlessness. However, Web2 companies don’t understand the use case or benefits of crypto, including opportunities to integrate Web3 strategies beyond just crypto acceptance. […] Therefore, cross-industry education is needed to effectively move the needle toward integrating Web3 strategies.”

For all the talk of Web3, a unified definition of the term remains elusive, possibly due to the industry’s ongoing experimentation with blockchain technology. Nevertheless, venture capital is enamored by the concept and its potential, as evidenced by the massive funding flows to Web3 companies this year.

According to Cointelegraph Research, Web3 dominated almost every funding metric in the second quarter of this year, with early-stage investments in seed rounds totaling $2.18 billion. Web3 companies also saw more individual deals than the decentralized finance and centralized finance sectors.

How adoption of a decentralized internet can improve digital ownership

Web2 lacks ownership, but Web3 will provide users more control over platforms, websites and protocols.

Known as Web2, the current iteration of the internet emphasizes creating and distributing user-generated content. Websites like YouTube, social media apps like Instagram and Twitter, news sites, personal blogs and more make up a large part of the internet.

Web2 is a step up from Web1, which was mainly a read-only web version filled with simple static websites. Web3 aims to bring decentralization and token-based economies to the internet.

Web2 versus Web3

The development of several different web protocols at the beginning of the twenty-first century made it possible for programs and content to be linked via read-and-write interactions. Web2, in its present form, enables users to consume material created by other users and create their own content. Readers are probably best acquainted Web2. As a result of Web2’s autonomy in content production, the age of social networks was ushered in, and with it came the proliferation of blogs, online forums and online markets.

However, rent-seeking centralized corporations have taken advantage of this free flow of information to monetize user data and habits, despite the undeniable fact that Web2 has offered users significant advantages. The demand for a web that developers and users control has increased, primarily due to a breakdown of trust, user exploitation and data control.

The goal of Web3 is to encourage open services driven by decentralized applications (DApps) rather than centralized apps controlled by tech behemoths. Users of Web3 can connect to applications and protocols directly, removing the need for third-party intermediaries in the process. Web3 has been described as the “read/write/own” version of the internet. Open services built on Web3 encourage permissionless entrance, maximize value and ensure verifiability. These services are much more dependable, equitable and ethical.

Users are not required to pay recurring fees or provide personal information to use technological platforms; instead, they are invited to participate in the governance and operation of the protocols. Participants are stakeholders in the network, rather than just consumers or goods abused to satisfy economic demands.

Tokens or coins are used in this setting to symbolize accessibility, governance and ownership of decentralized networks. In Web2, the user plays the role of the product; in Web3, they take on the role of the owner.

Úrsula O’Kuinghttons, director of communications and partnerships at the Web3 Foundation, an organization that supports blockchain and Web3, told Cointelegraph:

“There are two primary considerations when we think of ownership in Web3. The first concerns how organizations are managed. The existing, flawed status quo puts ownership in the hands of the various powerful individuals fronting up organizations, institutions, and corporate entities.”

O’Kuinghttons continued, “A properly decentralized web ensures ownership of these monolithic structures is stripped of such hierarchy. It means networks and communities have much more power in governance and decision-making. It also means rewards are shared more fairly. The engineers are building Web3 to embrace the power of a peer-to-peer network to create lasting and effective solutions with blockchain.”

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“The other key issue surrounds sovereign ownership of data. Web3 seeks to safeguard the legitimate claims of individuals to have full control of their data and put privacy at the forefront of their online lives. This goal can be reached through zero-knowledge proof protocols, encryption, and private keys.”

How Web3 will bring ownership to users

Web3 will bring ownership to users in many ways, one of them being the ability to host websites that cannot be censored or taken down. The current web hosting system relies mainly on servers controlled by centralized organizations. These organizations can take websites down if they feel they have a good enough reason to do so.

Decentralized file storage networks allow people to build censorship-free websites using the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) protocol. Instead of using a central server, with IPFS, every individual acts as a server by caching a piece of data from the site. Once another user visits that site, the data is loaded from one of the cached users. So, for example, if a million users visit a site to view a photo, the photo file can be loaded from any of those million hosts when the next person visits the site.

This process removes the need for a centralized entity, as the burden of serving the website is distributed between the users who have accessed it. This is possible because data files have a unique cryptographic hash as an address instead of a user-generated name like red-car.png. Once the file is requested, the unique hash is sought and recovered from the cache.

