MetaID: The Future of How YOU Experience Web3
Chapter 1: Convictions
Hey InterStellars!
As we proceed with the NFT3 journey, we want to make sure the Web3 community at large is aware of the paradigm-shifting tech we are building, and what the philosophy behind it is. A lot is said about breakthroughs in technology and the changes they bring, but it’s important to understand the depth of the task at hand when it comes to identity in the emerging metaverse, and beyond.
Over a series of articles we shall explore what NFT3’s MetaID is, why it is a necessity as well as an eventual inevitability, while also considering both the cultural as well as technical background of digital identity’s future.
The Philosophical Underpinning
What a ride Web3 has been so far!
What began as a simple public ledger in 2009 has morphed into the frontier of tech innovation, and wave after wave of progress has brought to us Ethereum, dApps, composability which made DeFi possible, NFTs that revolutionise digital property rights, and now, the Metaverse.
A few things are clear about Blockchain technology and the progress made so far:
1. It is an inherently decentralising force.
Most of the pioneers in their space, whether builders or users or investors — are very strongly self-identified libertarians that value decentralisation above most other things. Many have gone so far as to suggest this is the primary function of Blockchain tech — to decentralise.
2. It centres around the idea of empowering the individual, or rather, seizing back sovereignty that previous systems have taken away from the individual.
The locus of control should revolve not around nation states, or corporations, but the individual.
This is a key part of the mental framework behind the philosophy of Blockchain/Web3:
Bitcoin puts store of value in the hands of individuals.
Ethereum puts creation in the hands of individuals.
DeFi puts economics back in the hands of individuals.
NFTs give digital property rights to individuals.
And the Metaverse then becomes an amalgamation of these things coming about: a virtual overlay to the world, where these changes are reflected and can be acted upon.
The Need
All this is great, you’ll say, but how is a Web3 platform any different from a web2 platform?
Sure, they’re not being run by megalomaniacs in ivory towers, and the value accrual isn’t concentrated in a few hands, but do the crypto markets not have their own infinite problems?
Web3 platforms aren’t fleecing users for data, but that very well may all end if the fb “meta” version of the metaverse wins, which it very well might, you could say.
And the need for NFT3 arises from precisely the fact that these questions hold truth.
While web2 centred around social networks, all the value accrual was one-way. While the content creation was done by the users, the value accrued to the company.
While the terms of use were decided (and amended upon the whim) by the platform, the users were the ones forced to simply accept them or be left out of the loop entirely.
This needs to change, and is changing, but as long as web3 dApps orient themselves around the platform, and not the user — it is not enough change.
The simple fact is that web3 is a creative explosion: the sheer number of protocols on offer is already, and will continue to be, staggering.
Anonymity has returned, and the fleecing users’ data for ad-revenue model shall die.
But that being said, what replaces it?
How do I envision a future where the default entity of value accrual isn’t platforms but people?
Web3 needs to see the human first, and the platform second — but if humans are merely entries on different, scattered databases owned by — you guessed it — platforms — then how is this possible?
The answer is that it’s not, and that’s why we’ve been stuck.
What is missing, and needed — is a “thing” to keep data that isn’t an entry in any one database, but rather is the overall data of a person.
IF such a thing existed, the paradigm would effectively reverse.
An era where digital data is owned by the individual would begin.
And that would mean true sovereignty in a way that has never been seen.
Convictions
How does one surf the unmade, still-coming-to-shape world of crypto? It often boils down to conviction. And this article is mainly a confession of the central conviction driving NFT3:
The future of digital experiences MUST revolve around the HUMAN.
Not the corporation. Not the business model. Not the Ad revenue. Not even the shareholders.
It needs to revolve around and mould itself around the individual user. Their needs, their aspirations, and most importantly, their sovereign right to decide things for themselves.
In the emerging Metaverse, it shouldn’t be each platform splintering the user into an entry in their database.
Here is the central NFT3 thesis in a single sentence:
YOU should get to own your data.
Your Facebook profile is as much YOUR property as Facebook’s.
Somehow all the value accrual has been shifted away from the human to the entity (in our example facebook.) So all of the information we generate over years, decades, and all the time spent and the personal data shared (which enables immense value creation via personalised ads) — all of it drives the price of the stock up, while none of the value accrues to the users driving it.
This is a backwards revenue model. Sure, the developers and platform creators are massive drivers of value — but once the platform is live, the users create a mass of the value as well, and should have a share, and control over the direction of the platform. This is the future towards which we are headed. DAOs are a step in the right direction, and the return of anonymity with Web3 is another major victory for individual freedom.
That being said, a critical piece is still missing: a digital identity that is beyond the many identifiers that platforms create for you — a whole, sovereign identity that YOU own.
A digital entity that represents you not in splinters but in totality — as much as digitally possible, and that is housed not in the database of this or that platform, but with YOU, in your control.
There needs to be one piece of tech that attaches the myriad ways I am creating value in different online spaces — web2 or web3. This can include my twitter profile, but also the NFTs I hold. This should also include any financial info I care to share in relevant places, like token holdings or so forth (this enables a credit score that would take DeFi forward by a quantum leap, ushering in loans the way they should be.)
I should be able to put all of me into a digital vault of information that I own and control — to share bits and pieces wherever I please and so each platform understands me and deals with me on terms we both mutually decide.
This creates a digital ME, in effect. My online identity. A MetaID.
This is what we are making, and our conviction is that the individual will be the axis around which Web3 will flourish.
Welcome to the future.
About NFT3
NFT3 is the First Unified Decentralized Identity and Credit Network for Web3 and Your Portal to the Metaverse.
NFT3s will become a direct monetization path for individuals to associate value on their terms with various aspects of their data journeys through life with different projects, individuals, social networks, companies, and institutions.
