What are people working on Web3.0 doing? We found 5 typical companies and took a look

Although the domestic Web3.0 industry is currently calm and has not caused much waves, Web3.0 has already developed rapidly abroad and has become a track that venture capital institutions continue to pay attention to.

What is the charm of the Web3.0 track?

What are those people working on Web3.0 doing?

This article will answer your questions.

If we want to understand what they are doing, we must first clarify what Web3.0 is. If we want to explain Web3.0 clearly, we must start with Web1.0 and Web2.0.

The Web 1.0 era lasted from the birth of the World Wide Web www to the end of 2004. The characteristic of this period was that the Internet was composed of static web pages and various hyperlinks. During this period, various websites mainly provided content, web pages owned the content, and web pages monetized traffic through advertising.

The representative products of this period are search engines and portal websites. In this case, web pages generate content, own content, and generate profits through advertising and other means.

You can imagine the Internet as a village with many fields. In the Web 1.0 era, websites are fields and the owners of the websites are the landlords. They cultivate their own land and make profits through the fruits of their labor.

The era of Web2.0 began in 2004. As a new model for Internet construction, Web2.0 is innovative in that content changes from "read-only" to "interactive". Users can not only receive content but also create content. It is a network environment that emphasizes user-generated content.

In the Web2.0 era, users create content, platforms own content, and platforms distribute rewards. The representative products of this period are blogs, RSS, and social networks. In this case, the landlords no longer work directly, but hire people to farm for them, and then pay these people wages, and the profits still belong to the landlords.

The definition of Web3.0 has undergone a transformation. Before blockchain became popular, the concept of Web3.0 was closer to the "Semantic Web", "Global Brain" and "Internet of Everything", that is, computers can understand any information, artificial intelligence is responsible for screening out better information, and computers can understand the logical relationship behind the entries. For example, if you search for "Mo Yan's Nobel Prize-winning works in literature", the Internet will push the book "Frog" to you.

Web3.0 under this definition is like a friend around the user. It knows what the user is thinking when the user says something. However, with the emergence and maturity of blockchain, people have combined its decentralized characteristics with the Internet of Things and redefined Web3.0, that is, returning control from a few technology giants to individuals, emphasizing an Internet where users can have more control over their identities and data, which has a sense of overthrowing the gentry and letting the peasants be the masters of the house.

Web3.0 under this definition is a decentralized Internet based on blockchain technology. The villagers in the Internet village have become users of Web3.0. Everyone has his own one-third acre of land to record his own data, such as how many fields he has at home and how many watermelons and wheat he has planted. The profits generated from this one-third acre of land naturally belong to him.

Generally speaking, each iteration of the web network mainly updates three aspects:

1. Who created this content?

2. Who has the control and management rights for this content?

3. To whom will the benefits generated by this content belong?

Why has the Web3.0 track suddenly become so popular in recent years ? Why didn’t this industry receive a lot of attention earlier? As the saying goes, it takes two to tango. The same is true for the popularity of Web3.0. We believe that there are two main reasons: supply side and demand side:

First, on the supply side, the technology of the underlying framework of Web3.0 continues to mature, providing a foundation for the development of Web3.0. Since November 1, 2008, when Satoshi Nakamoto published "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System", blockchain has begun to develop rapidly. People's application of blockchain has not stopped at virtual currency. They continue to explore blockchain application methods, and concepts such as NFT (Non-Fungible Token) and DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) have emerged. The development of blockchain and the continuous expansion of its application methods have provided fertile ground for the birth of Web3.0.

Second, the continuous development of the demand side has allowed investors to discover the powerful vitality of Web3.0. Because in the Web2.0 era, people have been oppressed by Internet giants and have been resentful for a long time. Originally, Web2.0 hoped to create an Internet world where users and platforms complement each other, and everyone can communicate with each other through the Internet and grow their own small piece of land better and better. But the actual situation is that a lot of tycoons have emerged, exacerbating centralization. Users' demands for their own rights are growing. They hope to own the content they create and get rid of the control of Internet giants. The demand for decentralization is becoming increasingly strong.

