There is a clear need to define the upcoming ‘Web 3.0’ era as we move closer to it. More specifically, most of today’s “decentralized” projects tend to only have the blockchain element as the sole decentralized part, whereas the rest of it is still largely reliant on Web 2.0. Domains can still be taken away, storage on a centralized cloud can be censored, and servers can and are being hacked. As such, a proper distinction between what is considered to be decentralized and centralized in today’s digital landscape needs to be established as soon as possible, so that we can move closer and closer to full decentralization.
Point Network is here to help
So, now that we have outlined the issue, is anyone doing anything to solve it? Point Network is a project being developed by Point Labs with the purpose of finally bringing complete decentralization to the web3 world. It combines decentralized domains that cannot be taken away because they are on the blockchain, decentralized storage (they have partnered up with Arweave on this) that cannot be censored and is designed to store the content of this new internet redundantly across Arweave network for hundreds of years, decentralized identities that allow you to use the same secret phrase to immediately become logged into every dApp and website on the network, and, finally, a decentralized browser providing all the necessary extra tools to enjoy Web3 on Point Network.
By decentralizing every part of the tech stack they remove what’s known as “a single point of failure” that can be attacked in order to destroy the whole network or app. Think Bittorrent but for the whole Internet and all its applications. Decentralized Twitter, Facebook and Youtube on Point Network would be censorship-resistant, open for everyone, and the algorithm deciding what to show you next—completely Open-Source and tweakable by any user, instead of driven by a big tech AI with the sole goal to make you stay as long as possible by showing you shocking content and make you see and click the most ads.
As if that weren’t enough, Point Labs promises to not only have support for dApps on their own chain but, because their innovation happens not on the chain level but in the software used to access web3, they can support several chains at once. For instance, instead of centralized uniswap.org you would open uniswap.point which resides on Point Chain, with secure content loaded from Arweave instead of the cloud, with data integrity guarantees, but the final transaction would happen on the Ethereum chain after you see a confirmation window similar to Metamask. They say their long term vision is to have all chains accessible from Point Wallet and Point Browser, including Ethereum dApps, Solana dApps, and even the ability to send Bitcoin and Bitcoin Lightning transactions right from there, thus allowing users the luxury to access the totality of crypto and web3 from one point—with the same secret phrase to access all currencies and chains!
What does the future hold?
As is the case with all projects in this space, it takes time for real results to show. After all, it wasn’t until the Solana Ignition Hackathon that Point Network really came into its own and found its footing after making it onto the ‘Honorable Mentions’ category. This–them being early on in the game with promising tech—combined with the fact that the Web 3.0 concept only really started picking up steam recently, proves that Point Network knows what it’s doing and has the potential to become the main Web3 standard in the future if all goes according to plan.
Presently, Point Network has an active group on Telegram which often has intriguing conversations about the last alpha version and consists of early adopters. Many venture capitalist companies had also previously expressed interest in the project and invested in Seed and Series A rounds which is always a good sign. Overall, the team looks to be on the right track but a lot of work is yet to be done if Point Network is to achieve its objective of bringing Web 2.0 experience into the world of Web 3.0 in a truly decentralized manner.