In the primordial stage of the internet, web1 was a great way to start consuming information and communicating from a global perspective. Web2 shortly followed, where people could read information, write, contribute, and generate data in a distributed manner – mostly leveraged by the exponential growth of social networks.
Web3 is a huge leap from that, built on top of the protocols inherited from web2 and enabling both the decentralisation and ownership of information, as well as accountability and trust as a fundamental technological feature across all network layers – that is the power of blockchain.
It is on the web3 that blockchain technology is best equipped to enable new use cases and businesses like never imagined before. In fact, blockchain promises a huge revolution, not only business-wise but also in how businesses are run and governed. All this revolves around a fundamental value for performing any type of interaction across a distributed ecosystem: the concept of trust.
A true shared-value economy
Trust is a very powerful concept. An important factor that led to wide adoption is the establishment of a “digital trust infrastructure”. By providing a review system, insurance, and identity verification, the sharing economy businesses succeeded in gaining people’s trust.
Trust in a value sharing economy is of major importance because it makes it more likely for transactions to occur between virtually unknown stakeholders. Blockchain decentralised cooperation mechanisms enable a new level of coordination and identity verification between parties that aims to ensure value is correctly shared through a win-win economic model.
Since Celfocus started working in the web3 space, the focus has always been to create disruptive, decentralised, and modern solutions to help clients either reinvent themselves by optimising business processes or create new disruptive business cases to “shake” their respective markets.
Blockchain enhances accessibility and security in voting. It assigns each vote to a unique ID, preventing fraudulent manipulation across network nodes, ensuring efficient and secure elections. Blockchain also enables the right technology to create Decentralised Digital Identities – DDI – creating a unique opportunity to put the citizens in the middle, not only owning their own data but also having a consolidated view of their information distribution and easily revoking those permissions.
Blockchain applications extend to cross-border roaming (although it will require alignment between many telecom operators to reach its promised value), 5G, network, computing and communications management, fraud and security, applications and services, loyalty, assets management, and digital twins.
Transitioning from web2 to web3 in insurance involves leveraging data potential and embracing data-sharing. Possibilities now include insurance tokenisation, parametric insurance, and data monetisation through marketplaces.
Energy supply transactions can be supported by blockchain, considering both the existing electric power market, and enabling a future peer-to-peer energy market leveraged by the increasing level of prosumers. Automation of processes like metering, billing, and clearing is feasible. Other potential applications include documenting ownership, asset management, origin guarantees, emission allowances, and renewable/green energy certificates.
Blockchain solutions have gained popularity through DeFi trends, giving banks the potential to offer several products and services to their clients, despite technological challenges like access, ownership, and custody. The emergence of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) is also noteworthy with the adoption of these digital currencies by central banks and banks alike, in the form of wholesale and retail CBDCs.
Celfocus has defined enterprise applications and private ledgers as the cornerstone of its blockchain offer to meet the demands of enterprise clients.
Although blockchain as a technology can tackle diverse challenges across multiple contexts, Celfocus’ vision is primarily focused on enterprise B2B2X instead of community approaches with the ultimate goal of helping clients move from web2 to web3 and unlock the full potential of blockchain. Unlike community-led blockchain projects, which are typically permissionless, business secrets are still key to achieving the desired level of confidentiality required by most enterprise clients when doing business in a sound ecosystem.
Celfocus has been closely following cross-industry trends that play foundational roles in the overall landscape of blockchain solutions and create synergies across different use cases: decentralised digital identities, loyalty programs, NFTs and data marketplaces for asset monetisation on top of ledgers.
Bearing a practical approach in mind, Celfocus has been developing several proofs of concept to address each of these topics, with a special focus on Loyalty, Sustainability, IoT and Real Estate use cases.
