Preparing GovTech for Web 3.0

An edited version of this article appeared in MINT newspaper dated 10th March, 2022.

Venkatesh Hariharan and Varad Pande

The terms blockchain, crypto, NFT and Web 3.0 seem to be all around us, with narratives of great hope and hype. The discourse so far has been business and investor focused. But what might the new Web 3.0 era mean for ‘GovTech’, i.e., using tech to provide citizen-centric public services? This is an under-explored question. In this context, a blueprint called the ‘India Digital Ecosystem Architecture (IndEA) 2.0, released recently by MeitY, seems to cover important ground.

The document outlines how the Indian Government should architect its digital infrastructure for the Web 3.0 era. Digital ecosystem is defined in the document as, “a distributed, adaptive, and open socio-technical system with properties of self-organization, scalability, and sustainability.” To cite a rough analogy, today’s GovTech platforms like Aadhaar and UPI, though built using open source software and interoperability principles, are akin to a tightly choreographed orchestra controlled by a single conductor. The next generation of GovTech platforms built using IndEA 2.0 design principles could be more akin to a jam session that ebbs and flows as musicians join in, or drop out. Using the “building block” approach of IndEA 2.0, GovTech services can be seamlessly assembled and adapted when required, giving the government great flexibility in deploying an IT architecture in an evolving world.

While it doesn’t explicitly name Web 3.0, the IndEA 2.0 report seems to have embraced the principle of decentralization that is the biggest promise of the Web 3.0 approach. The early web or Web 1.0 was a connected platform where people could access information and start interacting with each other. However, it was mostly a collection of static websites. Web 2.0, also sometimes called the Social Web, gave us platforms like Google, Amazon, Facebook and Twitter, and made the web more dynamic and interactive. However, one of the unintended consequences of Web 2.0 was that these platforms turned into giant monopolies or duopolies due network effects. Because of network effects, Web 2.0 became too centralized in terms of data, code, services and infrastructure.

In contrast to Web 2.0, the emerging Web 3.0 architecture is expected to be decentralized, more secure and provide users greater control over their data. The IndEA 2.0 report recognizes this paradigm shift in technology architecture by proposing a move from systems to ecosystems, and from platforms to protocols. It envisages digital governance as a set of building blocks that can be combined to create citizen-centric services. According to the report, “A building block is a package of business or technical functionality, which is reusable, stable, and scalable. Building blocks are like Lego blocks using which we can build different structures.”

For the government, IndEA 2.0 lays the road map for better planning of IT investments, cost savings due to reusable and interoperable systems, and a method for designing IT architectures in a faster, nimbler and fit-for-purpose manner. If implemented well, IndEA 2.0 can enable multiple government systems to seamlessly interact with each other to provide citizen-centric services.

India is a world leader in deploying Public Digital Infrastructure for identity, payments and data with Aadhaar, UPI and the recently launched Account Aggregator. IndEA 2.0 takes this a few steps ahead by visualizing frameworks that give individuals and groups the ability to solve problems in a decentralized way. The report defines a set of Core, Common and Reference Building Blocks. While the Core and Common Building Blocks which promote interoperability and reduce duplicative effort can be owned by the public sector, the Reference Building Blocks can be owned by the public/private sector to enable value addition in specific sectors.

In addition to the general philosophy of embracing decentralised tech, the report has some specific features that are fresh and noteworthy.

First, it emphasizes the need for a federated architecture approach to prevent risks that arise with large scale data centralization such as hacking of data ‘honeypots’ and surveillance.

Second, it proposed the concept of ‘federated identities’ in order to optimize the number of IDs a citizen needs to have. While the details of this need to be understood, the idea that citizens can choose a limited set of IDs that they trust to use for various use cases, is a promising one.

Third, it recognizes that building capacity within government for a new generation of GovTech requires new competencies and proposes a module based approach to upgrade skills and change mindsets across government.

While it is a landmark document, the approach outlined in IndEA 2.0 needs deeper thought on some of the ‘non-tech’ elements of governance and community engagement.

The report talks of participatory design, but this needs to be built out: how might the GovTech systems of the future be designing with citizens rather than for citizens? Encouraging human-centric design, and mandating user-assessments prior to roll out of GovTech platforms should be a key priority.

In a similar vein, while the report recognises the importance of protecting data, the primary framework to enable this is user ‘consent’, which we know is broken. Going beyond consent, for example by promoting nudges like privacy ‘star ratings’ and guidelines on real world implementations of concepts like ‘privacy-by-design’ would help.

Unlike the decentralised governance approaches of Web 3.0 like DAOs, IndEA 2.0 envisages that a wing of the government, or a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) on the lines of UIDAI (Aadhaar), NPCI (UPI) or GSTN (GST) should be responsible for handling the technical, domain, legal, commercial and program management aspects of IndEA 2.0. Such an approach is welcome, and getting this anchor ‘governance’ institution right — as a professionally run, arms-length and accountable institution — will be critical for the next phase of GovTech to succeed.

In short, taking the blueprint from principles to implementation will require more specific and actionable guidance. The “Good Digital Public Infrastructure Principles” listed by CoDevelop, and MeitY’s white paper on National Open Digital Ecosystems (NODEs) provide useful markers for this.

IndEA 2.0 presents a bold step forward on re-imagining GovTech for a more decentralised Web 3.0 era. The proof of the pudding will, as always, lie in the implementation.

Venkatesh is India Representative of Open Invention Network, an open source patent non-aggression network.

Varad is a Partner at Omidyar Network India, an investment firm focused on social impact.