Dela Hostel and I come from a family of uh entrepreneurs with a financial background. And uh I first got involved in web three when I founded on and go, which is a fintech platform which leverages the Blockchain technology to streamline investments and uh by removing intermediaries.

And I wanted to use the power of DAOs, which are Blockchain based entities governed by self organizing. Communities are playing an important role in creating more efficient and less hierarchical organizations to create the All Stars Women NFT Club and DAO. Uh it's a collaborative network and community that brings together female founders, entrepreneurs and investors eager to back uh female led projects. And the initiative is to give female entrepreneurs access to equal opportunities basically to innovate and to build successful companies uh that can contribute to the global economy.

Uh I'm also involved in building the open metaverse uh via my work with versus state. And we specialize in creating everything from uh immersive experiences. Uh and everything is hyper realistic and we create hyper realistic virtual uh spaces to help brands to better connect with their customers um by creating unique immersive experiences and, and play to earn games. And uh just to give you like a brief idea of play to earn games, they, they really allow people to earn passive income which can alleviate poverty in certain areas of the emerging world such as Vietnam and, and Philippines. And I believe, strongly believe that Web Three presents a, a chance to fix our collapses and we need to make sure it doesn't fall in steam traps that Web One and Web Two had. And I'd like to go over some key points with you during our session. Like what's Web three? How is it better than Web Two? And what are its major challenges and how it can affect our lives? So before we move on, uh to see how we can build it responsibly and ethically so that it impacts positive positively our lives. Uh I'll just give you like a brief definition of what three is. And uh I would describe it as a community run decentralized network uh which essentially combines the open infrastructure of web one with public participation of Web two.

And its key defining feature is is actually ownership as uh it gives user full control over their content, their data and uh assets via Blockchain. And basically the dream is that Web three will use Blockchain crypto and NFTS to transfer the power back to the internet community.

And in doing so, it breaks the monopoly that Web two giants have such as Google and Facebook. And I think it's going to bring us a fairer and more autonomous and open internet. And with Blockchain uh transactions and contracts are basically embedded per permanently within the distributed ledgers.

And people can use a unique Blockchain to mint digital goods such as music and artwork and then sell them to collectors as NFTS in the same way as a physical object. And so the provenance of the work is in the Blockchain. So there's a chain, a chain of ownership and artists can receive royalties on secondary market sales. So essentially web three offers like uh it also offers a new type of organization known as decentralized autonomous organizations, which are for sure. DAOs and uh these new organizations are are governed by computer Softwares in the form of Blockchain powered smart contracts. And those ones are actually a great way to quickly and surely allow groups of people to, to work together collaboratively. And unlike traditional organizations that operate from the top down, those operate um as a flat hierarchical structure which allows members to, to have a saying in crucial decisions, votes and can impact uh the broader group rather than just, you know, having the the primary shareholders decide of everything by themselves.

And in addition to that, those are actually much more accessible to the average indi individual as the barrier to entry is not that high. Usually the the only people who can invest in an organization early on and reap most of the financial returns as a result are incredibly wealthy and, and networked individuals, sorry. And uh the issue is that uh DAOs, they have no, the only drawback to DAO is actually that they have no legal structure so far. And um whether members have protection from personal liability is it's an open question regarding this because there's no legal frameworks. And so rather than the World Gardens of Web two, web three actually promises to offer a seamless and integrated experience and uh which uh which allows individuals to move between platforms and um retain ownership of their like identity data and assets. And a very important aspect as well, which I want to highlight of web three is actually the metaverse in relation to web three. I will see the metaverse. Uh It, it basically covers the next iteration of the internet's front end that would be it and, and the user interface through which we interact with the online world and communicate with others uh users and manipulate and how we manipulate data.

And basically the idea of the metaverse is that it would be a much more immersive uh social and persistent version of the current internet. It's going to use technologies like virtual reality and augmented reality to, to draw us in. And this enables us to interact with the digital domain in more natural and immersive ways. For example, by using virtual hands to pick up and manipulate objects and in our voices to give instructions to machines or talk to other people. And it's just incredible and in many ways, the meta risk can be bought off, like can be thought of as the new inter as the new interface through which um humans are going to engage with web three, its tools and all of its applications as well. I think that uh the metaphors can provide benefits to companies and workers alike, enabling collaborations in like a stimulating 3D environment. Actually on that matter, DXC technology, DXC representative who like has extensive experience managing the workplace of like over 6 million users.

They actually said that many workers feel torn between the freedom and flexibility of remote work and the desire to reconnect with like colleagues and clients in real life. And even the Microsoft research shows that over 70% of workers want flexible remote work options to continue while over 65% crave more in person time with their teams. And so the evolution of immersive virtual technologies could now enable organizations to give their employees the best of both worlds.

So to deliver basically on its potential, the metaphors must be inclusive from its inception because millions of workers are already meeting colleagues in virtual spaces and bolstered by the pandemic. Tech companies are now looking to to transform vital like virtual workspaces into a metaverse of social and and business interactions in the stimulating 3D environment. They're really looking for that and to provide, you know, what's best for their employees to communicate with each other.

