The future if the Internet is abundant networks.

We are looking at a complete reversal from where we presently stand. The Internet of today is one of network scarcity. These handful consume the majority of the traffic.

The names are familiar to most. We see Google, both with search and YouTube, Meta, X, Amazon, PayPal, Spotify, and Netflix are household names for a reason. On the Chinese side, we have Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent, and Bytedance as example of mega-tech companies that developed huge networks.

What is key is they networks control the attention. Transactions are paramount since they are flowing through on a massive scale. Of course, as we know, once people are locked in, they are not likely to change.

There is a valid reason for this. The different network effects tend to favor these entities. Whether it is users, data, features, or cost, aLL are aligning with these larger firms. We see this with the introduction of LLMs. Many of these same entities are involved there.

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Abundant Networks: A Complete Reversal

Blockchain introduced a new proposition.

With the onset of the Bitcoin network, we saw open, permissionless introduced to a degree never seen before. What is most powerful is the fact that networks suddenly had the potential for abundance.

This is tied to the idea of the hard fork. Bitcoin is an example of a chain that was forked on a number of occasions. The next major introduction, a smart contract network called Ethereum, follows a similar pattern. This was forked into many other versions.

Many developers are creating sidechains under the same model, presently the same possibility that others will fork it in the future.

At present, there are dozens of blockchain networks in operation. Over time, this will move into the hundreds and, ultimately, the thousands.

In other words, we are looking at a complete reversal of what we are accustomed to.

This brings up the question of what will people utilize.

Network Loyalty - Providing What People Need

My view stems from the simple mantra of Web 3.0: read-write-own

Over the past couple years, one of the key points of much of my writing is ownership. This is one of the major metrics that is going to decide what is networks advance forward in the future.

If we look at the list of dominant Internet companies, known as Web 2.0, how many actually own a piece of them? By this, I mean how much stake do the users have?

On this, the answer is clear. There might be a few outside of Elon Musk's X ownership who have some stock. That said, most of the users have no financial stake whatsoever.

Here is where Web 3.0, through tokenization, offers something completely different.

This, however, is only one piece of the puzzle. A bare network has little value to anyone. Even worse, there is no utility.

One of the main features of Web 3.0 is the lack of friction in switching. Many have confronted the difficulty when moving a trading account. The present system, financial or social media, is not set up to easily move from one to the other.

Web 3.0 also changes this.

No longer is the sole focus upon the application. Within Web 2.0, the client-server structure means the UI and backend are the same. The same company owns both.

Under the next generation Internet, the transactions are written to a blockchain. The interface basically pulls the same data. Certainly, there could be other features that are built in which also are housed on private servers. The blockchain data, however, is going to be available to all.

Here is where utility enters.

To keep the attention of people, networks will have to offer the services people require. If these are absent, they will go elsewhere Again, we are looking at a world of abundant networks.

Attention Retention

Everything is going to boil down to the eyeballs.

Where are people focusing their attention? Actually, more importantly, which network are they concentrating upon?

This is a point is easy to miss since we are conditioned with the Web 2.0 mindset. When we move from Instagram to X, we have to use a different login. We are dealing with two separate companies. The data is completely different, with nothing transferring over.

While that potential does exist within Web 3.0, due to the forking ability, it is not guaranteed. Also, within the application, we see all tied to the same data, hence expanding the ecosystem.

The key driver of this is going to be the services that are provided.

Consider, for a moment, all the things that one does on the Internet. Here are a few areas that we know garner a great deal of traffic:

• information/news
• shopping
• entertainment (music and video)
• social media (interaction)
• communication
• financial
• gaming
• education
• business promotion

This is far from a complete list but it does start to convey the services that people look for. Here is where it is essential for a network to offer as much as possible. The ones that can accomplish this, coupled with the ownership feature, will have a loyalty that is unmatched in Web 2.0.

Those networks hold onto people due to a lack of choice. Web 3.0 is going to be full of choices. This means it has to offer something more to retain people.

Hitting upon as many of the services mentioned above ties into the majority of the Internet traffic.

In Conclusion

Elon Musk promoted the idea of "the everything app". He was not far off.

This is a path that all should pursue. It is essential this mindset be present in Web 3.0. Those networks (or even applications) that understand this begin to change the tide.

We are seeing a reversal in the abundance-scarcity model. The scarce resource as we progress will be attention. Networks will be the proverbial "dime a dozen".

Hence, what is being offered from that list which will have them returning?

That is what networks are going to be confronted with.

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