API Business Models

Impact of Web 3.0 on the future of finance

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Web 3.0 allows users to innovate and allows finance to step out and be different. Before we go to Web 3.0, the fact that it has a number three presupposes there is a one and two. 

Web 1.0 is where the internet was static. It is giving information that is not dynamic; there is no interaction; you are soaking whatever is given to you. It’s very content-heavy. 

Web 1.0 evolved to become Web 2.0, which is known as a social web, where it becomes more dynamic, there is interaction. You can vote up or vote down a product or provide feedback. You can comment, add, edit and delete because it’s dynamic. You are now engaged in the Web, feeding your thoughts, feelings, behavior, likes, and dislikes into the social Web. It became centralized, whereby the social Web became more controlled by big players like Amazon, Google, and Facebook, where they take all your information that you freely give and monetize it.

In 2021 we have Web 3.0. It is a decentralized form of the internet, whereby information is distributed. It is built on top of the Web, and content is pushed back to the people or the users who added value to it, who created it. NFT is one example; you create the NFT you own it. Because you own it, you can make money out of it. The technology and the toolkits that come with it are still developing. It’s moving at a pretty fast pace. It enhances the features of Web 2.0 and brings the data back to the user. The control is now not with Google and Facebook but with the user. 

Web 3.0 decentralizes internet architecture, which enables it to be distributed, redefining ownership. Because it redefines ownership, it democratizes ownership in terms of health, property, knowledge, skills, and finance. Because it democratizes, it changes the business model as we advance.

Four core elements

Go to Market

Incentives (Stickiness)

Asset / Value

New innovations

If you focus on these four core elements and then build your business modeling around them, your business strategy is adaptable and deployable and can be executed using Web 3.0. 

Go to Market

Go to market are the same as in a traditional market. How do you sell? How many products? Why would I choose your product? Incentives after purchasing your product? Why should I stick with it? 

In Web 2.0, you invest heavily in marketing; you create a lead generation, you need to acquire a customer base, you need to retain a customer base, the product must be ready, and you need to factor in cost per user acquisition. You need to audit the ROI metrics and price them into the product. This must be done before the product is brought to the market. Because if you do not do all these things, it is not ready to go to the market. But despite all these things, it is still a hit and miss. Because product-wise, you may not get it right completely. Market-wise you need to touch a few segments. So that’s the Web 2.0 tactics to go to market. 

With Web 3.0, it is Bootstrapping, Tokens, and Dao. They’re not separate from each other. They intermingle.

Founders bootstrap by offering tokens to early adopters. For example, I have an idea that can solve a problem. I know the purpose and publish it. I do not have the product, scalability, customers, ROI, price, or roadmap. I have a concept. I bring it here. I’m going to build a token and strap it around it. I’m going to ask you to believe in me. If you believe in me, if you believe in this concept, come and ride with me. When we lifted this into the market because you came in early and supported me, I promised you that you would be rewarded because you’re an early adopter by virtue of that token. 

The communication of the purpose is paramount. It’s very, very important. Why do you want to do this? Why do you want to build this? You have this idea because you want to solve this and help these people, so communication is the most important thing. Dao puts all these things together. 

One starts with the product; the other starts with the communication of the purpose, and from there, you build a community. The community would then come in at the early stage. It will lead the product, will lead the definition of it, and will also own the product. You have heard the term skin in the game; this is what it is. The Dao organizes it, houses it, and focuses it. Social Daos is an example. There is evidence that Game Daos will lead the ecosystem that built gaming.

Incentives (Stickiness)

In an NFT, the marketplaces get the transaction fee. But more important is the channel of distribution. So you partner with another platform, show a selection of items, and get a commission paid, which is known as an affiliate fee. But in NFC, you get a royalty fee and an affiliate fee for every sale and transaction. This creates stickiness; you want to stay on with your marketplace. You became an evangelist of the marketplace.

In gaming, the difference is that we use a lot of games assets, which have been lent out by guilt, to the new players who cannot afford them. They take all these assets, start playing with them and build from them. The value in the gaming incentives is not the product; it is the creativity in building the game, the permutations, and the composability of how the game is being built; that has a value; that is the success metric.

Utility mining – In Web 3.0, because of the technology, you are rewarding people to move there, transact, and move. Hence you hear the words play to earn, walk to earn, learn to earn. In fluidity you need to spend because saving is a luxury. You need to have crypto. To make crypto here, you need to interact; you need to engage; you need to transact.

Every time you do that, you are rewarded. 

These are the incentives that are being explored. Some of them are very successful in deploying it, especially in gaming, creating that stickiness.

Regardless of whether it’s NFT or tokens, if you do not know how to create an ecosystem that is always liquid, people just leave after a while. After the sticking period matures, they dump the token and move out. After the NFT, they sell your NFT and move elsewhere. So this stickiness is very important. 

Web 3.0 is a little bit different in doing that. 

Asset Value

It pushes the ownership back to the owners. You own your data. Web 3.0 allows you to bring the ownership of the data into your hands because you own the data. Your data becomes your asset, you are the creator, you now own it, it becomes a product, and you have the right to do anything with it; license it, sell it, or even mortgage it. The asset value has shifted in that sense. 

Conclusion

We have seen that community engagement creates value. 

Interaction creates value; collaboration is value; behavior is value. This is translated as your time, resource, skills, and money. All of these potential states can be tokenized. Because it can be tokenized, it becomes an asset.

With Web 3.0, that asset is then moved back to you as your ownership, and you can now bring it forward. 

Now people will tell what their product will be like. Insurance pools are going to be decided by the community. The rewards mechanism, loyalty bonus, will no longer be centralized.

How you invest funds is no longer going to be decided by VCs. It will be decided by the community powered by tokens.

Ida Mok
Ida is the founder of SEHAT, a web 3 based project in SSID of health data on the blockchain and also the President of Women in Blockchain Asia. She is based in Adelaide

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