And um yes, the the potential to improve like collaborative equity and it's really significant with the use of the metaverse. And I think that if done well, the metaphors could be a positive forge for access and diversity and bridging some of the divides that exist in today's physical and digital spaces. It needs to be developed openly with a spirit of cooper operation between the private sector, lawmakers, civil society, academia and most importantly, people who will use these technologies like on a daily basis. And as we build these virtual worlds, we must do, I think we must do three things in order to achieve that, which I think we, we need to prioritize inclusivity, learn from grassroots grassroots innovations and embrace collaboration. And I think um we must ensure inclusivity is the starting point and not an afterthought of the metaverse vir virtual work models are not only better for the environment but crucially for the people who use them. Even DH C technology experiences shows that employees of virtual first organizations, especially those with access to opportunities to collaborate in the metaverse are more productive, more engaged and can take part in their communities in many ways and in new ways as well.

Uh in, in increased inclusivity is also an inherent benefit of virtual environments where a person's location, gender physical attributes or even personal circumstances are less important than their ideas or the quality of the work. As a result, organizations will benefit from diverse new talent, new talent pools from previously underrepresented groups, from mothers, nursing their Children to people with physical or psychological challenges. No one needs to be excluded from a virtual workspace. But for I would say for virtual environments to be genuinely inclusive, tech companies must provide everyone with the tools and technologies they need to take part and feel represented. This provision isn't just about giving people laptops and creating diverse looking avatars but also addressing people's physical challenges such as providing control interfaces for those unable to use a conventional keyboards. And these are issues that, that need to be addressed now as we lay the metaverse foundations.

So uh I think it will take years for the metaverse to be built. So we, we it we have a long road ahead and to work towards an inclusive metaverse. Uh We need to be intentional about what about how we will do it by starting with asking the right questions like what inclusivity must look like in the immersive experiences. We need to research and explore issues related to the metaverse from from different perspectives, to understand historical barriers to information technology, uh which will allow us to figure out how we can remove those barriers and just approach problems from outside of the box as well.

And it's crucial to building networks of diverse talent, not only to participate in the metaverse as consumers uh but they should be able to, it should be its architects and builders to and to make that happen. We, we need to increase the diversity of people working in the in the tech industry, particularly in areas like artificial intelligence, gaming, virtual reality and augmented reality A R we are. And, and another thing important to mention is that Web three advocates claim the next iteration of the internet will be decentralized and hand over power to the users. Uh The concern is that even if blockchains are decentralized, the web three services that interact with them are actually controlled by a very small number of privately held companies. Besides many activities that make a Blockchain based um activity on the web possible. It it depends on a handful of private centralized companies which which can be a potential weakness in the web three infrastructure Blockchain apps rely heavily on applications, programming interfaces. API S which uh let software communicate with other software. And in web two in web sites, for example, API is allowed to make a profile with a mobile game using your Facebook credentials. In web three, many decentralized apps like Daps um use a tis to connect to blockchains like Ethereum rather than directly themselves.

And instead of trusting Ethereum. In other words, one has to trust companies. OK. OK. One has to trust companies like uh insurer or al and a few dominant companies like Binance meta mask, Open Sea, they're gaining a massive market share so much traction by building user friendly platforms to bring the next iteration of the internet uh to the masses. And that sounds like a lot, a lot like Web two to be honest. And uh in the future, Vic Buttering, the founder of Ethereum said that um it will become easier and and cheaper for companies and users to run programs directly on the Ethereum Blockchain. Uh Even if users gravitate towards uh easy to use centralized options. Now, while we're at a point in web three development for exploitation and inequality might become hardwired and sclerotic. Um I believe that we, we still have a chance to, to, to usefully shape it uh for shared prosperity and, and justice. The, the best way to, to approach that is to slow down, take a minute for examination and then intentionally and, and proactively builds uh protection, privacy and equity systems as part of the, of the journey. And we must make values integral to, to the architecture.

This is especially critical and, and, and necessary when we, when we think about the applications of digital technologies to social goods or more importantly, in a world where we three technologies are a part of life and how um we transform our present into a future that is equitable, joyful and, and generative.

So to conclude the metaverse, I think is drastically changing the way we live, work and collaborate and interact with each other. We're basically going to be living in a parallel extension of our reality in the metaverse where we will have our digital identities uh on digital spaces, socialize and, and even work and whole business meetings. We're witnessing something um which will very well affect society and economies in real life, which blurring the lines between both worlds and what happens in one will affect the other. What three and, and virtual worlds are still a blank canvas. And this is why I think we need to, to seize the opportunity now harness the power of virtual worlds to, to make a positive impact in the real world as well. And it definitely isn't easy to resolve the complicated issues of defined technologies and, and web three, especially at a global scale. But with intentions and convictions and the ability to see through challenges, we can definitely continue to push both worlds, the physical and the virtual ones from, from how it currently is to how it should be for the greater good and to keep advancing the human race is so, yeah, I think that's, that's it for me.

And I hope like you enjoyed the session. I believe it was 20 minutes. Um But yeah, that's, that's all I have to say. Uh Thank you. I, I, I'm just seeing the comments now. Thank you for, for watching. And uh I, I hope uh I'll see you guys again if you'd like, I can put in my linked in and I, you're more than Welcome to join the All Stars women uh network. There's like, it's, it's many females but males are also like, welcome to join. Uh It's just to help, uh it's like an initiative to help females uh you know, network and access, as I said. So thank, thank you all for the comments. Perfect. OK, so uh I'm looking forward to connect with you all and I hope you enjoy the rest of the day. There's like some great panels coming on. So thank you guys. See you soon.