The Future of Currency as we Know it: Crypto-currency, Block-Chain and Web3
By: Iliyan Moloo
“Web 2.0 is the current version of the Internet (a term often used interchangeably with web) with which we are all familiar, while Web 3.0 represents its next phase.”(Investopedia) What is the next phase? Well, the next phase will be Blockchain. Blockchain is a system of recording information (eg. online transactions, confirmation, proof of work, online etc.) in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to change, hack, or cheat the system. One of the main selling points of Blockchain (and ultimately the reason why it has earned the title of “Web3”) is how secure Blockchain keeps your information.
An experiment run by researchers at MIT wanted to prove that the security of Facebook was weak and flawed. The researchers were also trying to prove that “social media users were vulnerable to leaks because of their over-sharing of information online.”(Teams Password) The researchers developed a script that could download publicly posted information. The first known Facebook security breach, which took place in December 2005, was the result of this experiment. Holes in the security wall is what scares internet users about Web2.
Ok, now that we know why people want to move on from Web2, let’s look at some features of Web3, specifically blockchain. Most of us have heard of cryptocurrency, but do we all know what it is? Here is a quick run down: “A cryptocurrency is an encrypted data string that denotes a unit of currency. It is monitored and organized by a peer-to-peer network called a blockchain, which also serves as a secure ledger of transactions, e.g., buying, selling, and transferring.”(Trend Micro) Some examples of cryptocurrencies are:
- Ethereum (ETH)
- Litecoin (LTC)
- Cardano (ADA)
- Polkadot (DOT)
- Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
- Stellar (XLM)
- Dogecoin (DOGE)
- Binance Coin (BNB)
So when you buy a cryptocurrency, the blockchain records the history of the transactions so that I can trace exactly where it came from. That makes it very hard for someone to forge or hack a cryptocurrency. Given the border-less nature of the internet, I can buy and sell cryptocurrency from anywhere in the world, making it an international currency. There are some trusted trading platforms you can use to buy and sell cryptocurrencies. They include:
Considering the fact that you can now use cryptocurrency to buy anything from pizza to a car, and Bitcoin is starting to be accepted as official legal tender in certain countries (see El Salvador), I think Web3 and cryptocurrency are quickly becoming mainstream. But let me ask you, will Web3 become as ubiquitous as Web 2.0? Will you buy cryptocurrency? If you do buy, which ones do you trust? Which will fail? Time will tell.
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