WEB 3.0, sometimes known as “Web3,” is a collection of musings about how the current and future iterations of the web ought to seem and function. These musings are considered to be somewhat open to interpretation. At the moment, we exist in a world that is halfway between Web 2.0 and Web 3.0, and the precise form that the future web will take is in no way determined at this point. In this section, we will investigate the meaning of the term “Web3,” as well as some particular instances of technologies that fulfil the Web3 profile.
Before we go into anything about the web, there is something very crucial that you need to understand, and that is that it is not the same as the internet. The internet is the collection of physical network equipment and computers that keep the globe linked. It also refers to the protocol that describes how all of these devices communicate with one another. If you are interested in learning more about the structure of the internet, check out the book “Who Owns the Internet?” This article will explain web architecture.
On the internet, one sort of service (or combination of services) that may be found is known as the web. The World Wide Web is the most popular user-facing portion of the Internet; however, other services, such as FTP and BitTorrent, are not included in the web. Simply said, they are using the same amount of bandwidth.
The middle of the 1990s saw the beginning of the World Wide Web’s rise to prominence. This is what’s now often referred to as Web 1.0. The earliest websites were housed across a number of different servers. Some were housed on huge servers located within an organization’s information technology department, while others were hosted on the personal PCs of individuals. There were not yet any of the enormous data centres that we are familiar with now when web material was first being consolidated.
The majority of the material that was available on the Web 1.0 was comprised of static, “read-only,” non-interactive web pages. In other words, you would visit a website in order to obtain information, but you would not provide any data back to the website. That is the fundamental distinction between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0.
Because of Web 2.0, information is now able to go in both directions. This was the period of platforms for social media and content provided by users. On this social web, end-users posted their images, personal information, and other content onto social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn, where it was accessible to everyone.
The provision of hosting services moved toward concentration in data centres held by a very limited number of influential technology businesses. Online browsers have become so powerful that they are now able to practically execute web apps that contain intricate 3D visuals.
These companies view customer information as their most precious asset, and they either put it to use to increase online sales or offer it for sale to other businesses. The internet search engine behemoth Google is probably the most well-known example. However, businesses such as Microsoft and Amazon have made significant investments in the provision of centralised online services with the purpose of accumulating personal data and transforming it into commercially valuable insights.
The concept of Web3 revolves around the creation of a network that is not governed by a select group of centralised authority as its primary focus. It makes no difference if these entities are governments or companies because Web3 (theoretically) gives people control over their own data and the content of the websites they visit. It also makes it possible to create a web in which users may earn directly from their data and the massive amounts of money that constantly circulate on the internet.
Gavin Wood, who was a co-founder of the Ethereum blockchain, came up with the name “Web3” in 2014. We will talk more about the Ethereum blockchain a little bit later on.
The standards that Web3 is supposed to uphold are rather strict. For one thing, it is decentralised and does not have a central authority that controls all of the data and benefits from it. Additionally, there is no single point of failure. Applications built using Web3 are free and open source. This ensures that no one is able to sneak in back doors and that everyone has full visibility into the algorithms and software components that make up an app.
In conclusion, Web3 is a decentralised online platform that is built on an open-source application that provides users with total ownership over their data as well as the tools to partake in the revenues earned by their content.
Tim Berners-Lee, known as the “father of the web,” developed an entirely new and distinct notion that he referred to as “Web 3.0,” which has contributed to some misunderstanding. Web 3.0, often known as the “Semantic Web,” is an expansion to the Web technology standard that was described by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
It’s possible that the semantic web will need more mental effort to comprehend than Web3. In spite of this, it all comes down to establishing formal metadata standards that permit a diverse range of machine-to-machine activities. This, in turn, would make it possible to have a semantic understanding of information on the web.
Time Berners-Lee, Photograph taken by Uldis Bojrs and made available on Wikimedia Commons under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 licence. Although some of the things that are described in the concept of Web 3.0 are now possible with today’s web technology, in actuality, the Web 3.0 vision has not yet been realised. We won’t go into more detail about the semantic web here, but keep in mind that some of the things you might read under the label “Web 3.0” are actually about something entirely different than Web3, whereas the term “Web3” only refers to the topic at hand, which is what we’re talking about right now.
Now that the distinction between Web 3.0 and Web3 has been established, let’s have a look at some of the web technologies that meet the criteria for Web3.
The technology behind blockchain is maybe the one technology that most inspired the concept of Web3, and as a result, this is the most obvious illustration. A blockchain is essential to the operation of many other Web3 technologies, making it a core component of Web3.
Check out the HDG Explains video titled “What Is a Blockchain Database?” for an in-depth look at the blockchain technology. However, if you don’t have the time to read it all, here’s the gist of it.