The supply side and the demand side have jointly provided fertile soil for Web3.0. Which Web3.0 companies have been born so far? How are they developing? Next, IT Orange will analyze several Web3.0 companies as typical examples.

NFT Music Platform - Audius

Currently, when music creators upload their music on music streaming platforms, the money does not go directly into their pockets, but all this is different on Audius.

Audius was founded in February 2018 in the United States and is a blockchain music sharing platform. Since its establishment in 2018, Audius has raised $14.85 million. The company's investors include venture capital institutions such as Binance Labs, General Catalyst Partners, and Multicoin Capital, as well as many well-known music creators, including The Chainsmokers, Katy Perry, Nas, Pusha T, and Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park. It can be seen that Audius is a hot commodity in the music industry and in the eyes of investment institutions, full of infinite possibilities.

So why is Audius so popular? Let's take a look at how it works.

Audius uses blockchain technology to NFT-ize musical works, that is, to engrave unique logos on each work of art through various technical means. Each logo records the creator, the ownership transaction process, and the owner, which solves the copyright issue well.

In addition, by solving the problems of centralization and transparency, Audius returns the control and creativity of the platform to artists. Artists have sole ownership of their music and can decide how to make money on the platform. They can also choose to release music for free or set custom fees for fans to unlock exclusive content. In this way, music creators will not be charged high fees by the platform when uploading songs, or be forced to remove their own songs due to failure of review.

In addition, there are no middlemen on the Audius platform (Spotify/Apple Music or streaming service providers such as record companies). The entire experience is designed to deliver music directly from artists to consumers, allowing music creators to connect directly with fans and allowing musicians to receive transparent and reasonable compensation.

This can be understood as the existence of Audius allowing creators to share their works with their fans according to their own rules in their own little corner of the world, and to be their own masters in their own little corner of the world without having to look at the eyes of the wealthy.

In addition, Audius also has its own native crypto token AUDIO, an ERC-20 governance token that can be used to incentivize creators to participate in the construction of the platform.

Token holders can also vote on proposals related to network changes and upgrades with their tokens, just like shareholders of other companies. One AUDIO token can get one vote, helping artists create a fair competitive environment owned by the community. They can also unlock exclusive features by staking AUDIO tokens.

This token can be understood as the weight of speaking. For example, in the village of Audius, a resolution needs to be passed. In other villages, it is decided by shareholders, but in Audius, the villagers of the village - that is, the music creators who hold AUDIO tokens - make their opinions known to ensure that the development of the village can meet the expectations of the villagers.

Audius already has 750,000 monthly active users (MAU), more than 100,000 tracks and over 1 million plays. Audius has now partnered with top artists such as deadmau5, 3LAU, and RAC to jointly promote the popularization of crypto assets in this field.

You can make money by running——Stepn

Stepn was founded in October 2021 in Australia, Oceania. It is a mobile NFT game founded by Jerry and Yawn. The company advocates a carbon-neutral lifestyle and provides a Move to Earn model, which means making money by running. Players need to wear "NFT sneakers" to walk, jog or run outdoors to earn rewards. STEPN is the first Web3.0 lifestyle application powered by Solana.

The company's game development team is Find Satoshi Lab, whose CEO is YAWN RONG and CTO is KEVIN YANG. CTO Kevin has 7 or 8 years of experience in traditional game development in China, and CEO Yawn previously worked in the physical industry. Both of them have managed companies with about 300 employees, so from the perspective of the team's industry experience, their development and management capabilities are relatively outstanding.

The company completed its seed round of financing and strategic investment on January 20, 2022 and April 11, 2022, respectively, with financing amounts of US$5 million and US$50 million. Investors include Sequoia Capital India, Folius Ventures and Binance.

So how do you make money by running on Stepn? Participating in Move to Earn requires players to purchase NFT sneakers and walk, jog, or run outdoors to earn rewards. Stepn has a total of 4 different types of running shoes, namely Walker, Jogger, Runner, and Trainer. Different running shoes correspond to different efficiency and difficulty of earning game tokens (GST).

