Web 3 is set to open a paradigm on the internet, with new and improved tools and hosts of new possibilities. As with web 2, there will be huge competition in the web 3 space, despite the philosophy of the movement suggesting otherwise. Digital wallets will be one such area of contention where companies will battle it out against each other to establish the dominance of one Digital Wallet over the others. In many ways, digital wallets will serve the purpose of present-day internet browsers. Browsers were the prerequisite to using the internet and still are. In web 3, however, browsers will subside and digital wallets will take their place. We can assume a battle in the field of digital wallets, as we have seen in the field of browsers in the past. However, similar results will be a cause of concern.
In the internet browser space, Google has established its monopoly with the Google Chrome browser. In fact, most other browsers are also based on Google’s open-source Chromium framework, Firefox being a notable exception. It took Microsoft a long time to come up with an improved version of the archaic Internet Explorer. While Microsoft Edge is making its mark, it is still far away from Google Chrome when it comes to user counts.
If web 3 sees similar monopolies in the digital wallet space, it will go against the very philosophy of the movement. MetaMask seems to be posing that threat, but it is still far from monopolizing the sector.
