Adam Blumberg
The promise of Web 3 is very much about the ability to remain relatively sovereign in terms of control over our own data. that data can be financial - money or assets - or medical, credit, education.
Paramount to that ability to exert control will be the technology known as the wallet. The wallet is the software, originally created for Bitcoin, which allows you to tell the blockchain - whether Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, or other - what you want it to do with the data you control.
We often think of wallets in terms of showing ownership of crypto assets. However, what they really do is allow us to control, and ownership is really just control.
Remember a core component of the wallet is the private key / public key relationship. Ideally, you’re the only one who knows your private key, which is used to prove you’re the one who can control that wallet.
When I go to some website or app which is Web 3 - enabled, I’l be asked to sign in with my wallet. At this time, I’m not divulging any private data, but telling the app that I have some level of control.
Now, I’m ready to interact, or transact. Another important point…the data does not reside in or on my wallet. The data is stored on the public blockchain, but the wallet tells that chain who is in control of the data.
Wallets and private keys have already had dubious beginnings. The tech savvy hail them as the start of self-sovereignty. Not your keys, not your crypto.
However, most of us aren’t used to, or prepared to deal with the private key mentality. We want to be able to reset our passwords, or call a company for help if our security is compromised.
The wallet technology will likely have to get a bit easier and more user-friendly, while maintaining security. However, we will also just have to get used to the wallet as a vital tool we use to manage our lives.
Wallet tech will continue to evolve to match our current usage, and the usage we haven’t envisioned yet.
We will develop systems of individual wallets, family wallets, children’s wallets, company or organization wallets. Already we see custodial solutions like exchanges, but we will also see hybrids. A qualified custodian with increased tech and security regime will be the first line of defense, and you will have a key allowing only you to interact.
Wallets will make the transfer of data and assets easier, as it can be encoded in smart contracts. When I die, control of my data gets moved to my wife. We can also put some code around business data and processes.
Your wallet will end up being the verification of who you are as you interact with people, groups, and code, which is stored and transacted via decentralized public ledgers.
You may think this is hyperbole, and we won’t willingly move to that dystopian future, but we’ve already started. First, we used social security numbers, delivered by the government, as our unique identifier. They have been our private keys to interact with finance, the government, and other institutions for decades.
Next came the use of our phone numbers. While these had to be routinely changed early in the history of mobile technology, we tend to keep the same numbers for life now. I use my phone number, which I’ve had since 1999, when I need to access services from utility providers. We have also used email as unique identifiers to interact with many websites, including subscriptions, banks, and insurance.
Now many of us use single sign-on. We are using Google or Facebook accounts as our unique identifier, even as we show outrage over their use and marketing of our data.
As that data moves to the decentralized ledgers, the wallet will be the next evolution. The ledger will ensure no one entity can access and use my data without my permission, and my wallet will be the key that gives that permission.
Over the course of my writings and video, I will highlight some of these Web 3 data use cases, all the while showing the important place the wallet will have in the process.
The main point is that NOW is the time to start getting comfortable with wallets and wallet technology. While it might get more user friendly in the future, the main technology will remain. The key to interacting in the next evolution of technology will come from the wallet.