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Help or hindrance: Is Web3 really improving mainstream industry and products?

Web3 business models based around NFTs, blockchain and crypto have slowly been gaining ground in the mainstream, to mixed success.
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Web3 business models based around NFTs, blockchain and crypto have slowly been gaining ground in the mainstream, to mixed success.

Web3 has been gaining ground in mainstream industries with the rise of Web3 business models based around nonfungible tokens (NFTs), blockchain technology and crypto. But it’s still an open question whether it’s actually improving mainstream industry and products. 

According to a June Coinbase study, over half of the top 100 United States companies listed in the Fortune 500 have pursued Web3 initiatives since the start of 2020.

Around 60% have either been in the pre-launch stage or already launched since the start of 2020. Out of the surveyed Fortune 500 executives who are familiar with blockchain, 83% say their companies have either current initiatives or are planning them.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Pat White, co-founder and CEO of digital asset platform Bitwave, believes there has been progress in successfully marrying Web3 with the mainstream. 

“It has the potential to drive innovation across so many industries — and we’re just starting to see some of the early use cases outside of the crypto economy,” he said.

He cites eliminating intermediaries, reducing costs, improving data integrity, supply chain transparency, enhancing cybersecurity and creating new ways of interacting with customers as particularly useful in sectors like finance and healthcare, among others.

Related: How smart contracts can improve efficiency in healthcare

Healthcare already has some promising use cases for Web3 in these areas, including services that now appear in the metaverse, specifically for those seeking mental healthcare.

Some companies are also experimenting with medical records being stored and managed using blockchain. One company even released a COVID-19 medical certificate on the blockchain.

It’s all still in the early stages of research, though, and it remains to be seen whether Web3 in healthcare will be more effective than systems already in place.

Just because you can doesn’t mean you should 

More than a few high-profile companies in the mainstream have started to use Web3. For example, Starbucks has rolled out an NFT-based rewards program. 

Goldman Sachs and Microsoft have been developing new blockchain networks aimed at financial institutions as well. Elon Musk has also been teasing a crypto payment option on X (formerly Twitter) for some time.

White believes that while there are use cases for Web3 in mainstream industries, that doesn’t mean everyone can immediately drive efficiency with Web3 tools.

Earlier in 2023, high-performance sports car manufacturer Porsche found this out the hard way with the failure of its NFT project, which it had to halt abruptly after backlash over high minting prices and the lack of utility.

“Organizations can get into deep water quickly when they try to leverage only their existing legacy tools and processes for managing digital assets. New technologies require new ways of operating,” White said. 

“With the recent downturn, we’ve actually seen companies that aren’t sustainable moving out of the Web3 space.”

White says using Web3 tech shouldn’t be taken lightly, and any foray into the space should be “a strategic decision” orchestrated across every operational department.

At the moment, he sees Web3 at a similar stage of development to the internet in the late 90s. Speculation is rife, and many companies are looking to incorporate the new tech without a plan.

“The nature of innovation cycles is that during hype cycle periods, a lot of people will try the tech for a lot of purposes, and some may not actually be helped by the innovation,” White said.

Brendan McKittrick, founder and chairman of decentralized aviation platform Aerobloc, told Cointelegraph he thinks Web3 holds the promise of enhancing everyday products and services in areas such as supply chain transparency and data security. 

The extent of this improvement depends on how effectively Web3 is implemented. McKittrick says there have been hurdles and challenges for mainstream companies using Web3, just like any new tech.

“Some mainstream businesses may adopt Web3 to ride the hype and attract investors, potentially resulting in superficial integration that fails to deliver significant benefits,” McKittrick said.

“These missteps can be valuable learning experiences, helping industries refine their approach and maximize the benefits of Web3 in the long run.”

In some cases, adopting the tech is out of the company’s hands, as with French gaming giant Ubisoft, who had to cool on plans to use NFTs and blockchain after player backlash.

