Since its inception, the Internet has gone through several stages of development. We had Web 1.0 at the beginning, which consisted of static web pages that served content from the server’s file system. Web 1.0 allowed users to access data from practically anywhere on the planet. Web 1.0, on the other hand, does not include any features for interacting with the material. As a result, web 2.0 began to acquire traction, and the following revelation of web 2.0’s flaws led to the creation of web 3.0.
Because the backend and architecture are changing, Web 3.0 is a significant hop forward from Web 2.0. This version of the Internet, also known as the Semantic Web, employs an enhanced metadata system that structures and legibly arranges various types of data by machines and people.
Known as the decentralized web, Web 3.0 is the newest generation of internet applications and services powered by distributed ledger technology, most notably blockchains.
Web3 is a notion for a new version of the World Wide Web based on the blockchain, which integrates concepts such as decentralized finance and token-based economy.
It focuses on connecting data in a decentralized manner instead of storing it centrally, with computers being able to interpret information as intelligently as humans.
Some journalists and engineers have compared it to Web 2.0, claiming that data and information are centralized in a small group of businesses known as “Big Tech.”
Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood coined the term in 2014, and cryptocurrency enthusiasts, giant technology corporations, and venture capital firms expressed interest in the concept in 2021.
Web3 is not the same as Tim Berners-Lee’s semantic web vision from 1999. Tim Berners-Lee referred to the Semantic Web as a component of Web 3.0 in 2006.
In 2014, Polkadot creator and Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood popularized the phrase “Web3,” which refers to a “decentralized online ecosystem based on blockchain.” The concept of Web3 gained traction in 2021.
Interest soared near the end of 2021, owing partly to bitcoin enthusiasts’ enthusiasm and investments from high-profile technologists and businesses.
In October 2021, executives from venture capital company Andreessen Horowitz flew to Washington, D.C., to campaign for the proposal as a possible solution to policymakers’ ongoing concerns about web regulation.
To the benefit and stability of the Web3 ecosystem, the Web3 Foundation was established to foster and steward technologies and applications in the disciplines of decentralized web software protocols, particularly those that employ current cryptographic methods to ensure decentralization.
Web3 ideas vary, and the phrase has been dubbed “hazy” by Bloomberg. Still, they all revolve worldwide around the concept of decentralization and frequently involve blockchain technologies, such as cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFT).
Web3 is a concept that “would incorporate financial assets, in the form of tokens, into the inner workings of nearly anything you do online,” according to Bloomberg. The concept of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) is essential to some visions.
In terms of how they generate data for users, Web 3.0 and Web 2.0 differ. While our current web relies on user input and collaboration to determine the best way to operate, the next-generation web would allow AI to work on massive amounts of data to determine the best way to use it.
Many internet services currently rely on user feedback to customize how they operate to break it down. Still, in the following years, AI will analyze the collected data and determine the best option.
This would allow websites to detect and give information that a user is most likely to seek on their own.
Web3.0 is all about introducing Artificial Intelligence and BlockChain, which has opened up an entirely new dimension for the online world. Web3 will introduce us to the Metaverse, which is based on blockchain and AI.
Online 3.0 is a next-generation web platform that emphasizes machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI). It consists of websites and online services that primarily use AI to analyze Semantic Web data and provide output for users.
Web 3.0 includes virtual assistants, smart speakers, and network-connected household products, to name a few examples.
Everyone can expect a more intelligent, efficient, accurate, and connected online experience with this new web generation. However, we’ll have to wait a little longer before we truly embrace Web 3.0.
Computing on any device, from any location, and in any format is ubiquitous computing. This is relevant to the IoT (IoT), a name for devices that connect over a network. Smart TVs and intelligent lamps, for example, offer an early infrastructure for Web 3.0.
As previously stated, the Semantic Web refers to a web in which online data is machine-readable. Machine learning would thrive in this online data format, allowing AI to function to its maximum potential.
For example, computers would be able to comprehend human queries in the proper context due to this. The Semantic Web is necessary for AI to work correctly.
Web 3.0 is being built with blockchain technology.
