Web3.

0 and Blockchain
Highlights from The 2022 Global Web3 Eco Innovation Summit
Singapore (GWEI 2022) and World Blockchain Summit

“Web3 entails not just a technological change, but also a change of the century, presenting both
opportunities and challenges.” - The 2022 Global Web3 Eco Innovation Summit Singapore (GWEI 2022)

Web3.0, since being famously coined by the Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood in 2014, has been inevitably associated by some with
cryptocurrencies.

Web3.0, as these views offer, will see the likes of Bitcoin and Ethereum become prevalent in the universe of payment means.

Such a development, many postulate, is but a natural next stage in the internet evolution.

If the genesis of the internet Web1.0 is “read-only”, and today’s Web2.0 is “read/write”, Web3.0 is the future world of “read/write
and own”. For example, we will own our Fitbit digital health data which can be tokenised to act as a medium of exchange for other
services. Further, these tokens and others (such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), gaming’s “play-to-earn” tokens) will enjoy widespread
acceptance as they gain legal status as an asset class, and join the mainstream cryptocurrencies in catalysing the burgeoning virtual
content economy.

For others, Web3.0 is about harnessing the blockchain technology underpinning cryptocurrencies to transform our economic and
social processes.

And yet, there are those for whom Web3.0 is simply synonymous with the metaverse world for immersive experiences.

Clearly, the varying perspectives of what Web3.0 represents reflect the thriving ecosystem of start-ups, investors, academia, policy
makers and users.

To help unpack this rapidly evolving world of Web3.0 were two global events hosted in Singapore - the 2022 Global Web3 Eco
Innovation Summit Singapore (GWEI 2022) [1], and the World Blockchain Summit 2022 (WBS 2022) [2].

Over two days, some of the world’s most influential Web3.0 and blockchain technological experts, scholars, government officials and
enterprise executives gathered to exchange and debate the opportunities, the risks and the way ahead.

Here are some highlights.

Web3.0 and Decentralisation

While there are many perspectives of what Web3.0 entails, the

discussions suggested there was a clear consensus on what set Web3.0
apart from today’s internet.

It is the promise of drastically transforming economic and social

dynamics through “decentralisation” – a term with many flavours.

Many commonly refer to decentralisation as the disintermediation of a

centralised party. For example, as per Ethereum.org: “DeFi
(decentralised finance) uses cryptocurrencies and smart contracts to
provide services that don't need intermediaries.” [3] This peer-to-peer
Sopnendu Mohanty (Chief FinTech Officer, MAS) at GWEI 2022 Fireside
provision of financial services can transform today's financial world
Chat with Professor David Lee (Professor of SUSS, Chairman of Global
where banks often act as lenders or middlemen. Fintech Institute)

Decentralisation can also be seen as a distribution of trust from a third

party to the individual(s).

For instance, Sopnendu Mohanty (Chief FinTech Officer, MAS) at the

GWEI 2022 Fireside Chat with Prof. David Lee (Professor of SUSS,
Chairman of Global Fintech Institute), noted that “in Web3.0, the future
desire is to transfer and decentralise economic opportunity to everyone
who participates in the economic activity. So trust has to come in a
distributed way.”

This contrasts today where “traditionally, most of governance and trust

is somehow outsourced to a third party. Somebody else is monitoring
the behaviour between you and me. Somebody else is ensuring that the
Left, Chua Tju Liang (General Counsel, Ethereum Foundation),
money that is sent to you is checked,“ he explained. sharing his personal insights at the GWEI 2022 panel “Central Bank
Digital Currency and Cryptocurrency.”
Another view of decentralisation is offered by Chua Tju Liang (General
Counsel, Ethereum Foundation) who shared his personal insights at the GWEI 2022 panel “Central Bank Digital Currency and
Cryptocurrency”.

He “would define it as a shift of control and decision making from a centralised entity to a distributed group of unique individuals.“

At the same time, the discussions revealed a growing acceptance that “centralised” or “decentralised” are not mutually exclusive, nor
are they the only two states for describing a service or a solution in Web3.0.

Rather, between the two is a spectrum representing varying combinations of both. An example given at the GWEI 2022 panel “Web3
and the Convergence of Technologies” is a service built on a blockchain that may use centralised cloud hosting for file storage.

