Eight years ago, I was a bitcoin bear.
Back then, people primarily used the world’s first crypto to buy illicit goods on the dark web.
The price was volatile. It dropped 95% in 2013 before rallying 10X in 2014.
Bitcoin was difficult to purchase and even harder to safeguard. Crypto exchanges were targeted by hackers.
The most famous incident was the 2014 hack of the Mt. Gox exchange, which resulted in the loss of 650,000 bitcoins.
In today’s price, that heist is now worth $32.5 billion. It’s easily the biggest “bank robbery” in history.
But shortly after the Mt. Gox disaster, Vitalik Buterin dropped the Ethereum whitepaper.
Ethereum changed the future of money by making a currency that was programmable.
This led to the proliferation of new “decentralized finance” protocols. You could now trade and borrow digital assets without a middleman.
The total value locked in decentralized finance has skyrocketed. It went from under $1 billion to over $100 billion in just two years.
But that’s not the only major disruption brought forth by crypto.
It could change the entire internet forever.
I predict that 2022 will be the year when the new version of the internet, named Web 3.0, goes mainstream.
And there are a few key indicators that will turn even the biggest crypto skeptics into believers.
Your Online Data Really Isn’t Yours
“There’s no such thing as a free lunch,” goes the old economics saying.
In the modern world, there’s no such thing as a free mobile app.
Every app you use saves your data and then sells it to marketers.
Your online data really isn’t yours.
However, Web 3.0 will give users control over the internet again.
Instead of Facebook and Twitter owning everyone’s data, you’ll be able to control it.
Right now, we’re seeing the beginnings of how this will work.
Web 3.0 Lets You Opt In
When you interact with a Web 3.0 website, you can choose if that website can see your wallet and its contents.
Basically, it lets you opt in.
We’re already seeing the adoption of Web 3.0 in the growth of MetaMask wallets.
These let you hold crypto tokens and interact with Web 3.0 websites. You can trade cryptos, play games and buy NFTs.
MetaMask wallets have grown from 545,000 monthly active users in July 2020 to 21 million in November 2021.
That’s over 3,500% growth in just one year.
More Money for Web 3.0 Ideas
There’s a windfall of investments pouring into the Web 3.0 sector.
A chart from PitchBook shows that venture capital poured $30 billion into crypto in 2021.
That’s almost quadruple the previous high of $8 billion in 2018.
More money means more Web 3.0 ideas will come to fruition.
And when money floods into new technologies, smart entrepreneurs and workers follow.
An article in the New York Times pointed out the number of tech executives that have headed to crypto:
A growing contingent of the tech industry’s best and brightest sees a transformational moment that comes along once every few decades and rewards those who spot the seismic shift before the rest of the world. With crypto, they see historical parallels to how the personal computer and the internet were once ridiculed, only to upend the status quo and mint a new generation of billionaires.
Building this decentralized future won’t be easy, and it won’t happen overnight.
But like all tech, adoption happens slowly at first … and then all at once.
We witnessed this with the internet.
The number of global internet users jumped from 300 million in 2000 to 2 billion in 2010 to nearly 5 billion by the end of 2020.
Smartphones are another example.
They barely existed 15 years ago. And now, the average American spends 3.5 hours a day on one!
It’s Time to Own a Part of Web 3.0
Now is the time to buy into the future of Web 3.0 technology before it goes mainstream and disrupts the internet.
You can learn more about Web 3.0 and the future of the internet by checking out my Next Wave Crypto Fortunes service.
Regards,
Editor, Strategic Fortunes
Morning Movers
From open till noon Eastern time.
Krispy Kreme Inc. (Nasdaq: DNUT), the doughnut and coffee chain, is up 8% this morning. The stock is up despite the fact that today is the day the lock-up period ends for a number of shares after its IPO in July.
Vodafone Group Public Ltd. Co. (OTC: VODPF) is a European telecommunication company with operations worldwide. It is up 7% on the news of its first-ever 5G mobile broadband device for customers on the go.
Exscientia plc (Nasdaq: EXAI) is an artificial intelligence-driven pharmatech company that engages in discovering, designing and developing drugs. It is up 6% on a rebound from Monday, but there’s no company-specific news driving the moves.
Hang Lung Properties Ltd. (OTC: HLPPF) is a Chinese property developer that is up 5% today. The whole Chinese property sector is doing well today with good news out of China Evergrande regarding its recent debt-related concerns.
Dairy Farm International Holdings Ltd. (OTC: DFIHY) is a Chinese retailer that mostly operates grocery stores, supermarkets and restaurants. It is up 5% as part of a bounce in Asian emerging stocks as Wall Street recovers from its omicron worries.
China Evergrande Group (OTC: EGRNY), the distressed Chinese property developer, is up 4% today. The move came after the company signaled that it is starting to tackle its debt problems by resuming stalled construction at most of its residential properties.
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Winnebago Industries Inc. (NYSE: WGO) manufactures and sells RVs and marine products primarily for use in leisure travel and outdoor activities. It is up 3% on positive media attention after reporting record earnings recently.