Related: Ubisoft launches Ubisoft Quartz platform for playable and energy-efficient NFTs

Overall, McKittrick believes Web3 isn’t just about tech; it’s a mindset that includes decentralization, trust and rethinking ownership — all of which could benefit the mainstream industry.

However, he believes that in some cases, the systems already in place might be more effective, and while Web3 holds “significant potential for a wide range of applications,” its suitability “depends on the specific needs and characteristics of each industry.”

“Its universality is tempered by the need for careful consideration of each industry’s unique requirements and constraints,” McKittrick said.

“Some sectors may not benefit as much from decentralization or blockchain technology, and traditional systems might still be more cost-effective and efficient for them,” he added.

Some mainstream industries are successfully using Web3 already 

Kadan Stadelmann, chief technology officer of blockchain platform Komodo, told Cointelegraph that, in his opinion, Web3 tech is already improving products in mainstream industries such as music, gaming and real estate. 

Related: Web3 is transforming the music industry — Here’s how

On the music scene, he says Web3 tech helps artists eliminate intermediaries, such as record labels and streaming services, allowing artists to connect with their audience directly.

“Web3-minded musicians retain control over their creative works, helping to ensure fair compensation for their efforts because decentralized music platforms provide transparent royalty systems,” Stadelmann said.

“Artists receive instant payments for their streams or downloads without delays or complex contracts with flaky independent labels or overbearing major labels.”

Web3 tech has been very active on the music scene, from democratizing song rights royalties and blockchain licensing to legacy companies like Sony Entertainment filing patents for NFT-authenticated music.

Artists have also begun exploring new ways of driving fan engagement using wallet-based loyalty incentives and token-based communities. Earlier in 2023, Harry Styles fans opened a crypto wallet through a third-party app.

In gaming, Stadelmann says a central authority can’t control platforms powered by Web3; instead, they operate on decentralized networks such as blockchain.

“This shift toward decentralization has numerous implications for gamers; it enhances ownership and control over in-game assets,” he said.

“Players can truly own their virtual possessions and even trade them with others in a secure and transparent manner,” Stadelmann added.

For the real estate industry, Stadelmann said Web3 can offer a framework allowing peer-to-peer transactions and smart contracts without intermediaries. Tokenization also allows properties to be divided into digital tokens representing ownership shares.

“This enables fractional ownership and opens up real estate investments to a wider range of individuals who may not have had access before,” Stadelmann said.

“Transparency and immutability in property transactions reduces fraud and increases trust among parties involved. Web3 also empowers individuals to monetize their properties through decentralized finance platforms,” he added.

Stadelmann believes the fashion industry has benefited from an injection of Web3 tech as well, with the ability to direct peer-to-peer interactions between designers and consumers. 

He says designers can protect their intellectual property rights and receive compensation for their creations through smart contracts, authenticating products and combating counterfeiting.

“Unique digital identities can be assigned to each garment, allowing consumers to verify its authenticity with a simple scan,” Stadelmann said.

“This not only protects brands from revenue loss but also ensures consumer confidence in their purchases,” he added.

Web3 has potential but still needs more development for mainstream 

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Bradley Allgood, CEO and co-founder of Fintech company Fluent Finance, said he thinks Web3 tech does have the potential for use in the mainstream finance world. 

However, he says the on-chain and legacy worlds need to come to a consensus on a trusted gold standard medium of exchange that can flow frictionlessly between on-chain and traditional financial ecosystems.

“Until then, it will be more of the same gimmicky adoption efforts and marketing hype,” he said.

“It’s just like every other technology based on value: it needs a sound medium of exchange and financial infrastructure in order to support commercial applications,” Allgood added.

Related: Web3 gaming still a long way from mainstream adoption: Survey

At the moment, Allgood says in his experience, Web3 integration processes can be clunky and inefficient and create inferior user experiences because the middleware and interoperability infrastructure isn’t there just yet.

There have been attempts to marry Web3 and blockchain in finance already. Major payment processor PayPal announced its PYUSD stablecoin, and payment giant Mastercard is exploring crypto benefits through a new collaboration with crypto payment platform MoonPay.

