Tech
There’s a new web3 network being built right now that wants to end Big Tech’s control over your data
Many of the people building web3 feel that the traditional web ecosystem has benefited from users and their data. While it benefits a number of companies, data miners, and even AI models, some see it as an overreach.
Some of the problems with the web that exists today, which some Web3-focused people call Web 2.0, is that it’s centralized, explains Tegan Kline, CEO and co-founder of Edge and knot he said on TechCrunch Chain Reaction Podcast.
“A handful of big companies own and control everything we see online, they own our data and our digital footprint and can de-platform us and so many want to keep our attention and are monetizing that attention,” Kline said. “The Internet wasn’t what we had high hopes for in the early days of the web.”
She and others are trying to change that through web3 and AI integrations. “We’re trying to build a decentralized internet and give power back to the users.”
Edge & Node is a company focused on building and supporting decentralized applications and protocols (dApps). He is the team’s initial support The graph, a decentralized network that indexes, queries and organizes data. It has been called the “Google of web3” and aims to organize open blockchain data and make open data a public good.
The graph has “subgraphs,” which are like open APIs that serve queries. Therefore, every time a user uses an application built on The Graph, indexers in the background organize the data and provide information.
“Web3 is still under construction, we are still working to build this decentralized internet that resists censorship. So, innovation is happening today and I believe this is where the Internet is going, this is the next evolution of the Internet. It is a growing sector and not a contracting one.”
The graph launched a roadmap for its “New Era” in November, to plan how to use the $50 million raised last year.
Goals included expanding its data services to reach a broader market, supporting developers, increasing network performance, and building data tools, in simple terms. It also included plans to help enable large language models, or LLMs, which are one of the most popular methods for building AI chat programs, thanks to OpenAI, Kline noted.
“The one thing that’s really important about AI is that it’s all about data,” Kline said. “It is said that whoever rules the data rules the world, so it is really important that the data is not owned and controlled by any company, especially in the field of artificial intelligence.”
The Graph is working to allow users to take data from its network and other blockchains to train AIs with that content. “Since we started The Graph, the use cases and data needs have exploded,” Kline said. “There are so many different data needs, and The Graph network will be there to meet all of those needs in a decentralized way for entrepreneurs and builders in the ecosystem and for the users of their applications and projects.”
And for artificial intelligence, it is important that they are trained in a completely open source way, Kline thinks. “And if you even look at open source AI today, in some ways they are open source, but the data they are trained with is not open source.”
As it stands, most AI is not yet on the blockchain train, so to speak. “If you go to a traditional AI conference, they don’t care,” Kline said. “I think the blockchain space is a little more interested in AI than AI is interested in the blockchain space.”
There needs to be a little more acceptance in the AI community, but over time, Kline believes the relationship between AI and blockchain will evolve and change. “Using new business models and new incentive structures that have emerged through tokens, symbolic economies and decentralized infrastructures, this is where things will get really interesting for AI.”
This story was inspired by an episode of TechCrunch’s Chain Reaction podcast. subscribe to activate the chain reaction Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite pod platform to hear more stories and tips from the entrepreneurs building today’s most innovative companies.
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