Introduction to Web3
Web 2.0 benefits more than 3 billion people for 80% of their waking hours every day. It moves the world from static desktop web pages for information consumption that served from expensive servers to interactive experiences and user-generated content.
Web 2.0 is all about interactivity and users. The users create most of the content on platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter. Web 2.0 is more social and collaborative but usually comes at a price. The downside of this is that users provide personal and confidential data to the companies that control these platforms by creating content.
Web 3.0 is on the way and blockchain will likely be the foundational technology that leads this progress at scale. Click to explore about, How To Prepare For A Privacy-Driven Future
Therefore, a new internet iteration is required to change how the internet is used individually without giving up users’ privacy and valuable data. It is a future idea of the internet that will have a decentralized property.
What is Web 3.0?
It was named Semantic Web by Tim Berners-Lee, who is the web’s original inventor. It is a type of internet that will use decentralized networks such as Ethereum and bitcoin.
It will be a platform with no single entity control, yet everyone can still trust as every user will follow the same set of hard-coded rules, those rules known as consensus protocols. It will make the internet more intelligent or process data with near-human-like intelligence to assist the user. It will create an open, trustless, and permissionless network.
- Open: It will be an open-source software built by an open and accessible community of developers and executed in the full view of the world.
- Trustless: It will allow participants to interact publicly or privately without any trusted third party.
- Permissionless: Neither users nor suppliers need any authorization from a governing body for participating.
Evolution of Web
It will fundamentally expand the scale and scope for both human and machine interactions. These interactions could range from a seamless payment to richer information flows to trusted data transfers that will be possible with a vast range of potential counter parties.
What are the components of the Tech Stack?
The components of the Tech Stack are mentioned below:
Layer 0
- P2P internet overlay protocols [e.g. Devp2p, Libp2p]
- Platform-neutral computation description language [e.g. EVM, WASM, UTXO]
Layer 1
- Data distribution protocols [e.g. IPFS, Bluzelle, Fluence, Swarm]
- Low-trust interaction platforms [e.g. Polkadot]
- Low-trust interaction protocols [ e.g., Ethereum, Bitcoin, Zcash, Polkadot parachains]
- Transient data messaging [e.g., Whisper, Matrix]
Layer 2
Second layer protocols [e.g. (various)]Layer 3
Protocol-extensible developer APIs & languages [e.g. Web3.js, ether.js, oo7.js, Solidity, Rust]
Layer 4
Protocol-extensible user-interface crade [e.g. Status, Metamask, MyCrypto, Parity]
A way of protecting the websites and web application from being hacked or any unauthorized access, done by creating an extra layer of protection. Click to explore about our, What is Website Security?
How is Web 3.0 related to blockchain?
The evolutionary line of the Internet with Web 1.0, Web 2.0, and Web 3.0 has some significant objectives, leading to the development of decentralized systems and Web 3.0.
Web 1.0 was the first step in building internet revolutions and was a read-only type for users. To remove the basic and non-interactive theme, Web 2.0 was introduced with both read and write functionality for the users.
This centralized storage approach was used to ban users and officials from a particular website. Also, the data was used to create targeted ads to benefit third-party groups without the user’s interest.
To remove this complexity, provide better privacy to data, and give control to the audience, it was introduced, and to take all these ill activities away, the decentralization of the network was done. So, blockchain was introduced to inherent decentralization, digital identity, and tokenization. Here’s how Blockchain is related to Web 3.0:-
Visibility
It provides greater transparency into the processes and operations and enables the distribution of information and power in a proper sense(to the consumers as well).
Accessibility
It allows access to the application worldwide, allowing users to interact with the applications and systems without restrictions.
No-Third Party
It allows users to put their trust in the network and eliminate the need for trust in any third-party entities.
Complete Ownership
Users don’t need to worry about any support from intermediaries and can get ownership with transparent public ledgers. For example:- Users can connect wallets to any decentralized application to use the funds of their own will.
Censorship Resistance
To remediate the ill practices of Web 2.0, Web 3.0 removed the alteration of records one-sidedly, and website owners and users cannot remove any record added to the blockchain.
A distributed computing paradigm in which processing and computation are performed mainly on classified device nodes. Click to explore about, Overview of Edge Computing
Why do we need Web3?