Allgood believes until there is robust custodianship and issuance of a stable-valued asset with adequate, real-time transparency in place, Web3 in the mainstream will continue to be held back.

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February Employment Situation

By Paul Gomme and Peter Rupert The establishment data from the BLS showed a 275,000 increase in payroll employment for February, outpacing the 230,000…

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7 hours ago

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March 9, 2024

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By Paul Gomme and Peter Rupert

The establishment data from the BLS showed a 275,000 increase in payroll employment for February, outpacing the 230,000 average over the previous 12 months. The payroll data for January and December were revised down by a total of 167,000. The private sector added 223,000 new jobs, the largest gain since May of last year.

Temporary help services employment continues a steep decline after a sharp post-pandemic rise.

Average hours of work increased from 34.2 to 34.3. The increase, along with the 223,000 private employment increase led to a hefty increase in total hours of 5.6% at an annualized rate, also the largest increase since May of last year.

The establishment report, once again, beat “expectations;” the WSJ survey of economists was 198,000. Other than the downward revisions, mentioned above, another bit of negative news was a smallish increase in wage growth, from $34.52 to $34.57.

The household survey shows that the labor force increased 150,000, a drop in employment of 184,000 and an increase in the number of unemployed persons of 334,000. The labor force participation rate held steady at 62.5, the employment to population ratio decreased from 60.2 to 60.1 and the unemployment rate increased from 3.66 to 3.86. Remember that the unemployment rate is the number of unemployed relative to the labor force (the number employed plus the number unemployed). Consequently, the unemployment rate can go up if the number of unemployed rises holding fixed the labor force, or if the labor force shrinks holding the number unemployed unchanged. An increase in the unemployment rate is not necessarily a bad thing: it may reflect a strong labor market drawing “marginally attached” individuals from outside the labor force. Indeed, there was a 96,000 decline in those workers.

Earlier in the week, the BLS announced JOLTS (Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey) data for January. There isn’t much to report here as the job openings changed little at 8.9 million, the number of hires and total separations were little changed at 5.7 million and 5.3 million, respectively.

As has been the case for the last couple of years, the number of job openings remains higher than the number of unemployed persons.

Also earlier in the week the BLS announced that productivity increased 3.2% in the 4th quarter with output rising 3.5% and hours of work rising 0.3%.

The bottom line is that the labor market continues its surprisingly (to some) strong performance, once again proving stronger than many had expected. This strength makes it difficult to justify any interest rate cuts soon, particularly given the recent inflation spike.

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Mortgage rates fall as labor market normalizes

Jobless claims show an expanding economy. We will only be in a recession once jobless claims exceed 323,000 on a four-week moving average.

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23 hours ago

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March 8, 2024

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Everyone was waiting to see if this week’s jobs report would send mortgage rates higher, which is what happened last month. Instead, the 10-year yield had a muted response after the headline number beat estimates, but we have negative job revisions from previous months. The Federal Reserve’s fear of wage growth spiraling out of control hasn’t materialized for over two years now and the unemployment rate ticked up to 3.9%. For now, we can say the labor market isn’t tight anymore, but it’s also not breaking.

The key labor data line in this expansion is the weekly jobless claims report. Jobless claims show an expanding economy that has not lost jobs yet. We will only be in a recession once jobless claims exceed 323,000 on a four-week moving average.

From the Fed: In the week ended March 2, initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits were flat, at 217,000. The four-week moving average declined slightly by 750, to 212,250


Below is an explanation of how we got here with the labor market, which all started during COVID-19.

1. I wrote the COVID-19 recovery model on April 7, 2020, and retired it on Dec. 9, 2020. By that time, the upfront recovery phase was done, and I needed to model out when we would get the jobs lost back.

2. Early in the labor market recovery, when we saw weaker job reports, I doubled and tripled down on my assertion that job openings would get to 10 million in this recovery. Job openings rose as high as to 12 million and are currently over 9 million. Even with the massive miss on a job report in May 2021, I didn’t waver.