A distributed electronic ledger is referred to as blockchain. Distributed ledgers maintain a digital record (such as asset ownership) without requiring a centralized authority. Because distributed consensus eliminates the requirement for manual processing and authentication by intermediaries, it is substantially faster to complete a transaction.
Furthermore, because blockchain uses distributed consensus, changing data on the system without notifying the entire network is impossible. As a result, the system has a high level of security.
Some of the most important advantages of Web 3.0 are:
In general, Web 3.0 will allow artists and users more freedom. By employing decentralized networks, Web 3.0 will ensure that people always have control over their online data.
Due to its decentralized nature, which eliminates the potential of a single point of failure, the next version of the internet is also predicted to be more reliable.
A single entity does not need to be in charge of Web 3.0. The internet may no longer be completely under the authority of larger corporations. As a result, you cannot filter or limit dApps, or decentralized programs in any way.
Because Web 3.0 will be able to comprehend your preferences, you will be able to dramatically customize your web browsing experience. You’ll be able to surf the web more efficiently as a result of this.
With the use of Web 3.0’s artificial intelligence, sellers can understand your purchasing demands and present you products and services that you have an interest in acquiring. This helps you to see more relevant and better adverts that are more likely to benefit you.
As a result of decentralization, it keeps all data on distributed nodes so users will not have to worry about account bans or service outages due to technical or other causes.
We’ll get to why Dorsey believes VCs rule Web 3 later, but first, let’s take a step back. The Dorsey blowup is a high-profile eruption in a struggle that has been raging since at least 2013, if not before, and has gotten even hotter since the presentation of Ethereum in 2014.
On one side of the issue is a loose alliance occasionally referred to as “crypto” by insiders like Dorsey, but which may be better known as “Ethereal” – not because they all utilize or build on Ethereum explicitly, but because they all roughly copy or parallel what Ethereum does.
These are the people behind recent breakthroughs like decentralized finance (Defi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), play-to-earn gaming, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) – and, most famously, decentralized social media which Dorsey started working on when he was CEO of Twitter.
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, is also a Web3 skeptic. In recent tweets, he questioned if Web3 is “genuine.”
Smart contracts, which are lines of code that live on blockchains and determine the rules for transparent, irreversible, and open-access transactions, are at the heart of these applications. Innovative contract-based initiatives generally require their unique token as part of these structures.
These tokens make up a substantial chunk of the crypto market on exchanges like Coinbase. In a nutshell, “Web 3” is the idea that the web should integrate more smart contract apps and tokens.
On one, you have a complicated, experimental, and potentially fragile Etherean ecology that provides the exciting new features that Web 3 enthusiasts want to see democratized.
On the other hand, Dorsey and the Bitcoiners argue that those cool apps rely on insufficiently decentralized systems to get the core benefits of a blockchain, partly because those compromises allow the systems’ proponents to become wealthy.
But there’s a missing middle here: many of what’s being promoted as Web 3’s promise is either impossible or extremely difficult to achieve with Bitcoin.
The decentralization and impenetrable security of Bitcoin come at the cost of storage space, features, and, most importantly, transaction speed. You obviously don’t want to wait ten minutes or more for proof that your new sword has arrived if you’re playing a metaverse or Web 3 game.
Layers built on top of Bitcoin appear to enable some Web 3 functionality. Hiro, formerly Blockstack PBC, is leveraging Bitcoin to develop smart contracts.
The possibility for rough functional equivalents of NFTs and Ethereum’s ERC-20 tokens (kind of) has existed on Bitcoin since roughly 2012 in the form of “hued coins.
Do you need a censorship-resistant blockchain to maintain your multiverse robe and wizard hat or your profile pic NFTs? Is it true that purpose-built blockchains like Flow constitute a danger to Bitcoin?
Those are legitimate concerns. This industry is still in its infancy: Ethereum was created only six years ago! As a result, many individuals defer judgment and wait for the cards to fall where they may. However, it could be beneficial to keep a small Bitcoin Maximalist on your right shoulder wherever you end up.
Allow it to be your skeptic’s voice when someone tries to sell you a hot new token or an entirely new keyword whose meaning no one can agree on.