Propelled by the socio-economic disturbances and the COVID-19 pandemic, advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, and Web3, which are characteristic of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (FIR), have gained significant ground globally, including the developing countries. As organizations face the array of opportunities and challenges of adopting these technologies, human resource (HR) professionals are tasked with trailblazing the digital transformation of workplaces. Yet, a gap in scientific research regarding the preparedness of HR professionals for this task exists, especially in developing countries like North Macedonia. With this research, the authors aim at addressing this gap and exploring the impact of FIR-related technologies on Macedonian workplaces, employees, their skills, and jobs, as well as, the level of readiness of HR professionals to step up in line with these advanced technologies. The authors build upon a review of the existing literature and use a quantitative online survey distributed to a selected group of HR professionals, operating on the territory of North Macedonia. The findings will contribute to a better understanding of the preparedness of HR professionals to steer organizations in the direction of working in the new era of automation and digital transformation.
âCode is lawâ became a buzz term in Web3 and blockchain reality. Despite the term being already used much earlier by Lawrence Lessig in the year 2000 in his book titled âCode and Other Laws of Cyberspace,â when the internet and Web2 were emerging, the rise of smart contracts and complex algorithmic power made the term genuinely resonate with the (idealised) Web3 reality. The entrainment of technological solutionism in the brains of members of society gives an impression that a world governed by algorithms will be a fairer one. However, research has shown that many members of society are not standard statistical representations of the majority and whilst algorithmic governance leaves room for âstandard deviation,â individuals that fall outside this standard deviation are, in fact, very disadvantaged. There are numerous research papers as well as popular science books that address the issue of algorithmic bias and unfairness in Web 2. The proponents of blockchain and web3 technology argue that with a DAO-governed, decentralised society, problems of biased algorithmic governance are solved as power and decision-making are decentralised, and members use their governance tokens to collectively decide on the law encoded in the smart contracts that are the ultimate law enforcement apparatus. Web3 promises a shift of power from governments and corporations to people and token holders, arguing it will make a Web3-governed society fairer. This paper is based on decoding this promise and using Althusserâs model of a state apparatus to show how the power relations changed in Web2 and Web3 realities. It shows that Web3 promises of the code becoming the law were already present in the Web2 discourse and discovers a model of an ideological apparatus power struggle between states and Web2 giants. Next, the power relations in the blockchain society are researched, starting from the idealised model of decentralised, token-holder governed power, which regulates the governments and corporations, to a discussion on what the actual power relations and struggles might result from encoding the law in the smart contract. Research shows that in Web3, âcode is lawâ society. There will be power struggles and opposition on a vertical and horizontal level. The vertical struggle is the power enforcement (originally in the hands of the state in Althusserâs (1970) model between the code and individuals, governments and corporations not willing to conform with the code-enforced law or falling outside the standard deviation of statistics-based AI algorithms hence being disadvantaged by the smart contract enforced laws. The horizontal power struggle is based on what Althusser describes as the ideological apparatus. Here, the struggle is based on a fight between individuals (the society), corporations, and the state for code-modifying resources and/or leverage over the governance token holders. Overall, the paper argues and shows that blockchain-based âcode is lawâ reality does not solve the issue of unequal power relations within societies but only as any technological revolution shifts the power relations and power struggles between existing and new actors. Unlike the founder of Polkadot, Gavin Wood states that blockchain, DAOs, smart contracts, and Web3 overall do not result in the new social sphere with revolutionised power relations. Where Web3 is now is much more similar to where Web1 and Web2 were 25â30 years agoâCreating a new space for social interactions and discourse yet being stuck within the same social sphere and uneven power relations that have governed our societies for centuries.
Shaoyong Guo, Fan Zhang, Song Guo, Siya Xu ¡ 5 authors
Web3 has received a lot of attention since its emergence. It aims to provide users with more diverse and vivid web services as well as the complete control over their own data. To support the development of Web3, privacy-preserving decentralized data computing schemes need to be studied. In earlier works, blockchain was used for trusted data sharing. However, due to the lack of computing attribute, blockchain is not capable enough to ensure the trustworthiness of the distributed computing process. Besides, the distributed computing method requires a large amount of data transmission and the current privacy protection researches seldom consider the problem of user privacy. In this article, we design a blockchain-assisted privacy-preserving distributed data computing architecture to break-through the limitations of existing researches. The proposed architecture ensures the secure and trustworthy computing with state channel and computing sandbox. We also design a sandbox location obfuscation method based on onion routing technology, making it difficult for attackers to identify the sandbox location or infer user privacy. Our solution fully considers the characteristics of Web3 and can well support the diverse Web3 applications.
