In Closing
Every idea starts in someone’s imagination and then slowly comes to life. In this series, I have imagined how the Web3 infrastructure being created can be applied to solve two problems: Attention Recession and Voter Aggregation. I have tried to imagine two worlds – µniverse and Bharatverse. Of course, much more work needs to be done to convert the ideas into real-world solutions.
Entrepreneurs are problem solvers. The Web3 world for the first time offers Indian entrepreneurs a level playing field. India largely missed the first two iterations because it did not have the digital infrastructure, the user base and the funding that many entrepreneurs need for their ventures. Web3 can change the game. Even as one set of entrepreneurs work to build the underlying infrastructure, another set of entrepreneurs need to start imagining the world beyond. What can Web3 really enable? What can be made better? What are the pain points today which can be solved 10X better with Web3?
For me (and like everyone I am a creature of my past experiences), the two biggest opportunities are in rethinking the brand customer relationship and transforming a nation of a billion people. The cost of Attention Retention and the consequent overspending on acquisition is $200 billion – half of what is spent on digital advertising. This wasteful expenditure is on reacquisition and wrong acquisition. Imagine this money in the hands of the brand’s customers – as incentives for their attention and network. Brands and customers will not need intermediaries to connect with each other. Web3 innovations – and not anti-trust legislation – is the way to take on Big Tech.
Similarly, in India, the Big Parties have sucked away the prosperity from a vast majority of Indians. Indians should have been many times wealthier by now – like Singaporeans or South Koreans. The average Chinese earns almost five times more than the average Indian – and both countries were at the same level just 40 years ago. It is India’s political parties and their leaders who have denied the people the chance to be free and therefore rich. Their policies of extraction and exploitation were no different from the British, and therefore the outcomes have been no different. India needs a political revolution first to bring in the economic revolution. This is where Web3 offers Indians an opportunity to use digital and decentralised mechanisms to unite their vote and bring about a change in leadership and future policies.
Two different worlds. Two different solutions. But the underlying ideas are the same. Decentralisation, blockchain, DAO, tokens. Can we make µniverse and Bharatverse a reality in the coming years? What we need are entrepreneurs with vision and will.