How to buy Stepn running shoes? After downloading the STEPN APP, players can see information about various NFT sports shoes. The current floor price in the market is 9.8SOL, which is more than 800 US dollars. This means that if users want to make money through Stepn, they need to pay an entry fee of 800 US dollars first.

Yuga Labs

Yuga Labs was founded in January 2019 and is located in the United States of North America. It is a blockchain developer. The company is committed to building a "gamified" and "fully decentralized" "interoperable world" while attracting more NFT projects into its ecosystem. It owns projects such as Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), Crypto Punks, and Meebits.

Initially, the founder of Bored Ape was inspired by the success of Cryptopunks (a 24x24 pixel art image NFT) and wanted to try to make an avatar NFT, and then combine the avatar and the crypto community through gamification to create a new way to play.

Their first product is an NFT of the avatar called Bored Ape. Bored Ape’s full name is Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), and the series consists of 10,000 unique NFT apes, each with its own characteristics.

There are many rare species among them. When these monkeys are put together and observed, they look more like "programmed works" with different elements such as expressions, coats, accessories, etc. randomly arranged and combined, but they are actually scarce.

Some media have counted these 10,000 monkeys, and found that only 49 of them had daggers in their mouths, 108 had zombie eyes, and 115 wore cross earrings.

By purchasing the monkey NFT, users can become members of BAYC and obtain exclusive use rights to the NFT. With its unique and fashionable style, the Bored Ape quickly became a "hot item", and many celebrities in the entertainment or sports circles bought and held the NFT of this series, including NBA champion Stephen Curry, famous rapper Eminem, young singer Justin Bieber, Linkin Park rapper Mike Shinoda, well-known talk show "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon" host Jimmy Fallon, and football player Neymar.

Unlike other avatar NFT creators, Yuga Labs is very good at community management and maintaining public relations. After 10,000 Bored Ape avatar NFTs were sold out, the team felt that BYAC alone was too monotonous, so two months later, Yuga Labs launched the Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC) - 10,000 Bored Ape dog NFTs, which were distributed free of charge to BAYC holders as Bored Ape's "pet companions".

In the world of Bored Ape, having a pet is not enough. The team continued to launch a derivative product, Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) in August last year. This batch of NFTs is the "genetic mutation version" of the first Bored Ape.

The team airdropped "serum" with mutant genes to the original holders, which are divided into three levels from low to high: M1, M2, and M3. Different levels of serum determine the characteristics and degree of the original Bored Ape gene mutation. Holders of M1 and M2 serums can still see some of their original foundation after the ape mutation. If you get M3, it means that you can get a very rare and unique mutant ape, and the market price is also higher.

Yuga Labs is expanding its Bored Ape ecosystem step by step: there are protagonists, pets, and the protagonist can also undergo genetic mutation and transform into a new image.

Yuga Labs’ steps are not limited to image NFTs, they are heading into the metaverse. Otherside is the team’s latest fourth NFT series - a virtual land designed specifically for the metaverse, and one of the NFTs available for trading.

There are 200,000 NFTs in this series, half of which were launched at the end of April. Similar to the previous gameplay, BAYC and MAYC holders can apply for their own virtual land for free, and other members of the public can purchase it with APE at a unit price of 305 APE.

According to the official introduction, APE is positioned as "a governance and utility token" to enable the decentralized construction of Web3.0. Holders can use APE to vote on community policies and trade goods in the virtual and real worlds.

Empowering Generation Z

Genies was founded in 2017 and is located in the United States of North America. It is an Avatar technology company. On April 13, 2022, the company completed a $150 million Series C financing led by Silver Lake Investment and successfully joined the ranks of unicorn formulas.

Genies' product Genies Avatar Creator OS allows users to create their own avatars, avatar wearable fashion accessories, avatar worlds and avatar interactive experiences in the product. Users can also choose their facial features, skin color, and hairstyle to create their own metaverse image. The software will also generate corresponding emoticons based on daily news and festivals in the metaverse.

Genies provides avatars that people can customize to suit their needs, and even provides celebrities with avatars that can be used as stand-ins in online events. It currently has thousands of avatar creator users.

