Discover the revolutionary world of Web3 in this compelling paper, where we delve into its fundamental building blocks and crypto tokens that underpin this decentralized paradigm shift. Explore the exciting enterprise use-cases harnessing the true potential of Web3 technology, revolutionizing industries and unlocking unprecedented opportunities.

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What’s inside

1. Web3 and it’s building blocks
2. The Web3 adoption
3. The role of the enterprise in Web3
   a) Business models around Web3 and major players
4. Regulatory and technology risks

Web3 and it’s building blocks

Web3 represents a decentralized web powered by blockchain, enabling decentralized participatory communities. It promotes user control over data, governance, and transactions. The transition from Web2 to Web3 encompasses decentralization of user data and content, finance and currency systems, and immersive user experiences. Web3 leverages crypto tokens, digital assets issued on blockchains, and utilizes smart contracts for decentralized finance. These tokens are essential for Web3 and its growth. Web3’s potential lies in building digital communities, disrupting economic representation, and co-creating value within token networks. Blockchain underpins Web3, ensuring secure transactions and smart contracts. Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) play a role in ownership and provenance of digital assets.

The Web3 adoption

The growth of crypto markets until 2021 was remarkable, but the web3 community remains relatively small. By November 2021, about 7 million people were using token wallets monthly. Crypto is volatile, with fundamental flaws and regulatory challenges. The complexity of web3 poses risks in regulation, technology, and security. EU, USA, and China may not fully support crypto. However, digital tokens can still find a counterculture of users valuing crypto custody and communities. Web3’s potential to benefit the public is uncertain. Adoption paths vary, and tokens could disrupt traditional systems, but regulatory hurdles and fraud might impede progress. VC investments in web3 exceeded $18 billion in H1 2022, indicating significant interest and potential. Download Complete Research

Crypto tokens are integral to decentralized finance (DeFi), enabling peer-to-peer transactions and powering various financial activities without intermediaries. They are disruptive technologies that are still nascent and complex.

The role of the enterprise in Web3

Tokens are most impactful when they unite micro-communities to create long-term value. However, many token projects remain immature and fail to generate value due to the absence of robust economies. Centralized enterprises and their brands could play a significant role in web3 by building token ecosystems around their communities, blurring the line between utility and investment. Brands can use NFTs for reinvented customer loyalty programs and create DAOs for crowdsourcing productivity. Successful token development depends on an engaged community, and brands can incentivize fans to participate actively. Notable brands like Nike and Starbucks are already exploring web3 and NFTs. Mainstream and decentralized brands are recognizing the potential of engaging with digital-native fan communities in the web3 space. Download Complete Research

Regulatory and technology risks

Web3’s tokens hold enormous potential but also significant risks. Users are responsible for token custody and must secure them cryptographically. Cybercrimes can lead to substantial financial losses. Token fraud and money laundering are concerns due to anonymity. Regulatory challenges are growing, with potential impacts on tax codes and transactions.

Credits
Author@lab45: Ankit Pandey

Decentralized Identity systems solve for inefficiencies and security breaches, making them extremely useful for enterprises. We explore in detail important industry use cases where these solutions can be used and means to implement them.

What's inside

1. Transforming KYC using DID
2. Perishable supply chain using DID
3. Enabling electronic health records using DID

Transforming KYC using DID

The KYC Process in Banks and Financial institutions is mandated by the government and can be quite painful both for the bank and the customers. We examine how DID can help not only simplify the process but also ensure high trust and make the process fraud proof, by eliminating intermediaries and returning to trusted direct relationships. Download Complete Research

Perishable supply chain using DID

In case of Food supply the application of IoT can provide real-time data and insights. The current IoT supply chain and the food Supply chain face innumerable challenges.  Using DID and verifiable credentials in food/perishable supply chain can provide a tamper-proof and auditable record of a product’s journey, from its origin to its destination. Solution will have lasting impact not only for controlling quality and expense for organization but will also have impact on public nutrition, health, and sustainability. We explore how!

Enable electronic health records using DID

While managing Electronic Health Records, healthcare organizations face two main challenges: Privacy & Security and Interoperability due to multiple systems in play. By providing patients with greater control over their health information, Decentralized Identity solutions can enhance trust and confidence in the healthcare system, leading to better health outcomes. We explore the details with an example. Download Complete Research

Credits
Author@lab45: Sujay Shivram, Abhigyan Malik

The banking sector is experiencing significant changes primarily driven by the growing integration of technology into consumers’ daily lives, evolving customer expectations, increasing interest in digital money and the volatility of cryptocurrencies. The potential annual value of AI and analytics for the global banking industry is expected to be as high as $1 trillion.

What's inside

1. Key takeaways
2. Key drivers shaping trends in banking
3. Business trends driving innovation
4. Technology trends aiding the business

Key takeaways

• Changing IT spend- IT spending in banks is shifting from Capex to more.
• Opex, with significant shifts to Cloud.
• Future of banks- Neobanks can play a crucial role in addressing and responding to all the key drivers.
• Rise of fintechs-The emergence of fintechs is shaping business trends and expanding the range of choices available to customers. Studies indicate that from now until 2028, the growth rate of fintech companies is expected to be three times that of the banking industry as a whole.
• Impact of emerging technologies- New technologies like GenAI, Blockchain, IoT are likely to cause banks to change the way they work and will influence the majority of the business.
• Cybersecurity resilience- Cybersecurity is evolving from being solely a technological concern to becoming an important consideration for new business strategies.
• Sustainability increases in priority-While Sustainable finance enables banks in financing sustainable projects for other businesses, banks must also prioritize making their own operations sustainable. Download Complete Research

Key drivers shaping trends in banking

• Customers want personalized, convenient, and seamless banking experiences. Over 60% of banking executives report rising customer experience expectations, with 45% struggling to keep up.
• Fintechs are revolutionizing banking with mobile apps, online lending, and personalized experiences using AI. By 2030, they will be constituting 25% of all banking valuations.
• To address environmental risks and foster responsible economy, banks are focusing on sustainability. Banks representing 41% of the global banking assets have joined Net-Zero Banking Alliance.

Business trends driving innovation

• A lot of the trends are reflecting the move to extended value chains or ecosystems thinking.
• Technology platforms support a lot of this, and banks and financial service providers are seeing the benefits of these.
• BaaS allows third parties to connect with a bank’s API infrastructure to build and integrate products.
• With automation, banks can now reduce their lending processing time from weeks to a couple of days.
• Neobanks can operate on a low-cost model, which can be instrumental in improving the accessibility of banking services.
• With Open Banking, banks can now open online accounts in just three minutes, 100 times faster than before.
• These banking trends impact various stakeholders, including customers, regulators and government bodies, employees, technology providers and fintechs.

Technology trends aiding the business

• Banks can leverage AI to gain deep insights into their customers and the financial ecosystem, identifying new fraud patterns and money laundering strategies using synthetic data.
• Banks are migrating their analytics platforms to the cloud for complex banking analytics. Data marts are being used to store and perform analytics on sensitive bank data.
• Recent developments in cybersecurity in banks, like Zero Trust Architectures and Adversarial ML, help train ML models to be more resilient to attacks and increase cloud adoption.
• Blockchain technology in banking promotes secure digital transactions, cost reduction, decentralization, and anonymous financial activities while ensuring accountability.
• IoT implementation helps to monitor each customer touchpoint in realtime when they bank, enabling banks to offer more relevant services and identify fraudulent activities faster.

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Credits
Lead Authors@lab45: Deepika Maurya, Chandan Jha
Contributing Authors@lab45: Sujay Shivram, Hussain S Nayak