Unlocking the new digital economy: The Internet of Blockchain & Evolution of Digital Assets
Over the recent years, blockchain has evolved and entered different markets beyond digital currency. Blockchain technology is now understood as an enabler for faster, more secure and efficient systems. Its uses are indeed so varied that blockchain can be deployed to power the next generation of the Internet: the decentralised web, or web 3.0.
The current architecture of ‘web 2.0’ is user-friendly and familiar. However, as most internet users are now starting to realise, this system has come at a cost: centralised control over data. At the moment, companies like Google and Facebook ̶ the so-called ‘Big Tech’ ̶ act as central databases for an enormous amount of user information.
However, the recurring stories of privacy and data abuse have shown the need to create a new internet structure: an environment in which users have control over their information. In comes blockchain: Web 3.0, powered by blockchain technology, will be decentralised and therefore user-centric, with the potential to break the influence that large and private corporations currently hold over the digital environment and the information contained within.
In the new episode of #FinancialFox Crypto Show, Crypto PR Guru Stefania Barbaglio was joined by a panel of three experts working on innovative projects based on blockchain and other disruptive technologies. They discussed the internet of blockchain and recent developments of digital assets. The panel included Josiah Spackman, Chief Fun Officer of DigiByte, who has been central to DGB’s project development and awareness. With over 9 million blocks and a reduced transaction time of under 15 seconds, DigiByte is one of the longest, secure UTXO blockchains available in crypto. The second guest was Jean Paul Beaudet, the tech guru and the brains behind the Canadian blockchain developer Zeu Crypto Networks, a tech company working on the next generation of blockchain. The third guest, Emal Safi, is the CEO of Aircoins, the largest Augmented Reality (AR) Crypto platform in the world.
Web 3.0: The Internet of Blockchain
“There are a lot more things we can do with blockchains that just payments. This is just one of the many uses of blockchain,” said Josiah about the possibility of a decentralised internet. Blockchain is a dynamic and scalable technology; once applied to the structure of the web, it is poised to turn it into a decentralised platform, challenging the role of the big tech companies.
Building on blockchain, Internet 3.0 would not require centralised servers to store information, as it is structured in a peer-to-peer network of nodes. On this network, data is then distributed across the participant nodes. This is a more efficient architecture because it offers better verification processes and it is less susceptible to corruption on corporate and regulatory levels.
At the moment, projects are being developed and discussions are taking place, but the internet of blockchain is yet to become a reality. As much as this new phase of the internet is a real possibility, it is still in its development stage, so it is necessary to create connectors that will allow different blockchain protocols to interact and work together, Jean Paul from ZeU Networks points out: “Blockchain is indeed a revolutionary technology, and the distributed ledger internet is on its way but it still needs a big industry solution to connect the old world and the new world.”
One major concern affecting the widespread adoption of blockchains is limited privacy: although blockchain provides pseudo anonymisations by analysing the transaction graph and related other information, it is often possible to link users to transactions. Once one transaction is linked to a user, all of that user’s transactions become known. Since blockchain transaction data is public or shared across a larger group, in the case of permissioned-blockchain, blockchain is riskier than using a credit card in terms of privacy. This could be a factor preventing mass adoption. Digibyte has solved this issue by inventing the Dandelion feature, which aids in obfuscating the sender’s IP address in the DigiByte blockchain. Launched in May, the Dandelion made DigiByte the first major UTXO blockchain to implement such a privacy-enhancement tool.
Enhancing operability of blockchain
Jean Paul, from ZeU Crypto Networks, highlighted the limitations of current blockchain technology, such as scalability and interoperability. Most of the current forms of blockchains face problems of scalability and interoperability due to the mechanism of the distributed ledger technology, which means that processes are lengthier than they should be and different ecosystems may experience problems working together.
ZeU has been working on solutions to this and has released a blockchain patent that paves the way for the next generation of blockchain technology. The company filed a patent for a decentralised transactional communication protocol, which promises to be a breakthrough in the decentralised ledger technology. The New Internet Communication Protocol will enable a smoother transition of legacy systems into the distributed digital economy, or Web 3.0.
The new protocol announced by ZeU marks the chapter of a new era in the distributed ledger technology (DLT) as it aims at total decentralisation and smart contract use cases. Developed by ZeU, the Decentralised Transactional Communication Protocol (DTCP) is a grassroots alternative to tackle DLT-based industry problems such as interoperability and scalability. It enables any number of participants to communicate in a transactional way. Blockchain applications are complex and difficult to understand for developers, so ZeU offers a modular framework for dapps to be built on the ZeU blockchain in an easy and efficient manner as the the new protocol DTCP helps with the interoperability.
“DTCP is a tokenless and blockless scalable economic model to enable the legacy system to offer a smooth transition into the new distributed digital economy,” says Jean Paul Beaudet.
The evolution of digital assets
The speakers also discussed the growing role of digital assets and the integration of new technologies into blockchain platform to create improved experiences.
In this respect, Aircoins has been a major force in combining augmented reality with cryptocurrency. It recently partnered with cryptocurrency Dash to distribute the coin in various parts of the world via their Augmented Reality app. This innovative model opens up new engagement forms and improves user experience.
Talking about Aircoins, CEO Emal talked about augmented reality (AR), an increasingly present technology. The Aircoins App is a modern-day treasure hunt that uses 3D and AR/VR technology to ‘capture’ cryptocurrencies with one’s mobile phone. With the app, users can hunt, collect and send cryptocurrencies to one another.
Aircoins’ aim is to bring more people into the cryptocurrency world, and they decided to do so by engaging with the audience in a fun and interactive manner: “There are different ways to work with digital assets and cryptocurrencies. We are doing it with rewards points in augmented reality. AR brings a new memorable, visual experience,” said Emal.
There are plenty of digital channels an organisation can use to reach more people, and digital assets can improve user experience. Josiah gives the example of producing content online and rewarding users with digital assets as a way of interacting with online communities.
Emal highlights the potential in the gaming sector of looking at the value of digital and crypto assets. Gamers are essentially very tech-savvy and are used to handling tokens and virtual money: “Gamers are very inclined towards how the new economy is working,” Emal said. The gaming industry is growing at a fast pace: in 2018, it generated nearly $135 billion in revenue. This value can be unlocked with the use of digital assets, revealing the potential value digital assets could bring to businesses, services and users.
In terms of about the importance of digital assets, the panel noted that increasingly, blockchain technology is playing a role in the tracking and recording of ownership of physical real-world assets, such as documents, contracts, precious objects, and even real estate, effectively digitising them as well. Since blockchains are tamper-resistant, making it impossible to meddle with a record once it’s been broadcast to the network, blockchain is a highly efficient system for proving ownership and authenticity. Blockchain can remove the middlemen and the potential for data tampering at any stage. This means it can also remove any doubt over the authenticity of ownership. Blockchains can be the perfect means for tracking ownership of just about anything from luxury goods to private equity.
Watch the full interview to learn more about internet of blockchains and digital assets, and hear about these innovative projects