Currently, the jobs openings, quit percentage and hires data are below pre-COVID-19 levels, which means the labor market isn’t as tight as it once was, and this is why the employment cost index has been slowing data to move along the quits percentage.  

2-US_Job_Quits_Rate-1-2

3. I wrote that we should get back all the jobs lost to COVID-19 by September of 2022. At the time this would be a speedy labor market recovery, and it happened on schedule, too

Total employment data

4. This is the key one for right now: If COVID-19 hadn’t happened, we would have between 157 million and 159 million jobs today, which would have been in line with the job growth rate in February 2020. Today, we are at 157,808,000. This is important because job growth should be cooling down now. We are more in line with where the labor market should be when averaging 140K-165K monthly. So for now, the fact that we aren’t trending between 140K-165K means we still have a bit more recovery kick left before we get down to those levels. 




From BLS: Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 275,000 in February, and the unemployment rate increased to 3.9 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in health care, in government, in food services and drinking places, in social assistance, and in transportation and warehousing.

Here are the jobs that were created and lost in the previous month:

IMG_5092

In this jobs report, the unemployment rate for education levels looks like this:

  • Less than a high school diploma: 6.1%
  • High school graduate and no college: 4.2%
  • Some college or associate degree: 3.1%
  • Bachelor’s degree or higher: 2.2%
IMG_5093_320f22

Today’s report has continued the trend of the labor data beating my expectations, only because I am looking for the jobs data to slow down to a level of 140K-165K, which hasn’t happened yet. I wouldn’t categorize the labor market as being tight anymore because of the quits ratio and the hires data in the job openings report. This also shows itself in the employment cost index as well. These are key data lines for the Fed and the reason we are going to see three rate cuts this year.

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Inside The Most Ridiculous Jobs Report In History: Record 1.2 Million Immigrant Jobs Added In One Month

Inside The Most Ridiculous Jobs Report In History: Record 1.2 Million Immigrant Jobs Added In One Month

Last month we though that the January…

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23 hours ago

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March 8, 2024

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Inside The Most Ridiculous Jobs Report In History: Record 1.2 Million Immigrant Jobs Added In One Month

Last month we though that the January jobs report was the "most ridiculous in recent history" but, boy, were we wrong because this morning the Biden department of goalseeked propaganda (aka BLS) published the February jobs report, and holy crap was that something else. Even Goebbels would blush. 

What happened? Let's take a closer look.

On the surface, it was (almost) another blockbuster jobs report, certainly one which nobody expected, or rather just one bank out of 76 expected. Starting at the top, the BLS reported that in February the US unexpectedly added 275K jobs, with just one research analyst (from Dai-Ichi Research) expecting a higher number.

Some context: after last month's record 4-sigma beat, today's print was "only" 3 sigma higher than estimates. Needless to say, two multiple sigma beats in a row used to only happen in the USSR... and now in the US, apparently.

Before we go any further, a quick note on what last month we said was "the most ridiculous jobs report in recent history": it appears the BLS read our comments and decided to stop beclowing itself. It did that by slashing last month's ridiculous print by over a third, and revising what was originally reported as a massive 353K beat to just 229K,  a 124K revision, which was the biggest one-month negative revision in two years!

Of course, that does not mean that this month's jobs print won't be revised lower: it will be, and not just that month but every other month until the November election because that's the only tool left in the Biden admin's box: pretend the economic and jobs are strong, then revise them sharply lower the next month, something we pointed out first last summer and which has not failed to disappoint once.

To be fair, not every aspect of the jobs report was stellar (after all, the BLS had to give it some vague credibility). Take the unemployment rate, after flatlining between 3.4% and 3.8% for two years - and thus denying expectations from Sahm's Rule that a recession may have already started - in February the unemployment rate unexpectedly jumped to 3.9%, the highest since February 2022 (with Black unemployment spiking by 0.3% to 5.6%, an indicator which the Biden admin will quickly slam as widespread economic racism or something).

