A Dive Into Web 3
Have you ever heard of the term Web 3? If you have never heard of Web 3, don’t worry. The only prerequisite knowledge you need is that there is a lot of noise going on around technology circles about whether Web 3 is the next phase of the internet.
Evolution is believed to be natural, and the internet is not exempt from it. In fact, there have been two stages of the internet since the first network was created.
The first phase of the internet ushered in an unprecedented age of the internet and technology in general. However, the unregulated and free-for-all circumstances that were the main reason for the second internet boom gave rise to an internet infrastructure dominated by a handful of ruthless technocrats.
The second stage of the internet is referred to as Web 2, and it is the current version of the internet we have. With the increasing importance of the internet in our daily lives, a lot of user data is collected by organizations that give any service through the internet.
Many of the Big Tech companies have consistently been unable to resist the forbidden fruit that is user data. They hold this power because they created much of the internet infrastructure and have therefore become the dominant companies in various services critical to the nature of Web 2.
Therefore, Web 3 seems like a viable solution to this problem. Web 3 is all about the great power shift, from ‘Big tech’ corporations to individual users.
Okay, but what does that really mean? How can individual users hold more power than Big tech corporations? To find out what web 3 is, why it has created such a buzz in the tech world and how it will work, read this post to the end.
This post covers:
- (How we got here)The various stages of the internet from Web 1 to Web 2
- The problem with Web 2
- How Web 3 may solve this problem- (blockchain technology)
- How Web 3 will work
How Did We Get Here?
To understand the current position of discussions on web 3, you have to understand where it began.
Web 1
Web 1, the first iteration of the internet, is referred to as the read-only version of the internet. This is because it consisted mainly of static pages of hyperlinked websites. Users could only read and post simple content for other users to read.
In the Web 1 version of the internet, the technocrats had not yet written code for programs allowing users to have more interaction capability. So in essence, you could not do much in Web 1 because it wasn’t interactive or marketable and at the same time it was not marketable because it was not interactive.
Therefore, when technopreneurs wrote code that increased user interaction, the next phase of the internet was born.
Web 2
Technopreneurs and visionaries built upon the Web 1 platform to develop Web 2. This was done by writing programs allowing users to open, edit, save and post files on the internet. This marked the birth of Web 2, the version of the internet that allowed users to read and write data.
It was a leap from Web 1’s read-only functionality. Web 2 is the version of the internet that we use. It ushered in an unprecedented user interaction fueled by social media platforms.
The tools employed by Web 2 continue to make the creation and consumption of content easier. Web 2 sure does sound awesome. Although, there is a grave problem with the internet as we know it.
The Problem With Web 2
The Big Tech companies dominating the internet cannot be trusted with user data; this is the main issue of Web 2.
Web 2 was made possible by the ingenuity of some individuals who create technology solutions that later became successful multinational corporations. These innovations were so revolutionary, and timely, such that they became increasingly valuable.
Big Tech companies grew in value with the increase in internet accessibility. As a result, the value of these companies increased, and they invested even more money in increasing their functionality and resources such that they not only service a great number of users but also collect the most user data.
Technology solutions in Web 2, have proved convenient, but the users have had to surrender their privacy to companies whose main value is user data. These companies include Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, and other large pervasive multinational corporations.
Currently, everyone traversing the internet must use the services of these Big tech Web 2 corporations. Thus, as it is, Web 2 is a centralized system of the World Wide Web. Only, a handful of corporations control its infrastructure.
This is the main problem of Web 2. These corporations have access to a lot of user data and have consistently proven untrustworthy. To solve this problem, innovators are turning to blockchain technology.
Blockchain Technology
The monopolistic dominance of the internet was enough incentive for innovators to create decentralized solutions. These solutions are seen as the next step the internet needs to take to get rid of monopolistic evil. These technology innovations have one thing in common: they use blockchain technology.
Blockchain technology led to the realization of cryptocurrencies and most recently Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs). Through the application of blockchain technology to Web 2 services, there are unbelievable possibilities that lay ahead. This is the vision of Web 3, and this is what some call the future of the internet.
Blockchain technology tracks the movement of assets by assigning each asset a digital block of data that stores details identifying the asset. When a transfer is made, another digital block of data is created linking to the previous digital block of data. Each block, therefore, has information about its preceding and succeeding block.
The information held by each block of data is publicly accessible, hence the transfer and or validity of an asset is a matter of analyzing a publicly accessible blockchain ledger.
Each block is linked to other previous and future blocks relating to a particular asset. Thus, the blocks link securely to form an unalterable, time-stamped chain of blocks (blockchain). This improves on the current lack of trust in Web 2, where data is held and controlled by the companies providing technology solutions.
The blockchain ledger itself is a trusted public record of the transaction of any type of asset. A blockchain is trustless, meaning that automatic processes verify asset validity, hence removing third-party controls and improving security. It is therefore unsurprising that many people are moving towards blockchain systems.
How Will Web 3 Work?
Web 3 is envisioned as the fulfillment of the full capabilities of blockchain technology. It consists of a decentralized and secure form of control without barriers to entry. This section deals with the storage of data in Web 3 and the use of digital tokens.
Storage of Data
In Web 3, the data composing the internet will be stored on a blockchain network. Currently, corporations store user data on their servers, allowing for devious use of this data. But in Web 3, the blockchain network records any changes in an irreversible ledger.
The public and transparent handling of data is a safeguard against misuse of user data. Every piece of data in Web 3 ought to have a corresponding blockchain. This will ease the issue of tokens, allowing users to have ownership of their digital assets. Digital tokens such as NFTs may come in handy.
Digital Tokens
Web 3 will be the version of the Internet facilitated by digital tokens and owned by individual users. Users will own the infrastructure they use and data they create by the assignment of tokens. Digital tokens will give individual users control over the management of Web 3 features.
One possibility of how Web 3 may increase user power is by allowing users of a certain website service to have control over how that service handles its user data. Additionally, users get to own their data and their internet creations through the use of digital tokens.
In this postulation of utopia, each token will represent voting rights. Users will get the opportunity to decide the direction of Web 3 features regarding user data by voting. Thus, Web 3 promises a democratic system, guaranteeing users control over their data security.
To most technology enthusiasts, Web 3 sounds like their version of heaven, but is all this practical?
Too Good To Be True?
Web 3 is still a dream, only very few basic features have come into play. Some critics call it a buzzword used by technopreneurs to drive their own agendas. Admittedly, the future of the internet is hard to predict. Nobody can claim to know the exact formation of its next phase.
This sentiment is true since Web 3, the vision, faces a major blockchain problem of regulation. Regulation has been a sore matter for cryptocurrencies as well. Regulation is significant to prevent the speculative system seen in cryptocurrencies and NFTs. Cryptocurrencies are subject to massive value changes overnight, due to speculation.
Critics point out that builders and users, who get into Web 3 first, will be at an advantage. Those joining, later on, will have less control. Thus, Web 3 may very likely fall short of its internet decentralization dream.
We can’t dismiss Web 3 as an impractical goal. The potential of the internet is infinite. Anyone who is aware of the great revolution that has occurred in just under 40 years knows this. We cannot predict the future with certainty. What is certain is that necessity will propel the internet to the next stage. All we can do is hope for an efficient system that values user data.
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The author is a freelance writer with a keen interest in technology
email: mwangimuchiriafrika@gmail.com
