As technology advances, many individuals become aware of innovations set to disrupt our everyday lives. For instance, NFTs and cryptocurrencies are taking the world by storm, reinventing the notion of digital value. In fact, there are more than an estimated 300 million crypto users around the world, with signs of further growth.
Blockchain is the underlying foundation of these innovations. This technology not only supports NFTs and cryptocurrencies, but it is also the infrastructure that supports Web3. Also known as Semantic Web, Web3 utilises the decentralised data architecture of blockchain, creating an open, secure and transparent environment. This enables individuals to govern their data ownership, changing the way service providers and users interact with each other in the digital universe.
Web3 offers unprecedented potential that can help solve complicated challenges in many industries, specifically the financial sector. Because of this, the world is transitioning into the new Web3 paradigm. The expectation is for Web3 to create efficiencies in the traditional financial system and deliver technologically-superior experiences.
There are dozens of blockchain infrastructures powering the influx of new Web3 apps. Avalanche is a popular example that is “blazingly fast, low cost and eco-friendly”. Here are top examples of Web3 apps powered by Avalanche, to better understand what it means to embrace this global innovation.
Supporting more ideas with decentralised fundraising
In this digital age, tech startups are proliferating the industry. However, even if they offer revolutionary solutions to real world problems, these startups can not succeed without proper funding. Until now, most startups are having difficulty finding capital, with 77 per cent of startups using personal funds to grow their businesses.
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While using personal capital can work, it severely limits the chances of success for startups. Seeking capital through traditional fundraising is albeit slow, tedious, and challenging to achieve. Furthermore, many of them are exclusive, with smaller startups finding it difficult to penetrate the competitive fundraising market. To help startups with brilliant ideas, they need a fast and accessible global platform to efficiently obtain the necessary capital.
Decentralised fundraising platforms such as Avalaunch can help solve these issues with advanced Web3 frameworks. Avalaunch is the first protocol to offer promising and innovative startups a fast, secure, and efficient platform for decentralised fundraising on the Avalanche ecosystem. This inclusive and community-first platform is designed to remove the pain points of the current fundraising system. Created with investors in mind, the protocol aims to remove the cost, confusion, and volatility challenges in the outdated fundraising system.
What makes Web3 highly inclusive is the possibility for anyone to participate with minimal capital. Participants on Avalaunch can invest as little as US$5, for example, directly from their mobile devices.
Decentralised marketplaces: bridging Web3 to the real world
In addition to fundraising, one major problem in the financial sector is the lack of deeply connected marketplaces where users can easily purchase various financial services and products. In the US alone, around 14.1 million Americans do not have access to financial products and services. One reason behind this is the complicated process of accessing financial services. Decentralised marketplaces can help reduce this gap.
A decentralised marketplace is an umbrella term covering many subcategories. They ultimately connect services and products to more users by simplifying the processes that happen in between. These marketplaces manage the middle layer processing, ensuring that payments and transactions are smooth. They connect traditional financial services to decentralised finance (DeFi), allowing millions of individuals and businesses to access products that were once highly exclusive.
Verso, the first and only decentralised marketplace built on Avalanche, is bridging the gap between DeFi and regulated financial products. It allows traditional financial institutions to distribute their products at far lower costs – a feat that is not possible with Web2. For example, microinsurance is not possible today for most insurance companies due to the high distribution cost. Offering flight delay insurance at a price of US$10 is simply not worth the high cost borne by the insurance provider.
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As a decentralised marketplace, Verso is changing this through scalable and accessible distribution of microinsurance products. This unlocks the ability for Web3 to tap into US$5.03 trillion in gross premiums collected in the existing insurance industry. With Verso, consumers will be able to purchase affordable insurance for health coverage, weather protection, travel and hundreds or more categories directly from various mobile apps.
Disrupting finance at its core
DeFi is shaking the very core of finance as we know. It is one of the most popular verticals of blockchain, with more than US$99 billion worth of assets locked in DeFi. These decentralised platforms are helping to realise true financial inclusion across the world.
Compared to traditional finance, DeFi does not rely on centralised intermediaries such as banks and brokerages to offer financial services. Instead, it utilises Web3 and smart contracts to make financial transactions trustless. This allows seamless peer-to-peer finance including asset swaps, lending and borrowing, liquidity mining, and other forms of passive earnings. One DeFi platform that’s changing the face of financial services is Trader Joe.
Trader Joe is a one-stop-shop decentralised trading platform powered by Avalanche’s fast and secure smart contract infrastructure. It allows users to choose various ways to trade and grow their cryptocurrency. This includes trading, liquidity pools, lending and borrowing, staking, and more “money lego” DeFi apps. Now passive earnings via crypto are open to everyone on a 24/7 basis.
The future of Web3
Forward-thinking financial institutions can future-proof their services by embracing the transition to Web3. More individuals now have practical means to benefit from these innovative platforms. The globally inclusive ecosystem is quickly redefining what financial inclusion stands for. Better yet, anyone can now quickly launch and develop their disruptive ideas by leveraging these innovative Web3 platforms.
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The content was first published on The Human & Machine.
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