According to Brendan Cooper, a core contributor at Andromeda, the widespread distribution and adoption of the Web3 operating system (OS) will likely result in the emergence of new business models, much like what happened with the Web2 OS. The Web3 OS is also likely to simplify “how developers and users interact with the resources provided by a blockchain.”
Web3 Development Cycle Slow and Risky
However, unlike Web2, which has been dominated by a few tech giants, the Web3 OS employs a different architecture. This architecture, Cooper argued, helps reduce the operating costs of Web3 entities while “maintaining the security guarantees provided by public blockchain infrastructure.”
Despite offering these and other benefits, the development cycle of Web3 has been super slow, risky, and limited, according to the Andromeda core contributor. In written responses provided to Bitcoin.com News, Cooper highlighted the challenges and significant amount of time that is required to develop Web3 applications with “very modest functionality.” Development is also hampered by users who fear being “trapped on a legacy blockchain because it’s on a dead-end branch of technology’s evolutionary tree.”
Cooper however dismissed the idea that a Web3 OS could further burden already struggling blockchains. On the contrary, he stated that the deployment of this OS relieves “the burdens of blockchains to solve for all engineering requirements by making the multi-chain future possible.”
Below are Cooper’s responses to the questions sent.
Bitcoin.com News (BCN): Can you start by shedding light on how the pace of technological development and innovation has changed before and after the deployment of a Web2 operating system (OS) like Windows, or Android and iOS for smartphones?
Brendan Cooper (BC): The wide distribution and adoption of an operating system has been a precursor to explosive growth in every major advancement in computers starting with mainframes, PCs, Mobile and now Web3. Operating systems inevitably lead to civilization-scale change, adoption and new business models. The history of operating systems repeats. Anyone older than 40 has seen it with their own eyes.
Before operating systems are brought to market, application development is limited to a few people who can afford to invest the thousands of hours necessary to build anything. Building is slow. This in turn limits the number of solutions that can be brought to market. And it limits the number of platforms where an application can be used.
Once an operating system is widely available it radically expands the application design space and speed to market. An intuitive user interface leads to global adoption and unleashes massive network effects. This network effect and application interoperability create huge incentives for developers to build – and very real opportunity costs for building elsewhere.
BCN: What is a Web3 operating system? Could you also explain the Web3 development cycle and whether it is ready for a dedicated operating system?
BC: A Web3 operating system harnesses the power of public blockchain infrastructure so that it’s easier, better and faster for users, creators and developers. A Web3 operating system, like all operating systems, provides a User Space that simplifies how developers and users interact with the resources provided by a computer, mobile phone, or in this case, a single blockchain or many blockchains.
Web 2 allowed a few tech giants to dominate for decades. A Web3 operating system avoids this with a different architecture – one that is implemented as a system of open source smart contracts on blockchains. This results in portable digital assets that aren’t trapped in some company’s database and licensing. It means lower costs of operation and fully variable costs. It means retaining the security guarantees provided by public blockchain infrastructure.
The development cycle for Web3 today can be characterized as slow, risky and limited. Few can do it. It takes months to build applications of very modest functionality. Extending functionality is fraught with risks. Many amazing new blockchains have emerged but have limited interoperability. Everyone fears being trapped on a legacy blockchain because it’s on a dead-end branch of technology’s evolutionary tree.
BCN: What is the Andromeda OS and what tools, utilities, and experiences does it offer for developers and creators, especially in the context of cross-chain and multi-chain applications?
BC: In some ways aOS is like Microsoft Windows. It’s got a familiar and intuitive user interface like your mobile, PC or Mac. It has apps, a file system for your digital assets, and an App Store. In other ways it’s radically different.
aOS accelerates the multi-chain future with rapid business model innovation. A low-code/no-code builder lets anyone compose sophisticated single-chain and cross-chain applications by dragging and dropping applications from different purpose-built blockchains. This is an important leap forward for Web3 because application functionality is no longer confined to a single blockchain or subchain. It leads to network effects where single blockchains and developers can access more users and capabilities across many chains.
BCN: Would a Web3 OS put an additional burden on blockchains, many of which are already struggling with security and privacy challenges?
BC: Security with a Web3 OS is better because of the new and improved application architecture. Applications are built using pre-audited libraries of modular and composable smart contracts that are massively reusable. An important improvement compared to one-off monolithic patterns deployed today.
A Web3 OS relieves the burdens of blockchains to solve for all engineering requirements by making the multi-chain future possible. For example, Privacy chains, like Secret. Network, solve for privacy so that other blockchains don’t have to. With a Web3 OS, everyone can incorporate a purpose-built privacy blockchain into their applications. There is no reason to be stuck without privacy (or other capabilities) when you can seamlessly access other blockchains. The future leads to better privacy options as anyone can access drag-and-drop zero-knowledge proofs, homomorphic encrypted storage, and computational proofs.
BCN: Trust is the cornerstone of an interconnected ecosystem like Web3. How does a Web3 operating system, if at all, integrate trust into our business and financial transactions?
BC: Trust is the foundation of human prosperity through commerce. The promise of Web3 is to re-imagine and re-design public computational infrastructure to ensure the rights of sovereign individuals and organizations to engage in commerce in ways that are provably legitimate – without intermediaries or restrictive licensing. Bitcoin showed us the way with cryptocurrency. A Web3 operating system will do the same for Web3 applications.
BCN: In the multi-chain era, universal compatibility has become increasingly important. Given that Andromeda’s aOS utilizes the Cosmos SDK, what unique advantages does the Cosmos ecosystem offer for building an on-chain and multi-chain operating system that is not available on other popular blockchains?
BC: Cosmos was founded and engineered as the internet of blockchains. Launched after Ethereum, it is a third-generation technology that has unleashed a tidal wave of purpose-built blockchains with unique and powerful capabilities. That vision of the ‘multi-chain future’ required digital asset portability, and Andromeda uses its widely recognized standards to preserve digital asset portability for cross-chain and cross-ecosystem compatibility.
In the race for better technology, making and shipping reliable software fast has been the winning formula for decades. The amount of innovation throughout the ecosystem and the speed of application development with aOS is a clear advantage. And aOS is well positioned for the future by leveraging emerging modular blockchain designs.
BCN: In this industry, when people talk about the enterprise adoption of Web3, they tend to focus primarily on Web3’s readiness for enterprises. Let’s look at the other side of the coin. Can you briefly discuss enterprises’ readiness for Web3?
BC: We stand at the beginning of a technological revolution similar in size and scope to Web 2. Enterprise is faced with the innovator’s dilemma. Those who orient towards the future and develop their own institutional knowledge and relationship with Web3 stand the best chance of survival.
Like the introduction of the Internet and Web2, Web3 promises to be highly disruptive to existing business models, patterns and relationships worldwide across all industries and all economic scales. When brick-and-mortar businesses of the early ’90s first looked at the World Wide Web, it appeared unimportant, small, and strategically irrelevant. Even worse, the early e-commerce efforts resulted in stolen credit cards, shipping fraud and scams of all kinds. Many industries ignored it. Governments sought to outlaw it.
Meanwhile, entrepreneurs responded by building better tools, better platforms, and better user experiences. The tools got better, risks declined, markets stabilized and innovators began making everything easier, better and faster. Within a very few years, Web 2 created a revolution of existential importance to traditional business and business models. The ensuing chaos saw the rise of the global tech titans and the emergence of technology-savvy businesses. Those who could wield the technology disrupted their industries and changed business forever. The rest were left behind.
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