Disclosure: The views and opinions expressed herein are solely those of the authors and do not represent the views and opinions of crypto.news editorial.
If data is the “new oil” then we are all sitting on reserves of unrecognized value. With Web2, personal information is stored in siled platforms and owned by large corporations. Even worse, they are often sold to unknown parties for private profit.
At Web3, users are tired of this misuse and abuse of their data. As a result, they are taking back control by binding gaming, social media, and various other accounts to the blockchain. And they leverage on-chain records and data acquisition protocols to unify their digital identities and ultimately create value from their stuff.
Find out why, beyond owning digital assets, the real value of the future lies in owning data.
The business maxim is: If the product is free, you are the product. This is how most technology companies have operated on his Web2, and this is how he will continue to operate on his Web2. For them, users are both customers and resources. From Facebook to Google, these companies have built advertising empires targeting companies that operate almost exclusively on this new data “oil.”
Unfortunately, user information has been leaked, lost, and traded over and over again through this system. Facebook has been exposed to countless scandals for freely sharing user data with third parties. As a result, much of this information ends up in the hands of brokers. Brokers count on average about 1,500 data points per consumer. These touchpoints are then repackaged and sold to the highest bidder for remarketing. Big data is big business.
This vicious cycle has been going on for over a decade, and users are understandably dissatisfied with the status quo. Three-quarters of consumers are now more concerned about data privacy than they were a few years ago.
As digital technology permeates our daily lives, from online shopping to remote work to social media, users are keenly aware of this data imbalance. Young people, whose identity and privacy are at risk, are especially looking for solutions.
The good news is that technology offers hope for change. Blockchain has popularized the concept of digital asset ownership among netizens. Now, novel protocols and brave startups are moving the needle toward data ownership. Web3 leverages on-chain records of off-chain information to allow users to take back that power and monetize the utility derived from this data (as tech giants have been doing for years).
In January, Ethereum finalized a new protocol proposal, ERC-7231, to integrate digital identities and aggregated NFTs. This standard binds multiple identities across web2 and web3 into a single NFT, enabling encrypted aggregation of multi-domain identity data.
What does this mean? This means that users have an “identity of identity” that they have complete control over. Not only does this improve interoperability across platforms, but the standard also enables users to create commercial value from their data.
The most useful example of this in action is gaming. Over the years, it has been nearly impossible to find a way to integrate different gaming identities and host a gamer’s achievements and history in one place. Platforms don’t talk to each other, data is static, and traditional game studios are lagging behind.
ERC-7231 bridges the gap between old world and new world gaming by unifying identities on the blockchain. In this way, gamers can move freely within the ecosystem under her one flag and tag. Even better, since they own the underlying information on the blockchain, only they can decide what happens to that information. If they choose to share this information, gamers can passively earn money when brands leverage their on-chain and off-chain data.
Data sovereignty is important, and multiple startups are bringing this concept to life. One is Clique. It is a decentralized identity oracle protocol from San Francisco that allows users to certify off-chain data on-chain and derive utility from that information. Of course, this results in value generation and privacy protection. Again, it’s very different from Web2, but doing so ensures end-to-end privacy thanks to a trusted execution environment and multiparty computing. As a result, user data is tamper-proof and ready for continuous incentive distribution, a win-win.
A paradigm shift is occurring now. Users are waking up to the fact that their data has value, but they are not currently sharing that value.
In this study by Consensys, half of respondents believe the internet adds value, and two-thirds say they should own what they create on the internet. Furthermore, only 38% of them feel that they are being adequately compensated for their contributions.
Furthermore, concerns about data privacy are also prominent and growing. More than 80% of respondents in the same survey prioritize data privacy, 70% think companies should share profits from their data, and 79% want greater control over online identities. Masu. Something has to give.
Web3 is an opportunity to evolve traditional data dynamics into something more fair and accessible. Backed by blockchain’s transparency and immutability, as well as data sharing protocols and platforms, we can fix digital ownership.
We are at a crossroads, and I believe users will be at the forefront. In fact, this is probably not the right word for this group going forward. Instead, “users” need to become “builders” in this next wave of the Internet. Web3 must be leveraged to solve deep-rooted problems such as identity, privacy, and monetization.
Only by taking data from those who have it and giving it to those who do not have it can everyday cyber citizens tap into the treasure trove of untapped data value within their grasp. can do.
