The top executives of Indian crypto exchanges such as Coin switch, Coin DCX, and Water are venturing from the centralized ecosystem to the decentralized world of Web3. Most Indian exchanges take custody of your digital assets, making them centralized by nature. In contrast, Web3 is supposed to be the new decentralized version of the internet, which means unlike the current internet (Web2.0) all data will be explicitly owned by the user and not tech corporations.
This development of exploring the Web3 space comes as the global crypto market continues to decline and trading volume on exchanges drop by 50 per cent since July 1, as crypto TDS comes into effect. Last week, three top-level executives at Coin Switch Huber resigned and now plan to launch their Web 3 start-up. This includes chief financial officer Harmed Nazi, chief business officer Sharon Nair and head of new initiatives Krishna Hedge.
“Web3 offers India a never-before opportunity to be the torchbearers of technology, and realizing this vision would require the combined efforts of the smartest minds and startups in the country. I’m happy to see Sharon, Harmed and Krishna spread out and continue to build toward this future,” said Ashish Sinful, co-founder, and CEO, Coin Switch.
Industry executives believe that Web3 will be the next iteration of the internet based on blockchain technology. “Crypto exchanges will act as a gateway for any decentralized apps, which will be built on Web3. For instance, say any gaming platform built on Web3 will need monetization, and this is possible by connecting it through a crypto exchange,” explained Bharat Chandra, a blockchain evangelist.
Crypto executives have understood that the journey towards decentralization will make Web3 big. As people grow more familiar with crypto exchanges, they discover use cases with the crypto and move on to the Web3 ecosystems. I think what the founders are doing is that they are always one step ahead of the users, Raj G opal Melon, Vice President at Waze.
Crypto exchange Waze has built two startups focusing on Web3 ecosystems. Siddharth Melon, co-founder at Waze, teamed up with Pune-based game development firm Super Gaming to launch Tech, a Web3 game ecosystem marketplace. Tech is building game asset (game content) marketplaces for players, traders, and institutional investors, enabling them to trade, hold and play with these game assets. It will also provide asset stats to help them trade and invest better.
Melon believes that Web3 is way ahead of its time, but exchanges were the building block to entering the Web3 space. When you look at it from this perspective: there are a lot of things that need to be built in terms of infrastructure for web3 — the Lego blocks if you will. One part of this journey of building for Web3 was the exchange. Now it’s about taking those learnings and building for consumers and gamers. Crypto can’t just be speculative, it needs to add utility.
Further, Waze is also building a new blockchain called Sharded that will compete with others such as Ethereum and Solano. This is one of the first layer-one blockchains being built out of India.
Crypto platform Coin DCX is not left behind. The exchange had announced the launch of Coin DCX Ventures, an investment initiative that will fund early-stage crypto and blockchain startups. The platform will focus on the Web3 ecosystem in India and globally, and plans to invest Rs 100 crore in the startups over the next 12 months.
Meanwhile, UNO coin cryptocurrency exchange doesn’t have any plan to venture into their Web3 space yet, although it has not completely ruled out the possibility. “Even if we do, it would be a project by UNO coin and not a different venture altogether,” Sathvik Vishwanathan of UNO coin.
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