This article discusses the entrepreneurial imaginary and the role of Web3 in the narratives of industry actors at the 2022 Lisbon Web Summit. This imaginary does not address the qualitative aspects of current crises but rather their potential for regenerating capital flows in the spirit of never letting a good crisis go to waste. The article argues that the wealthâtech nexus is symptomatic of the broader process of financialization of the economy and, in particular, of the growing role of private investment in the form of Venture Capital (VC), particularly illustrated by âunicornsâ. While capital allocation in the digital economy, both from private and public sources, currently exceeds its realization, this entrepreneurial imaginary builds expectations towards Web3 and effectively drives the valuation process and investorsâ returns, regardless of its future implementation.
Dan Zhuo, JiaâWei Tang, Yang Chen, Shaobin Wang ¡ 5 authors
The InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) is a representative decentralized data storage system that has been widely used in recent years. IPFS plays an important role in the emerging Web3-related applications. As a global peer-to-peer system, a good understanding of IPFS nodesâ session time is meaningful. In this work, we introduce a measurement study to uncover the issues that are related to the session time of IPFS nodes. Based on the collected massive data of all online IPFS nodes for over one month, we gain a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between various node attributes and session time. In addition, we build a supervised machine learning-based model to predict the session time with a high prediction performance.
Decentralized identity frameworks grant users full sovereignty over their digital assets in the Web3 ecosystem. However, allowing arbitrary creation of identifiers makes the system susceptible to Sybil attacks and puts assets at risk when keys are lost or compromised. Moreover, the lack of identification prevents anonymous credential schemes from deterring malicious transfers. While existing solutions attempt to address these issues by linking identifiers to entities through trusted intermediaries, these entities are not always accessible and require costly offline interactions. In this work, we introduce LinkDID, a decentralized identity scheme offering Sybil resistance, trustless key recovery, and nontransferable anonymous credentials. LinkDID creates blockchainbased bindings between identifiers and gradually combines identifiers belonging to the same holder into a unified associated identifier. As all identifiers within an association are presumed to belong to one individual, any fraudulent activity can be detected. The association grows larger as interactions increase, substantially reducing the likelihood of successful Sybil attacks. This mechanism allows holders to recover identifiers with lost or stolen keys by proving knowledge of specific association structures. Additionally, LinkDID prevents unauthorized transfers through blockchain-based identifier-key bindings and proofs of ownership for credentials. The evaluation shows that LinkDID effectively achieves progressive Sybil resistance while surpassing state-of-the-art anonymous credential schemes, achieving identifier association and credential presentation times of 2.41s and 3.31s on consumer-grade devices.
Eva ChovancovĂĄ, Martin Chovanec, JĂĄn Hurtuk, Peter PekarÄĂk
The work is devoted to the analysis of technologies and the design of a responsive social network application with elements of decentralization. Despite all the positives that social networks bring, we canât forget the potential problems associated with their use. Some of the problems can be minimized by using decentralization, which has the effect of limiting third-party control.The centralized part is created using the Vue.js and Laravel frameworks, which provide basic functions. In the context of decentralization, is very important the creation of a smart contract that is stored in the Ethereum blockchain. By using the Web3.js library, it is possible with a smart contract and a MetaMask wallet to carry out the transactions necessary for storing data on the blockchain.To increase efficiency, the IPFS distributed file system is used, which offers storage of larger files or texts and generates their content, while it is possible to access this data. By decentralizing these functions, data immutability is achieved, censorship is excluded, and data security is also provided.
The emergence of blockchain technology created an entire industry of innovative new digital assets--or tokens--and diverse new fields of expertise founded on ideological aspirations of a new World Wide Web that reimagines digital value transfer through decentralization and disintermediation. Experimentation in the so-called "Web3" industry produces rich new fields of ethnographic study revealing the experiences of diverse individuals navigating novel technological capabilities which give way to new avenues of identity formation, community building, and ecosystem creation. These exciting new endeavors come with difficult challenges threatening the realization of ambitious visions for digital futures. Ethnographic research conducted through discourse analysis, participant observation, and formal and informal interviewing identified three key challenges stemming from Web3 builder experiences creating ecosystems through token-economic design: the prevalence of scams impedes productive development and mainstream perception, tokenomics--the design and study of token-based economies forming much of the Web3 industry--is highly complex and under-developed as a field lacking sufficient expertise to meet demand, and regulatory uncertainty prohibitively raises costs and risk for builders. As the industry continues to grow more social science research and interest is needed to shed light on human experiences with these novel technologies.
