Web 3.0 Explained
Web 3.0 is a potential future iteration of the internet built on public blockchains, a mechanism for maintaining records best known for allowing cryptocurrency exchanges. Web 3.0 is appealing because it is decentralized, which means that instead of customers using services that are monitored by businesses like Google, Apple, or Facebook, individuals themselves own and control portions of the internet.
Web 3.0 doesn’t need “permission,” which means that centralized authorities can’t control who has access to what services, nor does it need “trust,” which means that a middleman isn’t required for virtual transactions to take place between two or more parties. Web 3.0 technically provides improved user privacy protection because these organizations and intermediaries are responsible for the majority of data collection.
Decentralized finance, also referred to as “DeFi,” is a Web 3.0 feature that is gaining popularity. Real-world financial transactions must be carried out on the blockchain without the assistance of banks or the government. In the meantime, a lot of large companies and venture capital firms are investing heavily in Web 3.0, and it is difficult to imagine that their involvement won’t lead to some kind of centralized power.
The Evolution of the Web Explained
For information exchange, reading and writing, and communicating with others online, the World Wide Web is the primary instrument utilized by billions of people. Over the years, the web has seen a great deal of development, and the applications it offers today are almost instantly recognizable from those of the early years. Three stages of the web’s development — Web 1.0, Web 2.0, and Web 3.0 — are widely used to categorize it.
What is Web 1.0?
Web 1.0 refers to the very first iteration of the internet. Think of Web 1.0 as the read-only or syntactic web. The majority of the participants were content consumers, whereas the makers were mainly web developers who created websites with content that was generally given in text or visual format. Web 1.0 was around from 1991 to 2004.
In Web 1.0, static content was distributed via websites as opposed to dynamic HTML. There was limited interaction on the web pages, and data and content were provided from a static file system rather than a database.
What is Web 2.0?
The majority of us have only ever experienced the web in its present, Web 2.0-era iteration, also referred to as the interactive read-write and social web. In the world of Web 2.0, you don’t have to be a developer to engage in creation. Anyone can create apps because of the way many of them are made.
The world can benefit from your thoughts, which you can share.
Web 2.0 also allows you to submit a video and make it viewable, interactive, and commentable for millions of other people. There are many Web 2.0 applications; just a few examples include Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, YouTube, and other social media.
The way your data is stored in Web 2.0 is completely out of your control. In actuality, companies often collect and store user data without the user’s consent. Following that, all of this data is owned and managed by the companies in charge of these sites. Banks are similarly digitized and centralized, so governments routinely intervene in them. They may, however, freeze bank accounts or limit access to funds during times of extreme volatility, excessive inflation, or other forms of political unrest. Web 3.0, which aims to fundamentally rethink how we develop and use applications, will likely address many of these issues.
What is Web 3.0?
Web 3.0, commonly referred to as the Semantic Web or read-write-execute, is the period (starting in 2010) that alludes to the future of the internet. Machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) allow computers to analyze data in a manner similar to that of humans, which facilitates the intelligent creation and dissemination of valuable material tailored to the individual needs of a user.
Although there are several significant differences between Web 2.0 and Web 3.0, decentralization lies at the core of both. Seldom do web 3.0 developers build and release programs that use just one server or one database for data storage (usually hosted on and managed by a single cloud provider).
Web 3.0 applications, on the other hand, are constructed on blockchains, decentralized networks of several peer-to-peer nodes (servers), or a combination of the two. These applications are referred to as decentralized apps (DApps), and the Web 3.0 community uses that name frequently. To create a dependable and secure decentralized network, network users (developers) are paid for providing the best services.
Web2 and Web3 Compared
Let’s take a look at the table below to compare Web 2.0 and Web 3.0.
Web 3.0’s future leads to universal applications that can be read and utilized by a wide range of devices and software kinds, making our commercial and leisure activities more convenient.
Web 3.0: Read-Write-Own Core Ideas of Web3
● Web3 is decentralized: instead of large swathes of the internet controlled and owned by centralized entities, ownership gets distributed amongst its builders and users.
● Web3 is permissionless: everyone has equal access to participate in Web3, and no one gets excluded.
● Web3 has native payments: it uses cryptocurrency for spending and sending money online instead of relying on the outdated infrastructure of banks and payment processors.
● Web3 is trustless: it operates using incentives and economic mechanisms instead of relying on trusted third-parties.
Why is Web3 Important?
Although Web3’s killer features aren’t isolated and don’t fit into neat categories, for simplicity, we’ve tried to separate them to make them easier to understand.
Ownership
Web3 gives you ownership of your digital assets in an unprecedented way. For example, say you’re playing a Web2 game. If you purchase an in-game item, it is tied directly to your account. If the game creators delete your account, you will lose these items. Or, if you stop playing the game, you lose the value you invested in your in-game items.
Web3 allows for direct ownership through non fungible tokens. No one, not even the game’s creators, has the power to take away your ownership. And, if you stop playing, you can sell or trade your in-game items on open markets and recoup their value.
Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs)
As well as owning your data in Web3, you can own the platform as a collective, using tokens that act like shares in a company. DAOs let you coordinate decentralized ownership of a platform and make decisions about its future.
DAOs are defined technically as agreed-upon smart contracts that automate decentralized decision-making over a pool of resources (tokens). Users with tokens vote on how resources get spent, and the code automatically performs the voting outcome. However, people define many Web3 communities as DAOs. These communities all have different levels of decentralization and automation by code. Currently, we are exploring what DAOs are and how they might evolve in the future.
Native Payments
Web2’s payment infrastructure relies on banks and payment processors, excluding people without bank accounts or those who happen to live within the borders of the wrong country. Web3 uses tokens to send money directly in the browser and requires no trusted third party involvement.
Web3 limitations
Despite the numerous benefits o f Web3 in its current form, there are still many limitations that the ecosystem must address for it to flourish.
Education
Web3 introduces new paradigms that require learning different mental models than the ones used in Web2.0. A similar education drive happened as Web1.0 was gaining popularity in the late 1990s; proponents of the world wide web used a slew of educational techniques to educate the public, from simple metaphors (the information highway, browsers, surfing the web) to television broadcasts. Web3 isn’t difficult, but it is different. Educational initiatives informing Web2 users of these Web3 paradigms are vital for its success.
Centralized infrastructure
The Web3 ecosystem is young and quickly evolving. As a result, it currently depends mainly on centralized infrastructure (GitHub, Twitter, Discord, etc.). Many Web3 companies are rushing to fill these gaps, but building high-quality, reliable infrastructure takes time.
A Decentralized Future
Web3 is a young and evolving ecosystem.Gavin Wood coined the term in 2014, but many of these ideas have only recently become realities. In the last year alone, there has been a considerable surge in interest in cryptocurrency, improvements to layer 2 scaling solutions, massive experiments with new forms of governance, and revolutions in digital identity.
We are only at the beginning of creating a better Web with Web3, but as we continue to improve the infrastructure that will support it, the future of the Web looks bright.
