Web3 Use Cases for Dash

Ask a hundred blockchain developers what Web3 is and you may get as many different answers. Although the concept of Web3 is a few years in the making, it is continually evolving. As we previously wrote, four cornerstones anchor Web3: trustless, permissionless, decentralized, and payment processing. That foundation leaves plenty of room for interpretation as to what you can do. At the Moonclave cryptocurrency conference in August, industry pundits commented that there weren’t many real world use cases of Web3 yet, despite heavy investment and media coverage. And the Dash community has been discussing potential Web3 use cases for Dash too, which is what we’ll discuss here.

Consider this a rebirth of the internet, and as such, it will be firmly etched in sand, confusing, and exciting, all at the same time. A great deal has been written about Web3 the past year in anticipation of the recent, Ethereum “Merge”. ETH is the lead dog in Web3 speculation. But it won’t be the only option. In addition to well-documented competing platforms like Solana and Avalanche, Dash Platform — the next generation of Dash — promises to deliver the tools developers need to build “the future”.

Web3 Essentials

Web3 Use Cases

What should we include in the possibilities for Web3? We’ll do our best to list some useful core examples, drawing from decentralized apps (dApps) already in development and others in planning. Capital is flowing into this space to capture first-mover advantages. And as we saw with Web1 and Web2, being first is both advantageous and fickle (hello, MySpace, I’m talkin’ about you again).

Games

Online gaming market projections show it growing by 10% annually, topping $132 billion by the year 2030. Naturally such a large technology-fueled market is ripe for new development, especially when cryptocurrency circumvents local fiat currency hassles for developers. Decentralized game engines can scale to meet demand easier than in many cloud environments. Rules can be more transparent – consider the transparency of a random number generator in open source code (unlike Las Vegas slot machines that can be manipulated). If you see a Web3 venture capital portfolio, no doubt you’ll find games on the list.

NFTs

Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are one of the most prolific early use cases for Web3. If you’re unfamiliar with them, an NFT is a blockchain record that associates to a specific physical or digital asset. A one-of-a-kind piece of digital artwork, for example, could be non-fungible, and an NFT linked to that artwork could be sold or traded. NFTs can represent physical items like a painting or an office building too. Making ditial tokens for these assets enables buying, selling, and trading them while reducing risk of fraud. As a result, NFTs can represent identities, ownership rights, and more. Forecasts for the nascent global NFT market show growth of 35.0% from 2022 to 2027, from $3 billion to almost 14 billion in 2027.

DeFi

Cryptocurrency offers a way to end the reign of banks over everday finance. Examples of DeFi include person-to-person loans, pooled investments, and a new way to provide insurance. The incumbents fear DeFi — which leads to a tug-of-war over regulation. Building applications that enable new ways of handling financial transactions is a booming industry. Valuation of the global market was about $12 billion in 2021 and forecasts show it growing annually at ofer 40% for the next ten years.

Other dApps

The promise of Web3 is unbounded — we never would have imagined how far web2 would take us, did we? A wide range of other types of dApps can be built to leverage the power of Web3. At the top of the list, perhaps surprisingly, are the incumbents — the ones with the most to lose are the web2 titans. As such, web2 migration is going to be big business. Companies like Google, PayPal, and Chase are already in the mix, researching and investing in Web3.

We’re also seeing heavy investment in social media for Web3 (hello Meta), although one of the reasons for Web3 is to end their reign over our personal data. Yet another shining example of a well-funded dApp is Braintrust, touted as the first decentralized Web3 talent network for connecting tech freelancers with opportunities. Sounds like a challenge to a few web2 players, right? In the end, any centralized application is fair game for disruption.