The company's earliest product was a 2D virtual image similar to Snapchat's Bitmoji. It attracted a lot of attention at the time because one of the company's investors was the internet celebrity Jake Paul. Later, it reached a cooperation with the luxury brand Gucci and launched Gucci's virtual products on its own app.

In October 2020, Genies launched its own 3D avatar product and released its official SDK (Software Development Kit) in November. After the 3D version was launched, Genies also adopted the strategy of cooperating with European and American celebrities, using social networks and business cooperation to quickly promote its products.

Genies estimates that the company was responsible for 99% of the events involving celebrity avatars at the time. Currently, Genies is working with Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group to produce Avatar and digital wearable NFT products for their artists, and fans can buy exclusive props for their Avatars, such as clothing, accessories, etc.

At this stage, Genies has launched The Warehouse, a personal avatar ecosystem NFT marketplace where avatar creators can buy, sell and trade these avatar ecosystem creations. All works are created and completed on Dapper Labs' blockchain network Flow.

CretiK, a blockchain security unicorn that protects smart contracts

CertiK was founded in January 2018 and is located in the United States of North America. It is a smart contract and blockchain ecosystem security service provider.

CertiK was founded by a Chinese team, and now its team is very luxurious. It was originally founded by computer science professors from Yale University and Columbia University. One of its co-founders, Gu Ronghui, graduated from the Department of Computer Science at Tsinghua University and received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Yale University. He then taught at Columbia University and started his entrepreneurial journey. Another co-founder, Shao Zhong, is Gu Ronghui's mentor. He graduated from the Junior Class of the University of Science and Technology of China, holds a Ph.D. from Princeton University, and is currently the director of the Department of Computer Science at Yale University and a tenured professor at Yale.

Professor Gu Ronghui's undergraduate background at Tsinghua University helped him build a luxurious CertiK team. Several team executives also graduated from Tsinghua. Chief Operating Officer Dr. Cao Yaxin graduated from the Department of Electronics at Tsinghua University and is the former vice president of Tsinghua Unigroup. Chief Technology Officer Ni Zhaozhong (who served as the head coach of the IOI competition for many years), technical executives Zhang Zhunping and Li Shenjie (both won IOI competition gold medals), and investment and financing director Huang Naikang all graduated from Tsinghua.

Two months after its establishment, the company received a $3.5 million seed round of financing led by Lightspeed Venture Partner; in June 2020, it completed a $7 million Series A financing led by IDG Capital; from June 2021 to March 2022, the company completed four consecutive rounds of financing, and its current valuation has reached $2 billion.

The company's core product is the CertiKOS anti-hacking operating system, which follows the blockchain security track. Although this track is difficult and technically demanding, the security track is essential as an infrastructure. As the basic design of the blockchain, it is like the security of a village bank. Whether the security is strong and can protect the savings of the villagers in the bank determines whether the villagers can safely entrust their property to the Web3.0 village, and also determines whether the village can grow and develop.

The main application scenario of the company's products is the field of decentralized finance. Through its own anti-hacking system, it audits the smart contracts in the project in real time. If there are loopholes, it will update the blockchain security protocol to actively identify suspicious transactions and protect the security of user funds.

A smart contract can be understood as a contract written in code. Once a certain event occurs, the code will automatically execute and produce results according to the contract (smart contract). For example, when customers buy an orange from a vending machine, after the customer selects the orange and pays, the vending machine will automatically deliver an orange. This process can be understood as a microcosm of a smart contract. After the user takes action, the smart contract will automatically execute and produce the corresponding results.

What CertiK does is to find loopholes in smart contracts and update them. The biggest risk facing decentralized finance is security, and CertiK is designed to solve this problem.

As of December 2021, CertiK has achieved a 20-fold revenue growth and a 4-fold increase in the number of employees. In addition, CertiK provides blockchain security services to more than 1,800 enterprise-level customers, discovers more than 31,000 code vulnerabilities, and protects the security of more than $300 billion in digital assets.

At present, CertiK has formed a diverse customer base, including platforms such as Binance, Terra, Polygon, as well as projects such as PancakeSwap, 1 Inch, Animoca, and Sandbox.