User data and the internet firms that monetize that data are transforming the global economy. As a recent article from Harvard Business Review observes, rather than dominating single industries, platform companies like Facebook, Google, and Twitter use “competitive bottlenecks” to aggregate and harvest the personal data of their users. By operating as gatekeepers across a range of industries, these internet giants now tax and mediate value creation in the digital economy.

Fortunately, the story of the internet does not end here. Beyond the innovation bottlenecks imposed by entrenched data monopolies, new tools are emerging around Web 3.0 that could enable people to own their data. Where Web 1.0 introduced a new global platform for digital consumption, and Web 2.0 enabled social networks and user-driven feedback, Web 3.0 represents the rise of a distributed “smart” Web rooted in blockchain technologies.

First coined in 2014 by Gavin Wood (co-founder of the Ethereum blockchain), “Web 3.0” is envisioned as an open and decentralized version of the internet. Proponents of Web 3.0 often describe it as a “trustless” internet— free from the domination of a handful of large firms. The hope is that distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) and storage on the blockchain will drive a data revolution.

Of course, not everyone loves the idea of Web 3.0. Last year, Twitter Founder, Jack Dorsey, criticized the enthusiasm surrounding Web 3.0, suggesting that the real power brokers in the space are in fact venture capital firms. Analysts within the tech sector have been quick to respond that platform business models like Twitter and Facebook are precisely the kinds of business models that Web 3.0 companies are now seeking to displace.

Most of the internet applications we use today are centralized— that is, they are owned and monetized by a very small number of platform companies. For example, when we use a cloud-based service like Google Docs, we explicitly give Google permission to access all the information in our documents in order to monetize that information. For many critics of this model, Web 3.0 represents a different kind of internet. Rather than all users being connected to a central network or “server,” data could potentially be stored and managed locally, across a highly distributed data ecosystem.

Much as software applications like JavaScript and HTML5 enabled the rise of Facebook, Amazon, Uber, Alibaba, and Tencent, new technologies and new software firms could render many of these centralized business models obsolete. Rather than depending on platform services (Web 2.0), distributed blockchain applications (Web 3.0) would mean that new providers could leverage machine-readable data and machine learning software to remake ecommerce at the infrastructure level.

One firm that illustrates the kinds of new tools emerging with Web 3.0 is US-based InfStones. Operating as a bridge between blockchain technologies, InfStones simplifies the process of building, scaling, and securing decentralized web applications (DApps). By providing an API Gateway and node-based infrastructure, InfStones technology supports tens of thousands of nodes on more than 60 blockchain protocols. Already working with prominent names in the industry like Binance, Polygon, Circle, and Chainlink, InfStones recently closed a $66 million funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and GGV Capital.

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