The advent of Web 3.0, underpinned by blockchain technologies, promises to transform the internet's landscape by empowering individuals with decentralized control over their data. However, this evolution brings unique security challenges that need to be addressed. This paper explores these complexities, focusing on enhancing privacy and anonymous auditing within blockchain structures. We present the architecture of Web 3.0 based on the blockchain, providing a clear perspective on its workflow and security mechanisms. A security protocol for Web 3.0 systems, employing privacy-preserving techniques and anonymous auditing during runtime, is proposed. Key components of our solution include the integration of privacy-enhancing techniques and the utilization of Tor for anonymous auditing. We discuss related work and propose a framework that meets these new security requirements. Lastly, we offer an evaluation and comparison of our model to existing methods. This research contributes towards the foundational understanding of Web 3.0's secure structure and offers a pathway towards secure and privacy-preserving digital interactions in this novel internet landscape.
Jayandren Moodley, Gys A M Meiring, Njabulo S. Mtetwa, Obakeng Motuba ¡ 7 authors
The convergence of Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) technologies and Web2 to Web3 transformation, presents significant benefits and opportunities for industry. This study explores the integrated benefits of Extended Reality (XR) and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) in a Metaverse application for virtual consulting. Since XR enhances collaboration using visualization, and DLT ensures transactional security and privacy, an overview of XR and DLT technology is provided, highlighting their specific benefits and challenges concerning Remote Health and Wellness consulting. The paper proposes a Metaverse solution to leverage these benefits, enabling more affordable and accessible healthcare consulting in developing economies. A key outcome of the research is to develop a metaverse prototype that bridges the gap between Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 technologies. By doing so, it aims to improve usability for end-users, drive the adoption of XR and Blockchain, generate new business models, and unlock new revenue streams for industry and underserved communities.
R Harsha, E Indra, Thirugnana Sambandham, K. Panimozhi
The growth of blockchain over the last ten years has been astounding: from bitcoin to over 2,000 altcoins, and from decentralized electronic payments to programmable transactions, by complicated tokens and smart contracts controlled by autonomous entities. The technological aspects of blockchain are developing at the same time as the new generation of blockchain applications are also developing. This paper considers one such sphere, to develop a decentralized solution for accessing Educational Resources which will alleviate the issues due to the single point of failure of centralized systems, democratize access to educational content and provide a facile experience for users who are not exposed to web3 technologies. This platform was developed by implementing Smart Contracts using Solidity and deploying them on the Ethereum blockchain to store educational resource metadata and files on the Inter Planetary File System (IPFS). Interfacing of blockchain and the frontend is done using the web3.js. The platform is more tenacious and fault-tolerant than systems using a centralized architecture and provides a better user experience by incorporating a search mechanism for the files uploaded to the platform. This paper proposes a decentralized platform that allows users to upload educational resources that can be accessed by others and implemented a file meta-data-based search feature to remove the need for users to remember the IPFS hash of a file.
In this work, we present SONAR, a web-based tool for multimodal exploration of Non-Fungible Token (NFT) inspiration networks. SONAR is conceived to support both creators and traders in the emerging Web3 by providing an interactive visualization of the inspiration-driven connections between NFTs, at both individual level and collection level. SONAR can hence be useful to identify new investment opportunities as well as anomalous inspirations. To demonstrate SONAR's capabilities, we present an application to the largest and most representative dataset concerning the NFT landscape to date, showing how our proposed tool can scale and ensure high-level user experience up to millions of edges.
Ovaj rad pokuĹĄava poboljĹĄati sustav donacija implementacijom Web3 platforme za donacije. Problemi koji se rijeĹĄavaju tom implementacijom su: velike naknade kod slanja donacija, ograniÄeni globalni doseg, manjak privatnosti, spore transakcije, manjak transparentnosti i sigurnosti. TakoÄer su istraĹžene i implementirane sve potrebne tehnologije za rijeĹĄavanje tih problema. Razvijene funkcionalnosti Web3 platforme za donacije su: izrada i ureÄivanje donacijskih kampanja, uÄitavanje PDF dokumenata donacijske kampanje na IPFS, prikaz informativnog sadrĹžaja o kampanji, traĹžilica donacijskih kampanja, moguÄnost razmjene tokena prije donacije, dodjela NFT nagrada za veÄe donacije, anonimna identifikacija korisnika putem povezivanja na platformu s kriptonovÄanikom.
