And that leads to the second point, which is the future of data and how it will be compartmentalized, how it will be monetized. We think that now we own our data, now we own our preferences and informations, all these companies out there might be really interested in paying us to get access to that informations. We might end up paying Facebook $9.99 a month—if you’re not the product, you’re the client. In this case, it would be the reverse, you’d be paying for services but own the informations and know they’re not going to get leaked, they’re not going to get hacked, and we’ll be able to monetize the way we want it. And I foresee that we’ll have data marketplaces where companies like Nielsen’s or other research entities will access and pay people to know more about them. Another thing we have to consider as Web3 takes over the world is how almost everyone can participate in this economy. We think about the creator economy, we think about how anyone in the world can create assets, whether they are used in video games or metaverses, or for any other sort of applications in the digital world… anyone can really participate, and share the revenue and benefit from doing so. An early application was done through Second Life from Linden Labs, where folks and designers around the world were really, you know, generating a lot of money and having almost like a full-time job by creating digital assets and skins that gamers could buy and use inside Second Life. As the metaverse will take hold, we’ll see a lot more of that in the environment, and the metaverse, or the metaverses as we say, will become an effective economy where everyone around the world will be able to make a living by creating elements, assets, environments, worlds, for other people to enjoy to use and benefit.
The question that all of this has prompted is, what are the new rules? We know that the SNC Regulators are still behind when it comes to understanding and regulating Web3. We’re seeing that with cryptocurrency mainly, from a financial standpoint. But if we think about identities, who’s going to own them, how that will change the impact for example for electronic medical records, hospitals, insurances—that has yet to be defined. And so, the governments will have to really take a hard look at Web3 in general. Not just cryptocurrencies, but Web3 in general—and how this information, which are valuable assets (information is the most important valuable asset after oil)—they will be ruled across all these entities. And what will accountability look like? What would happen if someone is trying to be the bad actor? One of the things that Web3 solves is actually weeding out the bad actors. Why? Because Web3 is permanent. It’s forever. It’s a record that everyone can have access to. So, why would you ever do something bad, if you’ll always be marked as the bad person? And so, it’s interesting how accountability will evolve, and therefore I see that self-accountability will be the main event at that point. There’s a lot more to discuss but I think these are the main points on how Web3 will impact society and the world as a whole.