We all know that oil created some vast fortunes over the last century.
How would the economic situation of the planet look if everyone had an oil derrick sitting in their yard and was guaranteed to strike a lode?
This is the situation we are facing with Web 3.0.
Data is the new oil and every single person on the planet is going to be generating it. We already see the value of this precious commodity under Web 2.0 and it is only going to grow.
The difference will be in the ownership of the data.
There are project underway that are seeking to create a digital identification system. This is going to be the basis for the ownership of said data.
We already have privacy transfer system with tokens like Monero. This means there is the ability to operate on a transparent system while also hiding the identity tied to the transfers. Over time, these concepts will be expanded to most everything done on the Internet.
A lack of privacy shows is a vulnerability when it comes to security. Data hacks mostly affect our online world but, in some instances, could transcend into the physical realm. This, of course, all takes on new meaning when we add a biological level to the entire process.
Fortunately, we are seeing many projects that are seeking to develop protocols that include these ideas at the core. Singularitynet is one that is working at open up the world of Artificial Intelligence to decentralization. To prevent a handful of governments and a couple dozen global corporations from maintaining full control, it is building a platform that enables anyone, individual or company, to access the resources on there.
That project decided to built on top of the Ocean Protocol, which is looking to redevelop the data economy. This is also done in a decentralized way and in a manner to protect it from privacy issues. The goal is to be able to provide anyone access to the data without violating the identity of the individual.
These two organizations focus upon Artificial Intelligence which only makes sense since there is where most of the data is fed into these days. AI systems are data hogs, requiring more of it as time goes by. Until there is another paradigm shift in terms of AI advancement, it looks like large amounts of data fed in and processed using brute computational power is going to be a lot of our AI methodology.
Since individuals and their devices are the ones that provide the data, it only makes sense they are the ones compensated.
There are also many who feel that it is not right that they own their mobile phones yet, when they download an application, that takes all the data on the phone and it becomes ownership of a certain company.
The biological arena is seeing the same type of model being introduced. Millions got their genome analyzed at 23andMe. They paid the company for this service while providing them with a valuable product to sell. Of course, they did this by selling it to GlaxoSmithKline.
Everyone has a genome. Using the data to oil comparison, this is an example of something that each individual on the planet can sell. Of course, under the present system the profits go elsewhere, not to the individual.
Expansion of this concept will see exponential growth when we all have our own personal AI assistants. The introduction of SIRI and Alexa are the forerunners, hopefully, of what is to come.
We see projects seeking to decentralized AI in this manner to create AI assistants that are not owned or controlled by mega tech companies. Once again, one of the main reasons why this is desired because of the data.
Over the next half decade, it will not be surprising to see people create more data autonomously than they do physically. We all have parts of our lives that are automated such as bills we pay. This is only going to grow as resources are available to us. A personal AI assistant is apt to generate data throughout the day, even when we are sleeping.
Tesla owners already are generating data whenever their cars are moving. This is something that benefits the company greatly. At present there is no direct compensation although I think it a prime area for Tesla to tokenize.
As more devices are connected, each time they interact with the Internet, data is generated. This is data that we will own.
All this shows how important some of the technologies such as blockchain truly are. I believe it is a core piece of the Internet we are developing. There are obviously a plethora of other technologies that are going to be involved but the base layer of security is going to contain blockchain (at least for the first iteration).
We see how this can play into breaking people away from the Job Loop. This is the core ideal of the system we operate within. People work to earn money which they then use to buy things they want or need. After that, they return to work, once again to earn money to spend.
It is a continual loop that one remains on throughout life. Of course, it can get interrupted because of economic downturn or illness. With the advancement of technology, many are starting to ponder how we handle millions of people who have the job loop broken for them.
As we can see, if we follow some of the green sprouts of technology out, it becomes evident that the solution is in front of us. However, there is no guarantee at this point of how this will unfold. The companies that are benefiting from data today are not about to give it up easily. Thus, we need to see more involved in the direction some of these start ups are heading.
During this century, data is certainly going to create a bunch of millionaires (even billionaires). More importantly, it has the potential to provide each individual with a means of sustenance, even if only partial. A shift in who is benefiting from technology could go a long way to solving some of the wealth and income inequality questions.
Naturally, it is not going to just happen. People need to be made aware of the changes that could take place as the opportunities arise when different technologies roll out.
There is another rush on, just like with oil and gold in the past. This time it is the quest for data.
Unlike the past, we know exactly where it resides. The rush of today is to determine who controls said data. At present, it is the mega tech companies who have most of it.
Web 3.0 seeks to alter this by handing it off to the individuals.
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