As in its early development, metaverse has become a popular marketing topic with broad participation among marketers and consumers. Due to the global pandemic and lockdowns that hit offline marketing channels, people seek online and virtual interactions (Taherdoost, 2022). It accelerated the changes in consumers' habits and participation in digital media. The term metaverse was first introduced in 1992 in a Sci-Fi Snow Crash (Stephenson, 1992), describing a space where users can join as avatars through terminals with virtual reality features (The Economist, 2020). And with the development of web3, the metaverse has evolved into a hyper-connected online universe. Kim (2021) defines the metaverse as the network of virtual environments where individuals can communicate and interact with one another and objects in real-time using their digital representation or avatars. Brands lead and help consumers to find ways to enter the metaverse space, accelerating mainstream adoption. Philipp Plein, a Swiss fashion brand, purchased 65 parcels of land with 1.4 million dollars in the metaverse platform Decentraland with about 800,000 registered users (Hiken, 2022).
The fronts on which groups such as the Islamic State wages the media war have evolved. The modus operandi of Salafi-Jihadi groups, such as the Islamic State and al-Qaeda (AQ), means that they can appear to be degraded or in decline when closer inspection of their documents, written mainly in Arabic, shows that their operations and media strategy have evolved. The Islamic State uses dispersed forms of network organisation which constantly reconfigure, much like the way a swarm of bees or flock of birds constantly reorganizes mid-flight. This marks a shift from the broadcast models of communication during conflict to a new dispersed, fast moving, and resilient form, the user-curated âSwarmcastâ. Through the Swarmcast, the Islamic State has continued to disseminate its set of coherent narratives expressed in tens of thousands of written documents and in thousands of professionally made audio visual productions. This chapter demonstrates the role Telegram and Web3 now play in the information ecosystem and media strategy employed by Salafi-Jihadi groups.
Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence
With the rapid development of internet technology, it has become increasingly straightforward for people to seek and share health information in online health communities (OHCs). However, the current OHCs are mainly centralized systems fraught with data breaches, identity theft, and censorship problem. Some researchers proposed that Web3 technology can provide potential solutions to current problems. In this research, we identify three core components that should empathize in developing OHCs: trust, privacy, and information quality. Accordingly, we surveyed and analyzed Web3 literature and generated the spectrum of Web3 research. Then we applied text analysis to 6 articles we had collected to conduct a co-occurrence network and generate minimum spanning trees. We then discussed the important factors in the technical, application, and service aspects for applying Web3 technology in future OHCs development.
Tianhong Cai, Jiawei Wu, Chenyang Yu, Vladimir BrusiÄ
Portfolio management diversifies investment across multiple assets for increased return and reduced risks. In the decentralized world of Web3, financial management companies are increasingly investing in blockchain ledger systems for asset transactions. As a result, new models of portfolio trading are needed. The paper presents a prototype of a portfolio management system with a machine learning-enabled recommend subsystem. The proposed account role mechanism combines user-defined functions and automated asset management operations. The combination of blockchain and artificial intelligence enables smart portfolio management.
Proponents and developers of Web3 and blockchain argue that these technologies can revolutionize how people live and work by empowering individuals and distributing decision-making power. While technologists often have expansive hopes for what their technologies will accomplish over the long term, the practical challenges of developing, scaling, and maintaining systems amidst present-day constraints can compromise progress toward this vision. How technologists think about the technological future they hope to enable and how they navigate day-to-day issues impacts the form technologies take, their potential benefits, and their potential harms. In our current work, we aimed to explore the visions of Web3 and blockchain technologists and identify the immediate challenges that could threaten their visions. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 29 operators and professional investors in the Web3 and blockchain field. Our findings revealed that participants supported several ideological goals for their projects, with decentralization being a pivotal mechanism to enable user autonomy, distribute governance power, and promote financial inclusion. However, participants acknowledged the practical difficulties in fulfilling these promises, including the need for rapid technology development, conflicts of interest among stakeholders due to platform financing dynamics, and the challenge of expanding to mainstream users who may not share the "Web3 ethos." If negotiated ineffectively, these challenges could lead to negative outcomes, such as corrupt governance, increased inequality, and increased prevalence of scams and dubious investment schemes. While participants thought education, regulation, and a renewed commitment to the original blockchain ideals could alleviate some problems, they expressed skepticism about the potential of these solutions.
