Exploring the Web 3 World Today

It’s been an interesting day today, the first day of the two day Web 3.0 conference put on by Tech Circus. There was a huge number of presentations on two stages today. Thankfully I can return to any of them and watch the recordings. I definitely will be.

Drawing mostly on memory, just what I saw today was pretty packed.

One thing is pretty clear, there is a lot of confusion about just what Web 3.0 is. I don’t think that is a confusion that will be easily cleared up any time soon. There are so many technologies emerging right now.

They are sort of like watching puppies gaining their ability to walk around then their eyes opening and them seeing the world. They know there is a lot there but they are not too sure how it’s all going to work.

There will be a period bouncing from point to point exploring until the next thing grabs attention and off to that.

Another thing that seems to be pretty clear for anyone who was attending today is that as much as some people love to wave off Web 3.0 and everything developing around it as, hype, fad and even ponzi schemes, it’s growth and development will continue to take shape.

When a site like Shopify is not only part of the presentations but is building crypto ecommerce into their offerings, it’s not going any where too fast. Speaking of which Nicole Sandford, Shopify’s Merchant Success Manager used the best analogy of the day.

During a discussion on how to move Web 3.0 to a point where normies will feel comfortable she suggested the following (paraphrased by me):

She sees Web 3.0 right now like a bunch of diehard true fitness believers working out in a dark dingy basement. The sort of place that she’d not take her grandmother to out of embarrassment.

Web 3.0 needs to get to a place like a GoodLife exercise outlet where anyone could feel comfortable to come in and take part, even her grandmother.

We really do need to get to a place where it’s easy to understand what we’re doing without a lot of complicated language and explanation. It’s going to take time, development and thoughtful development to get there.

During a presentation by Alethea, a project that brings AI and NFTs together into what they call an intelligent NFT (iNFT), a recent Hivian @jfuji noted that iNFT is not the best choice for their product.

He’s right, with the media hype that has gone on around NFTs, the connection made in most people’s mind is NFT=digital art. I can easily see anyone not just normies asking what’s intelligent about digital art.

Alethea is a very intriguing project but sadly, lives on Ethereum along with it’s gas fees.

When will these projects learn?

In another session the discussion centered around the need for interoperability between the various chains. The consensus is for wide adoption people will need to be able to access and use their digital assets across multiple chains.

Anything less returns to the silo effect of Web 2.0.

One session that both surprised and intrigued me was with the Vancouver author Jeff Booth. He talked about how fiat monetary policy contributes toward the income inequity that is so obvious these days. He discussed how deflationary policies could help to rebalance wealth distribution and how Bitcoin can strengthen that rebalancing.

It was pretty clear he’s sees Bitcoin as the primary and most stable crypto. He did make some passing reference to altcoins by briefly suggesting most would be unlikely to contribute to the solution unless they have strong tokenomics. He didn’t elaborate.

I get a chance, I think I’d like to have a read of his book and get a clearer idea of what his views are. It was interesting for sure.

Even though the Tech Circus events are over today, I still have another Web 3.0 event in an hour or so. This one is a livestream put on by BFF, a group focused on helping women and non-binary person’s learn the emerging tech. The name of the livestream is, “WFT is an NFT? Crypto for Beginners”. Should be interesting.

Also looking forward to hearing our own @crimsonclad tomorrow in a session on the Tech Circus event. I was delighted it will be on before PYPT so I can tune in live.

Shadowspub is a writer from Ontario, Canada. She writes on a variety of subjects as she pursues her passion for learning. She also writes on other platforms and enjoys creating books you use like journals, notebooks, coloring books etc.

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