Web3 is growing at a dizzying rate, enabling more governance power, freedom, individual opportunity, and close relationships between protocols and their communities. From Web3 applications down to the underlying protocol layers, Pocket Network occupies a crucial role in the middle of that dynamic. As a decentralized infrastructure solution, Pocket is turning Web3 ideals into reality. Discover more about the Web3 infrastructure stack, what Web3 needs to reach greater levels of adoption, and how Pocket is primed to play a huge role in the sector.

Web3: A New Door of Opportunity

What does Web3 bring that Web2 couldn’t? Any newcomer to crypto or blockchain technology asks this or a similar question, and rightfully so.If there’s a technological breakthrough or a paradigm shift that serves the end user like never before, it’s Web3.In Web3, people are the primary beneficiaries of their own online presence; from their data, to their artistic creations, to any type of digital asset they have ownership of. With the developing Web3 suite, people are becoming more personally connected to the tools they are using, while reaping much more of the benefits than has been possible with Web2.In gaming, people can play to earn token-based rewards. Elsewhere, individuals can invest in digital real estate, or create digital art and actually get the majority of sales proceeds from it. All this with a much lower degree of interference (financially and otherwise) from intermediaries.The potential for Web3 to become the main online technology that links us all together is immense. But for it to work seamlessly and attract a mainstream crowd, the infrastructure needs to be in place, and applications must provide outstanding value to the end-user.

The Web3 Stack: From Protocols to Applications

The Web3 stack goes from protocols, up to infrastructure providers, and finally to applications.Protocol layers are the basis of the Web3 stack, whether we’re talking about Bitcoin, Ethereum, other Layer 1 networks, Layer 2’s and scaling solutions, and so on. For applications to function, they need to connect to data from these protocols in a cost-efficient, user-friendly, and scalable manner, and they need to do it with constant uptime.In most cases, applications on Web3 can be:

1. Use-cases that may be similar to ones we’ve already seen on Web2, but are now decentralized, taking a completely different approach (e.g., decentralized exchanges)
2. New applications and use cases, given the novel status of Web3 (e.g., Metaverse games)

Web3 use-cases are almost unlimited, from crypto wallets to exchanges, NFT marketplaces, Metaverse games, decentralized exchanges, Web3 social networks, lending tools, DeFi aggregators, and crypto analytics dashboards. Regardless of the use-case, for those applications to retrieve the necessary data and operate seamlessly, they need the missing piece that sits between them and the protocol layer: Web3 infrastructure.Pocket Network is one of the infrastructure providers making Web3 a reality. Pocket’s decentralized node network facilitates data transmission between blockchains and applications by establishing an extremely reliable, easy-to-use, chain-agnostic, and scalable solution. Applications can easily tap into Pocket Network and start receiving blockchain data, while node runners receive POKT as a reward for relaying the requested data to apps.Beyond Pocket, Web3 infrastructure provides the full support and functionality needed for Web3 to operate and more fully blossom, with solutions involving validation, digital identities, security and privacy, insurance, and more.

The Search for User-Friendly, Powerful Applications in a Decentralized Environment

A long-lasting question with new technologies is how they offer a better service for people, how the shift from an old to a new paradigm is possible, and whether that shift is worth it.Amid the latest crypto market correction, discussions about the usefulness of crypto and Web3 applications, particularly in comparison to some of their established Web2 counterparts, have ramped up. Moreover, there are persistent questions about whether the onboarding process into crypto can become easy, intuitive, and efficient enough to adequately attract new audiences. Given crypto’s highly technical nature, it’s essential to have simple, user-friendly applications built on top of powerful infrastructure in order to unlock the next wave of adoption.The shift from Web1 to Web2 raised some of these questions, and the same challenges are appearing in the leap from Web2 to Web3.For Pocket, the answer to the utility question is abundantly clear. Thanks to Pocket’s role as an infrastructure provider, it plays a crucial part in linking the key components of the Web3 stack and providing real-world utility. This utility is shown directly in the network stats - particularly in Pocket’s 2022 milestone of servicing more than 1 billion relays in a 24 hour period. The ongoing billions of relays serviced by the network are a testament to the constant demand for Web3 data and the true utility that Pocket provides in serving that data up.  Just as importantly, Pocket provides this utility in a decentralized fashion, and with an interface that sacrifices nothing in terms of ease-of-use when compared with similar centralized solutions that developers have been relying on.

Enabling Powerful and Elegant Solutions

Web3 infrastructure providers like Pocket are the foundation on which valuable applications can build on. Pocket’s adoption to this point shows the importance of easily onboarding new networks, nodes, and partners into a mutually beneficial protocol.Beyond the underlying growth in usage metrics like relays, Pocket is working to enable a whole new level of scalability, in anticipation of a continued movement into a multi-chain world. With more people and institutions delving into digital assets and requiring blockchain data, along with the existing Web3 ecosystems becoming much more robust, Pocket v1 will work towards important scalability goals, with noteworthy changes to Pocket’s protocol and economics.Web3 infrastructure offers a real use-case for our digital society, with technological and social relevance, but its value needs to be easily and effectively provided to stakeholders in order to fulfill its true potential in the Web3 stack. Pocket is leading that charge.