Web3, Digital Users and the Journey towards Trustlessness

We want all our interactions, whether in the real world or online to be trustworthy. But what do we mean by Trust?

Basically that the conditions stated for a given transaction to take place would be met. Humans over the course of the years have developed trust via various methods and under the supervision of various authorities.

I wanted to map the evolution of trust in the digital space over the periods of development from Web1 to Web2 and now Web3. A few years ago, I had written an article on the idea of establishing digital trust among stakeholders and consumers. I wrote about something called TrustSEAL, the world's first form of self-regulation for sharing economy firms to build trust.

And now we are looking at concepts like TRUSTLESSNESS with the coming about of Web3.

I came across a blog by Ali Yahya - Web3 and the Future of Trust, which talks about looking at the open and inclusive protocols of Web1.0 like TCP, IP, HTTP, which put all users and creators at equal footing to build on top of these protocols. It laid down the building blocks to what has evolved as a global unified internet regime and not disjointed networks. But since open source model ran into trouble while monetizing, it soon gave rise to creators building closed protocols on top of these open sourced ones in order to provide paid-for services via the internet. This was Web 2.0.

This unfortunately was also the rise of placing faith in the opaque code written by tech giants who started acted as intermediaries and gate keepers for the users of Web 2.0.

And we have paid for it. Heavily. From getting sucked into dark deals, being rendered clueless about our personal data, to being stuck in an echo chamber and getting fed content of all shapes and forms that are dictated by algorithms over which the user has little knowledge much less control.

User receptivity and their perception about safe the digital world is, is key during periods of intense transition like the one before us currently. From Web 2 to Web 3. Broadly divided into four categories, users of the digital economy can be labelled as - Tech Obsessed, Tech Active, Tech Aware and Tech Reluctant.

Some Characteristics of these User Categories:

Tech Obsessed: Early-adopters; explore new products in depth; exhibit curiousity for each new gadget, update and tech development; hardly become long-term customers for any brand or product as they are always seeking the next BIG THING

Tech Active: Interested in integrating tech into their everyday chores (will find Alexa at their home and Calendly at work); love "easing their life via tech"; can become loyal customers once the value is established and the UX is on point

Tech Aware: Segregate between things they can trust bots and algorithms to manage on their behalf - curating list of movies on Netflix, keeping in-check with FB friends but not when it comes to customer care or putting together an investment portfolio. This is the segment that needs to see real value and security before making the transition from real to virtual world.

Tech Reluctant: The "Where-is-the-Mute-button?" generation. Okay, that's a bit harsh. Categorised by mistrust and annoyance while dealing with digital channels. Don't see the need for a shift and try to resist the change.

The ONE THING that informs their decisions around tech in one way or the other is TRUST.

The Evolution of Trust is something like this...

Social Trust (roughly correlates to Web1) - Relies on perceived body language, established behavioural patterns, standing in society. Takes time to establish.

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Institutional Trust (Web2)- Placing confidence in the set structures established under a politically/ socially accepted authority. Presence of a trusted third party or intermediaries to guide and monitor all peer-to-peer transactions.

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Programmable Trust (Web3) - Beyond human intervention. Software programming to now execute according to the inputs provided. Setting a fair practice with zero scope of tampering or being subject to manipulation unlike the above two categories. This happens via Smart Contracts on Web3, which are essentially self-executing contracts with all the agreements between two parties written directly into the code.

Trustlessness is the core concept behind Smart Contracts where the need for a trusted third party diminishes in P2P transactions. Trust has become decentralized and is now moving from a bottom to top approach. Users themselves are the guardians of their data and of their fellow users. This gets packed in an incentivized structure.

While Tech-Obsessed and Tech-Active might fully back the promise and potential of Smart Contract, the Tech-Aware and the Tech-Reluctant would need more of a reassurance and convincing.

An online trust score could help users as well as those on the fence about Web3. The scores embedded in the blockchain could serve as an incentive for users to keep adhering to the established protocols. This could mean users with better trust scores would have better prospects at landing their dream jobs, better credit scores etc.