Another example, “CeDeFi” (short for centralized DeFi), was highlighted at WBS 2022.

As the term implies, “CeDeFi” combines aspects of traditional (centralised) finance and DeFi (decentralised finance). The premise is to
retain the best of decentralisation while remaining accessible to centralised parties. One example is where traditional centralised
organisations use Smart Contracts to build financial products to trade on a DeFi platform.

Opportunities

While Web3.0 and decentralisation have many nuances, there is no doubt that the new era they represent offers opportunities to
leverage different technologies.

As Professor Cheong Hee Kiat (President, SUSS) pointed out at his GWEI 2022’s opening speech, “we are talking about a multitude of
players and vast amounts of new technology and applications and opportunities”.

It “involves the convergence of many technologies,” including “blockchain, the metaverse, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, decentralisated
autonomous organisation (“DAO”), AI, Decentralised finance, Cloud computing,“ he adds.

On the other hand, in unlocking economic potential from these technological transformations, he asked “how can we use all of these
for good?”
In other words, what are the opportunities to “do good”?

Here, the speakers explored several solutions and services that have
created positive impacts on society and environment.

Commonly referred to as financial inclusion, one solution involves

making financial services accessible to those excluded from the
traditional financial system. An example is DeFi’s peer-to-peer financial
solutions made available to those who do not have a bank account –
but do have internet connection.

Another is the use of cryptocurrencies for crowd funding – most Professor Cheong Hee Kiat (President, SUSS)
opening speech at GWEI 2022.
recently with great success for Ukraine.

Other emerging uses include the gamification of learning – where a user

can “learn-to-earn”, unleashing the benefits ranging from increased
motivation to enhanced knowledge retention.

Risks

However, there is a real risk of getting swept up by the exciting

technologies without identifying viable market demand.

Some cautioned that not everything needs to be put on the blockchain,

or tokenised or decentralised.

For example, at the GWEI 2022 panel “Opportunities & Risks in the Web Centre: Hagen Rooke (Partner, Reed Smith) speaking at the
3 Era”, Zinan (Investment Director, Kucoin) referred to a World Blockchain Summit 2022 panel “Fostering the Asian
Digital Asset.”
computationally intensive activity on AWS such as AI. He challenged us
to rethink if “decentralisation is better than centralisation” in this case,
and what “added benefits” will decentralisation bring.

Risk discussions also touched on the familiar topics of fraud, money-

laundering, privacy and cybersecurity.

Dominating the conversations however was the collapse of the Luna

crypto coin (from US$87 on May 5, 2022, to US$0.0005 on May 13
2022) and the reverberations hitting the overall crypto market.

This recent episode rehashes the concerns of financial risk and

consumer protection from previous crashes such as the DotCom era of
the 2000, the Great Financial Crisis of 2007, and the “ICO” (initial coin
offering) bubble of 2018.
So how will this latest crash shape Web3.0 developments? What new
regulations will we see? How will the priorities shift? Will there be a
crypto winter where investments stagnate? What lessons can be
learned?
From Left,
Feroze Medora (Director of Trading, Gemini)
Anshuman Asthana (Head of Post Trade, Market Node)
Marouen Zelleg, Director, ConsenSys)
Speaking at World Blockchain Summit 2022 panel “Fostering the Asian Digital
Asset.”

The speakers shared their take on what the latest event means for Web3.0.

A Crypto Winter?

At the WBS 2022 panel “Fostering the Asian Digital Asset”, Hagen Rooke (Partner, Reed Smith) suggested that we would see practices
and regulations ranging from disclosure and collateral to due diligence requirements, in particular for the retail sector.

At another WBS 2022 panel “Digital Assets Sector: What to Watch for in 2022”, Feroze Medora (Director of Trading, Gemini) stressed
that “technology does not change risky asset to riskless asset,” and advised consumers to understand “how collateral is managed.”
(Indeed, when returns are high, it is sometimes all too easy to dispense with the fundamentals, such as the strength of guarantees
supporting the valuation.)

In his firechat with Prof. David Lee, Sopendu Mohanty observed that challenging times showcase those who innovate responsibly, and
that “responsible innovators actually find a way to survive such cycles” and “those who overstep find it difficult to survive because
that shift has no real economic basis.”
Similarly, John Gu (CEO, AlphaLap Capital), pointed out at the GWEI 2022 panel “Advancing the Development of Web 3”, that crises
separate the short-term profiteers from the long-term visionaries.

