Blockchain & web 3.0

Blockchain’s potential impacts

Rebeca Garcia, KPMG Switzerland’s Head of Corporate Communications, talks to the Web3 Foundation’s Head of Education and Grants, Bill Laboon, and its CFO, Kasper Mai Jørgensen, about the foundation’s vision and the advantages and drawbacks of revolutionary blockchain technology.

There are a lot of benefits, but also a lot of responsibility – the blockchain is its own sense of truth.

– Bill Laboon

Video interview with the Web3 Foundation

Based in Zug, the Web3 Foundation’s mission is to nurture and steward technologies and cutting-edge applications in the fields of decentralized web software protocols.

Web3 strives to deliver a fair internet where users control their own data, identity, and destiny – fully secured from any central authority.

Key terms in a nutshell

What is blockchain?

In short, a blockchain is a series of transactions that are grouped into blocks. These blocks are connected through encryption which stores the data securely and prevents anyone from changing the history. This is in part because there is no individual owner.

Blockchain is also known as Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) – a digital system for recording transactions of assets that uses cryptography to store information securely and immutably in multiple places simultaneously. DLT underpins all assets in the crypto-universe, including crypto-assets, stable coins and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). It comes as decentralized and permissionless (e.g., Ethereum and Bitcoin) or centralized and permissioned (e.g. J.P. Morgan’s Onyx). Permissionless DLT allows any user to add nodes to the network, while permissioned infrastructure has a ‘gatekeeper’ who limits access to preauthorized users.
What is web 3.0?

Based on blockchain technology, web 3.0 is the new and improved next generation of the internet. It will use AI and machine learning to take the internet to a whole new level, generating more powerful and evolutionary applications and making greater use of blockchain, cryptocurrencies and other crypto assets as well as NFTs.

Crucially, it will be a more private and secure environment that empowers people by involving them more and giving them an active stake, rather than viewing them merely as platform users or sources of data.
What is the Metaverse?

Forbes magazine summed it up nicely: “The term Metaverse is used to describe a combination of the virtual reality and mixed reality worlds accessed through a browser or headset which allows people to have real time interactions and experiences across distance.” In essence, the Metaverse is a virtual world that exists alongside the physical world.

It is somewhere people can exist and act digitally. It is a place where 3D virtual worlds integrate, ranging from online gaming to virtual music concerts to virtual football stadiums, from online learning platforms to services, and so much more.

How can KPMG help you?

The blockchain is a powerful solution that forms the basis of many developments we are seeing across areas such as cryptocurrency and web 3.0. Understanding it is one thing but making best use of it is quite another.

Not only does KPMG have blockchain experts who can help you to assess and adopt this and other emerging technologies, we can also carry out financial and regulatory audits of blockchain-enabled businesses. This will become increasingly important given the growing reliance on blockchain and business processes and controls that utilize it.