Organizations like the Web3 Foundation are providing support for the development of technologies and applications in the field of decentralized web software protocols. They provide grants to teams across the world who are helping to build out the Web3 ecosystem. The foundation currently supports 415 projects in the Polkadot ecosystem with its grant program. In addition, over 1,000 grant applications have been submitted.

Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) also play a big part in Web3 infrastructure. The next wave of user adoption in Web3 ownership and accessibility will be driven by community-owned and governed DAOs, with nonfungible tokens (NFTs) helping to drive this adoption.

DAOs are self-governing groups whose decisions are carried out using smart contracts on the blockchain. DAOs eliminate the need for a governing body or single point of authority by bringing together individuals with common interests and talents. Furthermore, because of the blockchain’s distributed structure, all decisions and transactions can be viewed and confirmed by everyone.

DAOs may be used to facilitate collective ownership in the context of NFTs. Members make decisions by voting at regular intervals, and access to built-in treasuries needs member approval. The escalating cost of NFTs has unintentionally put many collections out of reach for individual customers. DAOs can enable users to share the cost and ownership of individual NFTs to level the playing field and foster the decentralized ethos of accessibility and inclusion.

DAOs provide a governance structure for Web3 that enhances involvement while reducing the chance of corruption or censorship. They may be found in several situations ranging from social media to play-to-earn games. The popularity of DAOs will spread to decentralized finance (DeFi), NFT collection and philanthropic organizations as DAOs gain traction. Furthermore, unlike hierarchical organizations, DAOs allow immediate decision-making once all members agree.

Nonprofits could greatly benefit from the DAO concept. Administrative expenditures and resource distribution hesitation are unlikely to offset the benefit of a charity’s outstanding work. Moreover, using DAOs enables the effective and timely distribution of funds to their intended beneficiaries. Consequently, NGOs may have a stronger influence on their end purposes.

Recent: Why quantum computing isn’t a threat to crypto… yet

DAOs may also be utilized as a direct avenue for investment and quick DeFi adoption. DAO-conducted peer-to-peer crypto transactions are inexpensive, practically instant and unregulated by bank laws. As a result, members who take out loans or engage in other activities may earn better returns than they would have received at a traditional bank. This industry’s tremendous development seems to have no end.

Using NFTs and DAOs to buy and store these digital assets expands the creator economy, which is especially significant, given the present generation’s obsession with social media and content creation. Because the value of a creator’s work is inextricably related to their reputation, following and establishment, the creators gain. DAOs, like many large organizations and businesses, will most certainly enable user access to Web3 in the future.

DeSci: Tech trees to fund ambitious science and tech

To aid coordination, technology trees help decentralize science and provide an overview of the field, existing work and open challenges.

Have you ever played the game series Civilization, created by designer Sid Meier? Through the years, much has changed, but one of the unchanging hallmarks of the series has been the technology tree. Why has it been such a stable component of this game? Because it allows you, on one look, to get a bird’s-eye view of the technological capabilities necessary to make progress on your audacious civilizational goals.

Compare this with our real civilization. If we wanted to, we could probably map the many technological capability paths that got us to where we are today. After all, our current tech stack is what the Civilization tech tree is modeled after. What if we could build a tech tree that was future-facing, starting now? Reality is, arguably, more complex than a computer game. So, rather than mapping civilization at large, perhaps we could start with individual technology areas and map those out, one by one. Within technology domains, one could break down the main goals for the field into future capabilities required to get there and recursively work ourselves backward to the present capability stack.

Even if it’s possible, what’s the point? The point is that, apart from being an intellectually interesting endeavor, it may well dramatically speed up progress. Imagine you’re a funder, or talented postdoc, an entrepreneur in residence, or an advocacy leader looking to advance your technology area of choice. Currently, it’s pretty difficult to figure out how to plug in. Even after graduating in that field, digesting much of its literature, drawing on interviews, and online courses, it’s not very intuitive to see how to connect the dots within an area in a way that would advance the field. There is plenty of information out there, but without a scaffold to map the context and dependencies of different opportunities, one can only guess that the one you’re zooming in on is actually a crucial bottleneck in the field rather than an irrelevant detail that stands to be solved by an approaching technological innovation upstream from that area.