And then there were average hourly earnings, which after surging 0.6% MoM in January (since revised to 0.5%) and spooking markets that wage growth is so hot, the Fed will have no choice but to delay cuts, in February the number tumbled to just 0.1%, the lowest in two years...

... for one simple reason: last month's average wage surge had nothing to do with actual wages, and everything to do with the BLS estimate of hours worked (which is the denominator in the average wage calculation) which last month tumbled to just 34.1 (we were led to believe) the lowest since the covid pandemic...

... but has since been revised higher while the February print rose even more, to 34.3, hence why the latest average wage data was once again a product not of wages going up, but of how long Americans worked in any weekly period, in this case higher from 34.1 to 34.3, an increase which has a major impact on the average calculation.

While the above data points were examples of some latent weakness in the latest report, perhaps meant to give it a sheen of veracity, it was everything else in the report that was a problem starting with the BLS's latest choice of seasonal adjustments (after last month's wholesale revision), which have gone from merely laughable to full clownshow, as the following comparison between the monthly change in BLS and ADP payrolls shows. The trend is clear: the Biden admin numbers are now clearly rising even as the impartial ADP (which directly logs employment numbers at the company level and is far more accurate), shows an accelerating slowdown.

But it's more than just the Biden admin hanging its "success" on seasonal adjustments: when one digs deeper inside the jobs report, all sorts of ugly things emerge... such as the growing unprecedented divergence between the Establishment (payrolls) survey and much more accurate Household (actual employment) survey. To wit, while in January the BLS claims 275K payrolls were added, the Household survey found that the number of actually employed workers dropped for the third straight month (and 4 in the past 5), this time by 184K (from 161.152K to 160.968K).

This means that while the Payrolls series hits new all time highs every month since December 2020 (when according to the BLS the US had its last month of payrolls losses), the level of Employment has not budged in the past year. Worse, as shown in the chart below, such a gaping divergence has opened between the two series in the past 4 years, that the number of Employed workers would need to soar by 9 million (!) to catch up to what Payrolls claims is the employment situation.

There's more: shifting from a quantitative to a qualitative assessment, reveals just how ugly the composition of "new jobs" has been. Consider this: the BLS reports that in February 2024, the US had 132.9 million full-time jobs and 27.9 million part-time jobs. Well, that's great... until you look back one year and find that in February 2023 the US had 133.2 million full-time jobs, or more than it does one year later! And yes, all the job growth since then has been in part-time jobs, which have increased by 921K since February 2023 (from 27.020 million to 27.941 million).

Here is a summary of the labor composition in the past year: all the new jobs have been part-time jobs!

But wait there's even more, because now that the primary season is over and we enter the heart of election season and political talking points will be thrown around left and right, especially in the context of the immigration crisis created intentionally by the Biden administration which is hoping to import millions of new Democratic voters (maybe the US can hold the presidential election in Honduras or Guatemala, after all it is their citizens that will be illegally casting the key votes in November), what we find is that in February, the number of native-born workers tumbled again, sliding by a massive 560K to just 129.807 million. Add to this the December data, and we get a near-record 2.4 million plunge in native-born workers in just the past 3 months (only the covid crash was worse)!

The offset? A record 1.2 million foreign-born (read immigrants, both legal and illegal but mostly illegal) workers added in February!

Said otherwise, not only has all job creation in the past 6 years has been exclusively for foreign-born workers...

Source: St Louis Fed FRED Native Born and Foreign Born

... but there has been zero job-creation for native born workers since June 2018!

This is a huge issue - especially at a time of an illegal alien flood at the southwest border...

... and is about to become a huge political scandal, because once the inevitable recession finally hits, there will be millions of furious unemployed Americans demanding a more accurate explanation for what happened - i.e., the illegal immigration floodgates that were opened by the Biden admin.

Which is also why Biden's handlers will do everything in their power to insure there is no official recession before November... and why after the election is over, all economic hell will finally break loose. Until then, however, expect the jobs numbers to get even more ridiculous.

Tyler Durden Fri, 03/08/2024 - 13:30

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