“When you have bubbles, you have a lot of actors that enter the space who are not true believers, they are there to earn a quick
dollar and they probably do a lot of things that don’t really help to promote the long-term benefits of the space.”

“So the people who stay, the people who enter the space during times like these, where the probability of just sort of making a quick
dollar is lower, are the ones who are really gonna, I think shine and build the next wave of innovations in the space,” he added.

Regardless, “bear market or not, innovation does not stop,” said Anshuman Asthana (Head of Post Trade, Market Node) at the WBS
2022 panel “Digital Assets Sector: What to Watch for in 2022”.

In fact, “bear markets are the best times to build projects,” according to Darius Sit (Co-Founder, QCP Capital), speaking at the GWEI
2022 panel “Advancing the Development of Web 3.”

There seemed to be an agreement that the momentum behind Web.30 will continue and be driven by those who want to make a
difference. The question that naturally follows is, what is next? What are the challenges, and what are needed to advance the
development of Web3.0?

What’s Next?

As Professor Cheong Hee Kiat remarked, “the Web3 concept of more

linked, more secure, more decentralised and user centric new internet
brings endless possibilities”.

However, the discussions pointed to several challenges, hinting that

Web3.0 is in the early stages of development to fulfill these goals.

Mass adoption is one challenge. For instance, even Bitcoin at its height
with a market capitalisation of ~$1.2 trillion, trails far behind traditional
finance, such as US equities trading that commands a market
capitalisation of more than $50 trillion.
From Right John Gu (CEO, AlphaLap Capital),
Second from Left Darius St (Co-Founder, QCP Capital
Speaking at GWEI 2022 panel “Advancing the Development of Web 3.”

Scalability is another. A common benchmark is Bitcoin’s ~4 to 7 transactions per second compared to Visa, which processes
thousands.

User experience is also far from ideal. For example, the navigation from creating an NFT to finally launching and trading on a NFT
platform is not yet as seamless as trading on today’s e-commerce.

To be sure, there are a host of solutions to solve these problems. These include Layer-1 and Layer-2 scaling solutions, Oracles that
bridge on-chain and off-chain networks, new consensus algorithms such as Proof-of-Authority or Proof-of-Storage.

Moreover, the recent valuation crash also presents an opportunity for the ecosystem to consolidate with “digital assets providing
utility”, according to Marouen Zelleg (Director Consensys), speaking at WBS 2022 panel “Digital Assets Sector: What to Watch for in
2022”. Indeed, the rapid pace of innovation has seen a proliferation of cryptocurrencies – ~20,000 exist today, versus 2,000 during
the ICOs heyday. Consolidation of ecosystems and companies can redirect resources towards solving problems that deliver Web3
long-term goals.

In short, there is much yet to be done – the significance of the paradigm shift to Web3.0 cannot be underestimated.

As aptly put by Kanny Lee (MD, Head of Singapore OSL) at GWEI 2022 panel “Web3 and the Convergence of Technologies”, “Banks
spent many decades, perhaps the last 80 years convincing people to take money out of mattresses and store in the safety of the
vaults. And now, in 2022 onwards, we are convincing people to take it out of the banks and put it onto our digital devices.”

If history is any guidance, there will be many more cycles of rapid growth and consolidations, and market boom-and-bust as we reach
for the next generation of internet.

In fact, in the view of Gavin Wood, when building and adopting Web3.0, “as with the development of the internet before it, the
timeline could be measured in decades rather than months” [4].

[1] The 2022 Global Web3 Eco Innovation Summit Singapore (GWEI 2022) was held in Singapore on 14th July 2022, and organised by
Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS), DeFi DAO, and SUSS Node for InclusiveFintech (NFT)
[2] World Blockchain Summit was held in Singapore on 14th – 15th July 2022, and organised by Tresco.
[3] Ethereum.org, Decentralized finance (DeFi), retrieved 18 th July 2022, https://ethereum.org/en/defi/
[4] Gavin Wood, Sept 2018, “Why We Need Web 3.0”, https://gavofyork.medium.com/why-we-need-web-3-0-5da4f2bf95ab