Purpose This paper reviews the extant research on Web3.0 published between 2003 and 2022. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a topic modeling procedure latent Dirichlet allocation to uncover the research themes and the key phrases associated with each theme. Findings This study uncovers seven research themes that have been featured in the existing research. In particular, the study highlights the interaction among the research themes that contribute to the understanding of a number of solutions, applications and use cases, such as metaverse and non-fungible tokens. Research limitations/implications Despite the relatively small data size of the study, the results remain significant as they contribute to a more profound comprehension of the relevant field and offer guidance for future research directions. The previous analysis revealed that the current Web3.0 technology is still encountering several challenges. Building upon the pioneering research in the field of blockchain, decentralized networks, smart contracts and algorithms, the study proposes an exploratory agenda for future research from an ecosystem approach, targeting to enhance the current state of affairs. Originality/value Although topics around Web3.0 have been discussed intensively among the crypto community and technological enthusiasts, there is limited research that provides a comprehensive description of all the related issues and an in-depth analysis of their real-world implications from an ecosystem perspective.
Today, technology continues to develop rapidly. As in many fields, innovations are emerging that will change the social, cultural, and economic relations that affect peopleâs daily lives. The process, which started with the opening of the door of the virtual world, which is said to be more advanced than ever, with VR, seems to reach a new dimension with the introduction of the concept of the metaverse. In addition to the innovations and effects it will bring in all other economic and financial related processes such as Cryptocoin, NFT, blockchain, Web3, the metaverse will also reveal a new narrative paradigm. It will be important to consider the narrative form in the metaverse era, which can be seen as an upshift of innovations from digital storytelling to the interactive narrative that emerged with the digital transformation. It is also important to consider the grand comprehensiveness of the metanarrative regarding the whole, the specificity of the narrative in the metaverse about each subject or object, and how this will be reflected in the big picture. As stated, in the metaverse era, how will the transition of the narrative to the storyliving stage rather than storytelling affect or result in the ontology of the processes of creating a narrative, conveying it through a medium, and being experienced by individuals? This study will be research on the concept of the metaverse and the questioning of the narrative concerning the social, cultural, and economic fields transformed by technology.
A recurring theme in the public debates is the lack of diversity among the developers and decision-makers in infrastructural personnel, in the big data used, and in software implementations. Metaverse appeared as a core concept as part of a cluster of other terms such as Web3 and blockchain. Many businesses and brands aim to participate in an emerging metaverse scene, and diversity issues are at the forefront of early attempts in the imaginaries and practices of the metaverse. Imaginaries are essential because the metaverse is growing through interrelated technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality, as well as new developments in artificial intelligence and blockchain applications. It is an ongoing project, and all may shape the outcome, from decision-makers to authorities and audiences. As a keen follower of journalistic talk, corporate and institutional discourses, and industry leaders, in this chapter, I intend to demonstrate what types of issues concerning diversity debates take place in the early days of metaverse.
Jens Hunhevicz, David F. Bucher, Ranjith K. Soman, Meliha Honic ¡ 6 authors
Long-term access to lifecycle data is key to a successful transition towards a circular built environment. However, the underlying technology often remains centralized and risks becoming inaccessible over time. In this paper, we investigate whether decentralized access methods using Web3, i.e. blockchain and decentralized data storage protocols, can help to mitigate this limitation. We implement Web3 data access mechanisms for a material passport with both a role-based and a token-based smart contract. Initial results suggest that Web3 offers a promising approach to data access over the lifecycle of a built asset - but only with careful design choices.
Using wearable devices and WEB3.0 to make doctor-patient interaction smarter. The aging of the population and COVID-19 have placed a tremendous workload on the medical field. Traditional monitoring has been centralized, with healthcare professionals providing face-to-face care to all patients. This is where blockchain is utilized, where users themselves have data and monitor each other. Mutual monitoring of medical information on the blockchain creates a mutually supportive relationship where users themselves monitor each other. In this demonstration experiment, the system was introduced to six elderly people. This decentralized system in which users themselves monitor each other is called the Web3 type. The Web type is a technology that is expected to break through the current concentration of data in overseas digital industries and leave digital data resources in Japan. This research is unique in that it combines blockchain technology, which is at the core of this technology, with medical information. A mutual assistance system was constructed to visualize and mutually monitor their exercise habits using wearable terminals. As a result, the exercise habits of all participants improved, and unique information was obtained from the questionnaire survey.