The World as we Know it is Over

An overly dramatic clickbait title? I don’t think so. We’re at a unique point in time. Blockchain tech, AI, and AR/VR are entering the mainstream. These are no longer things only geeks and degen traders are interested in. And although the number of people using those technologies is growing rapidly, the majority of the population still has no idea how much the world is going to change over the next 5-10 years.

Change always leads to uncertainty and challenges but it also creates new opportunities. We’re at the cusp of a shift from web2 to web3 and I expect this to cause as much disruption as the Internet did in the 90s or web2 (social media and mobile internet) did around 2005-2010.

Yes, we’re still in the very early days of web3 but this is exactly the right time to build a web3-equivalent of Amazon, Google, or Facebook. Sure, not everyone will (or even wants to) build a multi-billion dollar company. But there are still countless benefits of being an early adopter, whether you want to offer a product, a service, or create content in this space.

Web3 is based on four main technologies:

- Blockchain

- NFTs (I will explain later why I listed NFTs separately)

- AR/VR/mixed reality

Strictly speaking, none of those technologies is new. So why do I think that we’re at such a critical point in time? Let’s go back to the early days of web2, around 2005-2007, and see what happened during those few years.

- Facebook – 2004

- YouTube – 2005

- Twitter - 2006

- First iPhone – 2007

And a couple of years later:

- Instagram – 2010

- First iPad – 2010

The shift from web1 (early internet) to web2 was possible because of those 3 key elements:

- Mobile devices (smartphones and later tablets)

- Multiple social media platforms

- Affordable mobile internet

Notice that none of those was new in itself – we had mobile phones, Blackberrys, social media (remember MySpace?), and mobile internet for a few years prior to 2005. But during that 2005-2010 period, we reached kind of a ‘tipping point’ – the perfect combination of conditions for web2 to emerge.

I remember vividly a session in 2006 when I was still at a university. We had to use the Internet on our phones (WAP) for one particular exercise – it was ridiculously expensive per every minute of being online and the experience was dreadful – barely usable for anything beyond sending emails or checking the news. This is a rather stark contrast to using a big touchscreen on my first iPhone around 2 years later (and being online 24/7).

Why am I so focused on this ‘perfect storm’ of conditions required to properly launch web3? Because no single technology can be a catalyst for such a major shift. You must have the right combination of technologies, which supplement each other.

Let me illustrate this – imagine trying to use Instagram if it existed back in, let’s say, 2002.

First, you would have to always carry your clunky, low-quality digital camera with you… or a film camera ;-)

Ok, you took the photo… now you have to go back home and connect it to your computer to download it (or take your film to be developed and scanned).

Then finally you connect via your 56.6k dial-up modem to upload the photo.

Is it possible? Of course. But it’s neither quick nor convenient. And that’s exactly why social media platforms and online content creation started growing exponentially after smartphones with built-in cameras and mobile internet became ubiquitous.

We’re now at a similar point in web3. Early big players are already emerging – for example, you could see Yuga Labs as web3 equivalent of Facebook (just less evil;-) We see a lot of speculative investment and trading of crypto, NFTs, and anything AI-related – quite similar to the Dot Com Bubble at the beginning of the millennium. We’re in those rough, uncharted waters of the early adoption phase. This can only mean that the next phase – mass adoption – is just around the corner.

Let’s look at those four core web3 technologies and the main reasons why I think that mass adoption will take place over the next few years.

1. Blockchain

This technology sits at the core of web3. It adds decentralization and ownership to the next generation of the Internet. It shifts the power from big tech companies back into the hands of the users.

Blockchain has been around for over a decade but only during the last major crypto bull run (2020-2021) we started seeing more widely spread interest in this technology. As I’ve mentioned at the beginning of this article – it’s no longer just speculative traders who are into it.

Here’s one example – all Big Four consulting companies (Deloitte, KPMG, EY, and PwC) now have whole departments dedicated to blockchain technology and the metaverse.

Here’s another one – University of Nicosia in Cyprus launched last year the first-ever course built fully on the blockchain. I participated in it and while I will be the first one to say that there’re plenty of improvements to make, I will also say that it is a very interesting experiment and it certainly feels like a step in the right direction (I will come back to the topic of education at the end of this article).

Also, remember when El Salvador became the first country in the world to accept Bitcoin as a legal tender? Even though the crypto market has been pretty brutal in the last 12-18 months, they still managed to pay off $800 million of foreign debt thanks to their investment in Bitcoin.

Yes, we’re still in the early days of blockchain adoption but these examples are from the last crypto bull run. Just imagine what will happen during the next one.

2. NFTs

Yes, I realise that NFTs are based on blockchain technology but I feel that they deserve a separate mention. Many people just see them as yet another opportunity for speculative trading but the reality is that potential use cases of NFTs are almost infinite.

Think about it this way:

Bitcoin = money/transactions

Ethereum = code/apps

NFTs = everything else

Here’s one great example – California DMV has recently started a trial of using NFTs as car titles. The same could be done for land/property deeds or pretty much any other proof of ownership or authenticity.

Another example is the impact NFTs are already making on the art world and they’re feeding into pop culture. Initiatives like The Memes by Punk 6529 are only going to speed up this process.

ChatGPT showed the masses how AI can be utilized by an average person right now… not at some unspecified point in the future. New AI-powered tools are appearing almost every day – copywriting, video editing, art creation (DALL-E, Midjourney, etc.) – you name it.

ChatGPT is in some ways much better search engine than Google. Why? It gives you specific results based on your prompt… just like Google used to before it became crippled by ads, SEO, etc.

For example – if I want a recipe for a vegan chocolate brownie, ChatGPT will give me just that. Meanwhile, Google will lead me to a cooking blog, where I have to read someone’s life story, skip through the ads, close pop-ups etc. before I eventually get to the recipe.

I use AI tools every day. I’m not afraid of AI replacing us anytime soon. But I’m fairly certain that those who will not embrace it as a tool to supercharge their skills/productivity/etc. will be soon left behind.

4. AR, VR, XR

Web3 is closely tied with the concept of the metaverse. Some form of a persistent VR or XR experience is at the core of how most people envision the metaverse (‘Ready Player One’ anyone?) Again – the tech itself is not exactly new. But we’re reaching a point when it will start gaining popularity at an exponential rate.

Facebook (sorry – Meta) is pumping a huge amount of resources into this tech.

Apple is going to release its first high-end XR head in the next few months with a cheaper device to follow likely in 2024. Second-gen devices are supposedly already in the works. Whether you like Apple or not, there’s no arguing that they know how to make products extremely successful. They may not even be the first to the market but they know how to make their offer very attractive and have a very loyal (and huge!) customer base. I don’t necessarily expect their first-gen XR headset to be a mind-blowing success but the second or third model (likely out no later than 2025) will be probably as popular as Apple Watch.

There’re also various really exciting projects appearing in this space. For example, check out Wist. Their app is still at quite an early stage but the potential is crazy!

Conclusion

Ok, so what this all has to do with the proclamation of the end of the world as we know it?

Think about how much the Internet has changed the world. How much it all changed again with the rise of social media and mobile internet. We’re on the brink of another shift of similar proportions. It will change how we work, do business with others, or just simply interact with others. It will create countless challenges but also opportunities. It will render some jobs redundant but will also create new ones.

In the late 90s, businesses had to figure out how to establish their presence online (website, email, then SEO etc.).

Around 2010, having a strong social media presence became at least equally, if not more important.

We’re at the point where every business should at least start thinking about its presence in the web3/metaverse.

The next few years will present some of the biggest challenges but also opportunities of this generation.