The next layer of the internet has begun…

Dot-com wasn’t a bubble that popped and vanished forever. It went through a period of consolidation and evolved into the internet we see today — a vast network that most of us would struggle to live without. When we look back at how the internet was built, an onion is a better analogy.

Layer upon layer has been added, each offering something highly valuable to society. We are witnessing the construction of the most profound layer yet — one that will launch us into Web 3.0. Before we can consider what this will look like, we first have to take a look at how the internet built its layers.

Web 1.0

Going back to the internet’s humble beginnings, the ‘world wide web’ was frustratingly slow.
These were the days of blocking anyone in the house from using the phone while you took forever to browse static websites with no interactive content.

Web 2.0

With the arrival of broadband, faster internet speeds paved the way for e-commerce as businesses made the transition to selling the majority of their products online. It also changed the way we interacted online. No longer just observing, everyone started to participate in the global sharing of information. Social media boomed and gave voices to the voiceless — like-minded communities could be connected regardless of their location in the
world.

Mobile internet became fast and inexpensive, allowing access on the go. Cloud computing was groundbreaking for productivity. You could access your files on any computer with a connection to the internet.
With all this data and personal information floating around, opportunities arose. Digital corporations like Amazon, Facebook, and Twitter began to stockpile data in centralised servers. Security and privacy are sacrificed for convenience as personal data is sold to the highest bidder — the problem of todays Web 2.0. Unless we want to walk into a privacy dystopia of centralised and monopolised power, it’s time to build another layer.

Web 3.0

Rather than concentrate power and data into the hands of powerful organisations with questionable motives, Web 3.0 will give data back to its rightful owners. Blockchain and cryptocurrency are the means for a human-centred and decentralised internet. Centralised monopolies will be something of the past when we have a system that is designed for multiple profit centres sharing value across an open network.

With the widespread use of blockchains, there will be no central point of control that is vulnerable to security breaches or corruption. Users will regain complete control of their data and will have the safety of encryption. Efficiency will also be improved as there is no single point of failure, keeping service disruption to the minimum if something goes wrong.

These examples barely scratch the surface of the possibilities of a decentralised Web 3.0.

Moving forward

There is no knowing when this transition from Web 2.0 to 3.0 will happen, but it’s crystal clear that it has already begun. For the everyday internet user, this adoption curve will not be dramatic, and it’s vital that this new layer is just as user-friendly as its predecessor. Behind the scenes of the internet experience, time is required to integrate this new system with existing ones. The transition is set in motion, and there is no stopping it now.