The blockchain may be thought of as a digital ledger or record of transactions. On a multitude of computers dispersed over the internet, the blockchain may be accessed in its entirety. Each time a new “block” of transactions is added to the chain, it is necessary for all of the database copies to agree and be updated. Every transaction is permanent and may be seen by the general public at any time.
Any effort to tamper with the record will result in the chain becoming corrupted. However, because verified copies of the database are dispersed over the web, there is no one authority that can exercise control over it. The blockchain is a distributed ledger that may be used to preserve records of transactions for any application; nevertheless, the majority of people relate it with cryptocurrencies, which we will discuss in the next section.
Cryptocurrency, sometimes known simply as “crypto,” is a kind of digital money that is not governed by any nation’s central bank or any other centralised authority such as a government. To keep track of how much cash is in circulation and who has how much of it, cryptocurrencies employ a technology called blockchain.
Mining is the process of providing processing power to run a blockchain in return for new cryptocurrency. This increases the amount of cryptocurrency that is available for purchase. At the very least, this is how “traditional” cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin function in practise. End users, in the case of the Ethereum blockchain, for example, are required to pay a “gas charge,” which is then distributed to the Ethereum miners who are responsible for processing transactions.
Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) are considered to be associated with cryptocurrencies due to the fact that the “coins” being sold are in fact cryptocurrency. When developing a brand-new kind of cryptocurrency, probably with some intriguing new feature, you are going to require some starting capital to get the ball moving.
People who invest money into an initial coin offering (ICO) are purchasing your cryptocurrency when it has no value in the expectation that, similar to Bitcoin and Ethereum, the value of the cryptocurrency will skyrocket overnight, therefore making them a fortune.
ICOs are occasionally offered in a manner that is more like to the sale of shares in a firm; nonetheless, the purchasers of these tokens do not get any ownership rights. The value of the coins is therefore tied to how valuable the firm or the things it sells promise to be in the future. Because of this, initial coin offerings (ICOs) have recently gained a lot of traction among entrepreneurs searching for alternative funding that does not involve banks, angel investors, or venture money.
Many people have lost their money due to fraudulent initial coin offerings (ICOs), despite the fact that there has been a lot of excitement surrounding these types of transactions. This is due to the fact that Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) are not yet regulated in the same manner that an Initial Public Offering (IPO) is, which means that anybody may initiate an ICO.
NFTs are another fundamental technology that underpins Web3, and it’s likely that you’re already familiar with them. NFTs are basically a sort of cryptocurrency, but because each NFT is distinct from the others, they cannot be traded for one another. This is what is meant by the “non-fungible” portion of the term. NFTs are connected to digital or physical assets in the same manner that the paper title deed for a home reflects ownership of the property. NFTs are linked to these assets in the same way.
The fact that NFTs are not necessarily recognised by any legal body is a major catch, which means that ultimately, all you are purchasing at this stage is power over a string of letters and numbers. Nevertheless, this could change as the NFT technology advances and, potentially, as a result of legislative support.
If you are interested in learning more about NFTs, have a look at the article entitled “5 Apps to Create NFTs on Your iPhone and How to Sell Them.”
You are utilising a centralised application whenever you utilise a cloud-based service such as Google Docs. Google has access to all of the information that is contained in your papers, can read all of it, and can manage all of it. The fact that our data can be stored in the cloud, that we can quickly work with other people, and that we can enjoy a long list of additional cloud-app advantages is the price we pay.
But what if you could enjoy the benefits of these cloud services without having to comply with the requirements of a centralised authority? Decentralized applications, sometimes known as “dApps,” are one solution to this problem. The vast majority of decentralised applications (dApps) do their online computations on the Ethereum blockchain; thus, such computations are compensated for using “gas” costs associated with Ethereum.
Despite this, decentralised applications (dApps) adhere to the Web3 standards that they be accessible to the public, based on open-source software, and protected by encryption. Consequently, users of decentralised applications (dApps) are in charge of their data and may decide who has access to it. At the same time, they can take advantage of the processing power offered by the cloud to carry out the tasks that a particular dApp was developed to perform. Check out our report on the State of the dApps to find out what decentralised applications (dApps) are now accessible. This report documents the most significant dApps.
The Ethereum network was built from the bottom up to accommodate Web3 technologies, and it even comes equipped with a specialised JavaScript library known as Web3.js to assist developers in getting their Web3 applications up and running as soon as possible.
When you purchase a car in today’s market and get a loan from the bank to pay for it, there is a significant amount of paperwork involved. You and the bank will enter into a legal agreement that details the responsibilities and rights of both parties. In the event that you fail to make a payment as agreed upon in the contract, the bank is required to carry out the obligations outlined in the agreement, which may include taking back the vehicle that was financed.