A dynamic overview of a field would make it easier to coordinate efforts, find and fund undervalued areas and determine how, together, they unlock novel capabilities and applications.

Tech trees: The reality

So far so good, in theory. Could this work in practice? At Foresight Institute, we’re trying to find this out. Foresight operates five technical programs:

Decentralized computing, focused on secure cooperation, chaired by Mark S. Miller, chief scientist at Agoric.
Molecular machines, focused on atomic precision, chaired by Ben Reinhardt, PARPA.
Biotech and health extension, focused on rejuvenation, sponsored by 100 Plus Capital.
Neurotech, focused on brain-computer interfaces and whole-brain emulations, chaired by Randal Koene, CarbonCopies.
Spacetech, focused on space exploration tech, chaired by Creon Levit, Planet Labs.

These programs come with expert groups of around 200 scientists, entrepreneurs and funders per group cooperating to drive long-term progress, supported by workshops, fellowships and prizes. To face the problem of onboarding the growing number of new coming enthusiasts into these fields, in early 2022, we decided to create tech trees to map each area.

Led by domain expert interviews, this pioneer team is now building tech trees of each field, starting at the state of the art, mapping each to long-term goals with conditional nodes, one branch at a time. At the end of Q1, we completed the first tech tree prototypes.

Rather than engaging in armchair philosophy, our tech tree architects are developing the tech trees through discussions with domain experts working on each node. Cycles of feedback will lead to iterations of the tree until we get a clear picture of the field. Once v1 is complete, we’ll open up the trees to crowd-sourcing.

Each node will be clickable, allowing people to zoom in on any particular node to see relevant companies, advocacy groups, labs and independent projects. Others will want to know which open challenges need incentivization through funding. Researchers can submit challenges to make progress in their domain. We can set bounties and prizes on bottlenecks to incentivize progress.

Tech trees: The potential

Membranes separating the trees may prove to be pretty permeable. For instance, the computing tree, with tools such as privacy-preserving machine learning, will have something to say about the longevity tech tree. The molecular machines tech tree, with tools such as unclonable polymers, will be relevant for the encryption technology stack in the computing tree. All of them will inform our future in space from material and energy advances through molecular machines to human capabilities strengthened by longevity and neurotechnology.

As the branches of different tech trees start nestling with each other, risks will also become more apparent. Advanced artificial intelligence will be a major revolution and risk vector throughout all trees. But technologies to mitigate risks, such as computer security, will also become more visible and, thus, fundable. This could increase funding for “differential technology development” — i.e., the development of civilizational safety-enhancing technologies over those that are risky.

Some pioneers may want to coordinate on desirable paths through the forest of trees, such as this civilizational map proposed by Trent McConaghy. Others will want to specialize in advancing the frontiers of their local domain, company or project, such as Balaji Srinivasan.

What comes after VC thesis statements and portfolio pages?

The tech tree. A constantly updated open source map of everything you want to fund, how it interrelates, and what remains to be built. A vision of the definite future that still accommodates uncertainty and creativity. pic.twitter.com/s4yyRvcV6Z

— Balaji Srinivasan (@balajis) November 4, 2021

Tech trees allow a variety of pioneers to compare notes and accelerate progress across the boards.

Such a long-term project may sound naive from where we are today. One reason is that we have suboptimal tools. To solve this, we co-hosted a hackathon to build an app for better crowdsourcing and crowdfunding of such maps, together with Srinivasan of 1729.com; Evan Miyazono of Protocol Labs; McConaghy of Ocean Protocol; Amir Banifatemi of XPrize; and Seda and Matthias Röder, and Andy Smolek of Sonophilia. The top submissions are now collaborating on future road-mapping efforts through MapsDAO.

Finally, trees take time to grow. But the earlier we seed them, the earlier we start the many cycles of iteration required to harvest their fruits.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Allison Duettmann is the president of Foresight Institute, a 38-year-strong institute supporting the beneficial development of high-impact technology to make great futures more likely. She leads the Intelligent Cooperation, Molecular Machines, Health Extension, Neurotech and Space programs. She co-edited the book Superintelligence: Coordination & Strategy and co-authored Gaming the Future: Intelligent Voluntary Cooperation. She holds a Master of Science in Philosophy and Public Policy from the London School of Economics, focusing on AI safety, and a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from York University.