Crypto

One of the biggest questions that has dominated the rise of Web2 is the collection of our data and how exactly it is used. Even towards the end of Web2 and the incoming dawn of Web3, this question has not been resolved.

As of 2023, any search and any click that a user makes is traced and utilised by data collectors. Even Google itself knows exactly who you are, your name, your age, your gender, your history, your marital status, the list just goes on and on.

While there are ways to fix the problem, such as removing your private info from Google search or opting out of data brokers entirely, it has been an issue that has garnered a lot of attention.

The Incoming World Of Web3

But this is because the world of Web2 is centralised, with intermediaries who can benefit from collecting our data and utilising it for their own purposes and profit. With Web3 as an alternative, however, the internet could be decentralised, which means there would be no intermediaries and no middlemen to harness the data in the first place.

While this sounds good, it also sounds like a bit of wishful thinking. According to experts, Web3 is only going to be properly implemented somewhere in the 2030s, and even this seems like it could be jumping the gun when it comes to predictions. Surely, then, we have no real knowledge about whether Web3 might solve the issue of data privacy.

The Implications Of Cryptocurrency

Well, this is where cryptocurrency comes into the picture. One of the benefits of cryptocurrency – according to users with experience of blockchain – is the security and privacy that comes from its decentralised nature. Indeed, cryptocurrency has been running off an early vision of Web3 for around a decade, with blockchain networks, dApps and even blockchain privacy projects that are made to be secure and trustworthy.

With this in mind, can we say that crypto is showing how the issue might be solved when blockchain spreads to embody the internet?

Well, yes and no. Because blockchain is decentralised, there is no central control point that can take advantage of data and utilise it for its own purposes. That is to say, instead of a single authority interacting with users, there are a number of consensus methods, each of which are distributed to nodes that authenticate and preserve the data to ensure it cannot be corrupted. As well as this, dApps like DTSocialise Holding are creating an ecosystem that allows users to choose between anonymity – keeping their data private and secure – and sharing their data in exchange for compensation.

The Answer To Online Privacy

With that being said, cryptocurrency is still in its infancy stages, which makes it almost impossible to tell whether these benefits will go unchallenged in the coming years. It can also be said that technologies like blockchain do not guarantee anonymity and can only ensure it if users have an understanding of how to provide security, privacy and freedom for themselves – much in the same way that users can now, in the world of Web2.

That being said, it can’t be argued that decentralised ventures are not heading in the right direction. For now, however, we have to focus on how to protect our privacy in the present while also staying aware of crypto and the steps it is taking to ensure a secure and private future.

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