Smart contracts are able to perform the same functions as traditional contracts, but they don’t need a governing body to enforce or monitor their terms. Everything operates in an automated fashion in accordance with the rules and logic of the contract.
Traditional contracts are far more expensive than smart contracts when used to offer financial services or to draw up legal agreements between parties. However, smart contracts make it feasible to do so at a substantially lower cost. They are also considerably more fair and, once engaged, cannot be manipulated in any way.
In the same way that every contract is only as good as its terms and logic, a “smart contract” is only as good as the terms and logic it contains. However, if the contract is fair, a “smart contract” will be enforced in a fair and unbiased manner.
At edge computing, the goal is to offer online data and services to users in a location that is as close as feasible to the location where the data is being requested or generated. Edge computing is nearly the polar opposite of “Big Data” computing, which takes place in enormous centralised computer centres. Edge computing, on the other hand, takes place at the actual edges of the network.
For instance, data might be processed on your local personal computer before being transmitted to a centralised site in order to be aggregated. This enables you to create one massive decentralised supercomputer by combining the processing power of devices located throughout the edges of your network. Having sufficient computational capacity to handle the data generated by the billions of Internet of Things (IoT) devices that are gathering data in smart homes, industries, and retail stores is a significant difficulty. Edge computing provides a means to satisfy these demands, save on bandwidth, and promptly fulfil data requests all at the same time.
A corporation or charity is an example of an organisation that has a centralised structure. To ensure that all of the many individuals who contribute to the job that needs to be done are coordinated, there is command and control exercised at every level of the organisation by the executives as well as the managers.
A DAO will level out the entirety of that organisation. There is no Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, or any similar position. Every person who is a part of the organisation gets a vote and a say in determining how and when money from the treasury is spent, as well as on what.
A permissionless blockchain, also known as a trustless blockchain, contains an encoding of the organization’s regulations that was created with cutting-edge contract technology. There is no requirement for the convoluted and expensive administrative departments that conventional corporations have established over the years in order to keep things running smoothly. Because every transaction and its history is viewable by the whole public, DAOs also make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to conduct fraud.
Over the course of the past several years, we have witnessed the meteoric ascent of machine learning technology along with the quick development of other major fields of artificial intelligence. Our smartphones are jam-packed with these technologies, which are the basis for the operation of applications such as Apple’s Siri. Natural language processing (NLP) makes it possible to have a conversation with an intelligent agent, who will then be able to understand what it is you are requesting from them.
Additionally, machine learning is utilised to forecast our requirements and actions in real time by processing enormous volumes of data. The Internet of Things (IoT) has made it possible to have intelligent gadgets that are connected to networks in every location. Because of this, there will be many possibilities to collect data and derive something useful from it.
Let’s take a look at some of the services that are available, such as Wolfram Alpha, which use AI to produce knowledge from data. We get a taste of what it may be like to have a democratised online with free access to public data for all users.
Should either Web3 or the Metaverse ever become a reality, it seems likely that their respective conceptual frameworks will converge, resulting in overlapping and mutually reinforcing systems.
The Metaverse is a conceptualization of how our future connections to the web could appear to us. To produce a consistent and cohesive experience for the user, it relies significantly on virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR).
When you are in the Metaverse, the physical world and the digital things you possess begin to merge together, and your interactions with the internet take on a much more physical form. It reminds me a touch of the virtual world in Ready Player One, although I’m hoping it will be a little less dismal.
On paper, the third generation of the web that is anticipated seems wonderful, but there are several hurdles that stand in the way of it becoming a reality, at least in its most idealistic and unadulterated form. The degree of connection provided by Web3 is one that has not previously been seen on the internet. When compared to the enormous number of nodes participating in the Web3 scenario that is focused on a decentralised network, the complexity of the present web is little when compared to it.
On the other hand, the most significant difficulty with Web3 is not a technological one, but rather a political one. The issue of privacy raises some very severe concerns. What new forms of deception and manipulation are made feasible, despite the fact that it is accessible to public scrutiny? Is it possible for us to break free from some centralised authority entirely? Due to the revolutionary nature of the Web3 idea, it will take some time before we are able to find answers to these issues. Furthermore, in certain instances, the potential consequences of giving up on tried-and-true methods may be too great for the purpose of conducting an experiment.
Sydney Butler is an avid technologist and social scientist who is interested in learning how humans and technology can coexist. In addition to more than a decade of expertise as a technology researcher and educator, he has worked as a freelance computer technician for more than two decades. Since she began working as a professional technology journalist more than five years ago, Sydney has covered themes such as virtual reality (VR), gaming, cyber security, and transhumanism.
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