Web3 in banking: digitize or die?

Web3’s disruptive potential

Web3 is ushering-in the era of decentralization, being referred to as “the future of the internet”. Back in the day, the original web was created with freely-available building blocks called "open protocols"; in Web1, user information was not stored and Web2 has been a more centralized version of the web where information about users (i.e. credit ratings, identities, transaction histories and identifiers) is gathered, aggregated and occasionally sold. This paradigm has been used for creating, distributing and monetizing apps with the owners and other major stakeholders deciding on all operational and governing details - the profits generated being huge. Indeed, Meta has generated almost $7.8billion in Q2 this year, with much of this created by income from advertising. Web3 can alter this power structure by placing users at the centre of attention by using open protocols and standards - that is, decentralized, “permissionless” smart contracts and blockchains …