Let’s compare Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 to know why do we need Web 3.0:
Web3 vs. Web2
|
Web 2.0 |
Web 3.0 |
|
The rise of Web 2.0 is mostly driven by three core layers of innovation: mobile, social, and cloud. |
It will be built on edge computing, decentralized data networks, and artificial intelligence. |
|
Web 2.0 recently commoditized personal computer hardware was repurposed in data centers |
It will spread the data center out to the edge right into our hands. |
|
Twitter(company) can censor any account or user tweet. |
As control is decentralized so tweets are uncensorable. |
|
Payment services do not allow payments for certain types of work |
It requires no personal data for payments and also cannot prevent payments. |
What are the challenges in Web 2.0?
- More than half of the world’s population, approximately 60%, uses the current internet. But the internet of today is broken. It is dominated by companies that provide services in exchange for personal data.
- It provides P2P interactions globally but with a middleman. It acts as a trusted intermediary between two people who do not know or trust each other. It also dictates all rules of the transactions and controls all data of their users.
- People do not have control over their data, nor do they have any native value settlement layer. Internet data is stored centrally and managed on a server that is sent or retrieved by the client. With every interaction over the internet, our information is sent to a service provider; thus user loses control over data.
- Moreover, our data is stored on a cloud that is easily accessible, thus raising the issue of trust If it is not authenticated well. Can people trust those centralized institutions that manage their data?
- The current internet(Web 2.0) has client-server-based data infrastructure and centralized data management, which has several unique points of failure.
- The primary reason for redesigning the current internet is that most of today’s highly-used Internet platforms are controlled by only a handful of powerful companies, which profit from the data users generate.
Internet of Things (IoT) is connected using the Internet capable of sending the data to the Cloud. Click to explore about, IoT Platform Benefits and Use Cases
What are the benefits of Web 3.0?
- No personal data loss.
- Anyone on the network can use any service; no permission is required.
- No one can block and remove access of any user.
What are the key features of Web 3.0?
Let’s discuss some Web 3.0 key features:
Decentralization
Blockchain Technology is related to it and helps create a decentralized user system. It distributes power to the people by overcoming centralized storage providers.
As Blockchain integrates with decentralized data storage, trust in the virtual world has increased significantly.
Permissionless and Trustless
The Open source its systems will share the traits of Trustless - as they don’t have to rely on any intermediate or 3rd party resources and Permissionless - Users don’t need any permission from a governing body to review any content.
Consumers can access any data of choice without permission from any node or third-party group.
AI and ML adoption
AI and ML-based models are beneficial to the users for selecting relevant content according to their needs and intentions. Web 3.0 is a semantic web that lets the computer see and understand information as humans do. Also, Users can see more relevant content to their choices and cases with intelligent internet browsing,
Connectivity and Ubiquity
Web 3.0 promises accessibility to all users at any place and at any time, and the growing number of devices connected to the internet, such as smart appliances and mobile devices, enables various configuration that was limited to PCs in Web 2.0.
The center of discussion for it is Blockchain and how Web 3.0 is connected to Blockchain Technology.
Which Industries should adopt Web 3.0?
It can change the operations and processes to enhance the efficiency and productivity of many industries. Let’s discuss some industries with the most impact from Web 3.0:-
Finance
- Decentralized Finance workflow
- Visibility into transactions
- Adopt cryptocurrency and distributed ledgers
Retail
- Connectivity with Customers
- Remove Third Party Entities
- Personalized approach
Logistics
- Transparency at every level
- Tracing counterfeit activities
- Automating Financial Transactions
Healthcare
- EHRs on Decentralized Storage Systems
- Supply Chain Transparency
- Detecting Counterfeit Medical Components
Marketing and Advertisement
- Data Privacy and Compliance
- Semantic Search capabilities
- Relevant content to the target audience
How Web 3.0 is being used in the World?
It enables a virtual world and implement the capabilities in building application and digital entities for many users, like:- NFT Non-Fungible Tokens or NFTs are individually unique parts of any media or content, especially used by artists. Defi Decentralized Finance - Provisioning financial services beyond conventional banking and finance structures. dApp Decentralized applications are programs built on blockchain and efficiently provide service delivery. Cryptocurrency The digital form of currency created with the help of Web 3.0 differs from traditional world currencies, including Bitcoins, Ethereum, Tether, etc.
Conclusion
The primary purpose of Web 3.0 is to modernize the internet and provide a secure and seamless user experience. Still, it has some challenges, but the implementation promises to be great in terms of data protection, connectivity, relevancy, and content ownership. Blockchain and crypto will always be associated with new technologies in the field of it due to the involvement of decentralization, trustlessness, and permisionlessness.
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