Crypto assets often shadow the technological developments behind them. The shadowed technologies are responsible for helping the world move toward the latest iteration of the World Wide Web known as Web 3.0.
As a result, organisations such as the Bitcoin Foundation, Dash Foundation, IOTA Foundation, Cardano Foundation, and Ethereum Foundation have been formed to protect the future of crypto technology. Moreover, they support research and development efforts and fund innovative projects.
Today, we will be discussing the Web3 Foundation that works to support web 3.0. Let us understand what it is and how it contributes to safeguarding crypto technologies!
Who Is the Web3 Foundation’s Founder?
Web3 Foundation was founded in 2017 by Dr Gavin Woods (current president), Ashley Tyson and Peter Czaban. Gavin Woods is also one of the co-founders and ex-Chief Technology Officer of Ethereum. The Web3 Foundation was established to foster and protect the technologies underlying the decentralised web and its applications.
The foundation intends to serve as a steward of contemporary cryptographic technologies in order to protect decentralisation. In doing so, the web3 ecosystem will benefit and stabilise in the long run. Furthermore, in order to foster crypto technology and its applications, the Web3 Foundation finances research and development teams working in the field of the decentralised web. In essence, the foundation strives to ensure that the technology behind the crypto revolution is used to their full potential.
What Are Some of the Projects That the Web3 Foundation Has Funded and Helped Create?
The foundation has been providing grants to crypto projects since 2019. It allocates grants four times a year, each time called a wave. A wave represents a quarter of the year. The foundation is currently working on the 14th wave of grant disbursement.
Since the beginning of 2022, the foundation has signed 55 projects to support the creation of a more decentralised web. In its history, the organisation has granted 395 awards (and counting) in over 50 countries.
The Web3 Foundation’s key projects include:
- Polkadot: An open-source scalable protocol that provides a safe environment for cross-chain interoperability.
- Kusama: It is a scalable canary network (an operational blockchain with scare tokens that are used for testing features for the main net). It is a development and experimental version of Polkadot with the same codebase as Polkadot. It helps developers move fast, iterate and innovate efficiently to eventually deploy applications on Polkadot.
- XCMP: A decentralised messaging protocol that prioritises privacy and security.
- Web3MOOC: It’s a twenty week blockchain foundation course that covers subjects like decentralisation, encryption, mining, smart contracts, and consensus.
- Web3 Summit: This is an annual event that seeks to unite all the members of the Web 3.0 movement to work together.
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Research by Web3 Foundation
In addition to the grants, Web3 Foundation also carries out its in-house research as well as collaborates with industry and academic research groups. Its research team includes many well-known scientists who confront the most difficult problems to bridge the gap to Web3 adoption.
The research team is based out of Zug, Switzerland. Furthermore, their main areas of research are decentralised algorithms: Consensus & Optimization, Behavioural Economics & Usability, Cryptoeconomics & Game Theory, cryptography and networking.
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Bottom Line
Web3 Foundation is an organisation responsible for nurturing and looking after the technologies (and their applications) that make us a decentralised web. The organisation achieves this by providing grants to exceptional research and development teams across the continent. Moreover, it also conducts research with the help of its in-house research team and collaborations with industry and academic research groups.
