We’ve probably all heard of Web 3 and the Metaverse, it’s not just discussed in professional circles, it’s also reported in the tabloid press. But what sets the tabloids apart is that they only report negative incidents and like to dilute them. Web 3 offers us many new experiences and possibilities, from NFTs to virtual experience, learning and education and the combination of reality and virtual spaces.
What is Web3?
“The term ‘Web 3.0’ was coined by Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood shortly after Ethereum was launched in 2014. Gavin formulated a solution to a problem felt by many early adopters of crypto : The Internet used to require too much trust.That said, much of the Internet that people know and use today relies on trust in a handful of private companies acting in the public interest.
“Web3 has become a catch-all for the vision of a new, better Internet. At its core, Web3 uses blockchains, cryptocurrencies, and NFTs to return power to users in the form of ownership. A Twitter post from 2021 sums it up: Web1 was read-only, Web2 is read-write, Web3 will be read-write-clean. (Source: Ethereum Blog)
There is no clear definition of web3, but the following basic principles are relevant.
- Decentralized – Creator owns
- Without permission – no one is left behind
- Native means of payment – instead of outdated infrastructures of banks and payment service providers
- It doesn’t need trust – it works with incentives
If someone creates or buys something on Web3 and therefore owns it, then they own it. If you buy an in-game item in web2 in a game, you can use it in that game and only as long as that game exists. In web3 it is yours and you can use it all over web3. This property is made possible by NFT and you can also resell or trade it.
The term metaverse was first used in Neal Stephenson’s 1991 science fiction novel Snow Crash. The author describes the Metaverse as a sort of global virtual reality in which people walk around as avatars.
The term metaverse was first used in Neal Stephenson’s 1991 science fiction novel Snow Crash. In it, the author describes the metaverse as virtual reality. A basic definition of Metaverse “remains elusive, fantastical, and decades away” comes from venture capitalist Matthew Ball, who also publishes this essay in 2020.
Stefan Luber defines the metaverse as “a vision for a shared online world. In it, the virtual world, augmented reality and the physical world merge. There are many interaction options for users. They move with their digital identity in a common virtual space without internal borders. So you can really see it as a virtual reality where you walk around with your digital identity.
Why are these organizations in the top 10 in Switzerland?
In order to create a list of the most important web3 organizations in Switzerland, a number of evaluation criteria must be used. Organizations must be domiciled in Switzerland, operationally active, operate an active website, be active in the web3 domain and provide added value for all in the web3.
Why exactly Switzerland? Because the laws for companies in the blockchain sector here provide legal certainty and a widely supported ecosystem has been created. “Regulation is a benefit, not a bug” has already been partially implemented in Switzerland. I personally think the mentioned organizations are important in web3, but it’s not a ranking.
Ethereum Foundation
It is a non-profit organization and provides support for the development of the Ethereum blockchain and for the applications of this same ecosystem. Ethereum is the Tier 1 blockchain that enables smart contracts and NFTs. The founder, Vitalik Buterin, is known to anyone who has anything to do with blockchain or cryptos. This has been in the news a lot lately as Ethereum has managed to convert proof-of-work to proof-of-stake, thus requiring much less energy.
Metaverse Talks
MetaverseTalks is a leading platform where Metaverse & NFT thought leaders and stakeholders come together to promote and spread ideas around the world. MetaverseTalks was founded by David Bundi and Cedric Ming to help everyone understand the Metaverse. All events can be found on the Metaverse Talks website. For your events you bring in people from the web3 environment to make their knowledge available to others. A very special, small-scale event was the MetaverseTalk in the unpaired.gallery in Zug with David Bundi, Cedric Ming, Judith Seipold, Denes Robert Fantasny and Georg Lanzinger, who gave interested people an insight into the world of NFTs during a round table and fireside chat gifts.
kuble
Kuble develops 360° Web3 strategies in which NFT, Metaverse, Community, Gamification, Governance & Tokenomics and Web2 can be important components. They are metaverse agnostic. They design, model and program in 3D – whenever possible – for central and decentralized metaverses. They build gamifications and wearables, integrate NFTs into metaverse experiences, or implement non-metaverse NFT use cases.
cosmos
It is an open-source project that aims to build a decentralized network of independent blockchains that can interact with each other. The Cosmos project is based in Zug, Switzerland.
The goal of the open source project is a decentralized network in which independent blockchains can interact with each other. The proof-of-stake blockchain has ATOM tokens, which can be staked, for which there is ATOM as a reward. Developers Jae Kwon and Ethan Buchman, the founders of Cosmos, first met in 2015 at the CryptoEconomicon conference in Silicon Valley and then started developing Cosmos.
Infinite
The non-profit organization is working on the development of the decentralized cloud computing platform Dfinity. The foundation is headquartered in Zurich. It was founded in 2016 in Palo Alto by Dominic Williams.
Dfinity’s goal is to create a gigantic virtual computer consisting of a decentralized network of computers connected via a blockchain. Based on this cloud, applications will be created in the future, called “mega apps”. One of them is LinkedUp, an open source alternative to LinkedIn.
challenge
There are many podcasts, but I can recommend a Swiss podcast in English that deals with web3 and regularly interviews interesting people, which is also very successful: Defire. A new podcast comes out approximately every 2 weeks, the topics are very diverse, hot topics like SBF, or NFT trading, here he interviewed @Fulowa, or a security topic, eg. How to protect your bitcoins with a hardware wallet.
Casper Labs
Casper Blockchain is the first live proof-of-stake blockchain based on the Casper CBC specification. Casper is designed to accelerate the adoption of blockchain technology by enterprises and developers and adapt it to future user needs. The head office is in Zug and was founded in 2018 by Medha Parlikar and Mrinal Manohar. Casper has some best cases to show for itself, Metacask, a digital marketplace for premium whiskeys, runs on Casper.
As already mentioned, these are just a few of the many large web3 organizations in Switzerland. If you can think of a specific organization that should be mentioned here, please contact me https://www.linkedin.com/in/georg-lanzinger/
Georg Lanzinger is an independent consultant for the implementation of Blockchain applications for NFT, Track&Trace and Crypto. As a speaker at conferences and panels, he imparts his knowledge to help and connect beginners and professionals. On his video blog your vision.blog he invites people to talk about their vision in the field of Web3 and sales.