The grandaddy of them all: Web3
It all started by connecting colleges and institutes around the world together.
As its own name suggests, Web3 is the third generation of the basic Internet-network application, the World Wide Web.
Although it’s still considered in its primes, Web3 is becoming a buzzword within the tech field, as well as inside the business one.
It’s going to be a prominent milestone for the Internet, mostly for the plenty of applications based on it.
Web3 inception is planning to take years before the full switch from the current web version, Web2, into the next step.
However, some of its features can already be consulted through paradigm-changing and completely innovative applications.
Let’s try to shed light regard this tech revolution.
The Internet is the most important single development in the history of human communication since the invention of call waiting.
Dave Berry
A brief history of the World Wide Web
Before Web3, Web2, TikTok, Instagram, MSN (I’m old enough to remember it!), the Web was dramatically different compared to how it has evolved thus far.
Shortly, in 1989, Mr Tim Berners Lee, at that time physician at Ginevra’s Cern, developed one of the most prominent inventions mankind has seen: Web1. Used until the first years of the 2000s, It was fundamentally static-page based, just made with a read-only interface.
Subsequently, the Web took a different turn into Web2, since the mid-2000s. Due to Social Networks establishment, the stressing of the generated users content, its ease to be used, and the web-dynamic page's introduction, this is the type of Web we’re currently using.
What we know about Web3 so far
Inevitably, similar to Web1 evolution, the present second web version is going to take a new and more sophisticated direction: Web3.
Anyway, thus far we meet an important application of this feature, upon which all the other programs run: Blockchain.
The Blockchain is a ledger described as long nodes chain, which every single of them, store important and useful information about its owner: Identity and the history of all the transactions made inside that blockchain.
Further relatively new blockchain-based applications are Metaverse and NFTs and the use of an electronic coin, Cryptocurrencies.
These are some of the most recognized applications, regardless of the fact Web3 isn’t still an “official” institution.
But it goes further…
A new way for financial operations: DeFi
Thanks to Bitcoin birth back in 2009 by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto, also the finance world has been impacted. When we decide to make some financial investments in some matters, such as gold, or we have the desire to buy some stocks of a company, we stipulate a contract with a middle-man, In the majority of the cases, a bank. Thereby, we entrust our funds to a specific subject.
The DeFi isn’t going to follow this pattern. It allows the same type of operation, for instance, the buy and sell of goods, but not with the contribution of an institution. Indeed, It’s based on a public blockchain, like the Ethereum one, and, using smart contracts, digital documents which defined to-meet conditions are stores, It enables different financial transactions.
Some applications which permit the usage of DeFi are:
- Aave: open-source, decentralized, non-custodial liquidity protocol on Ethereum that allows users to supply and borrow crypto assets, and earn a yield on assets supplied to the protocol
- Akropolis: Under collateralized lending protocol aiming at DeFi yield optimisation and interest-rate sharing.
- Alchemix: Alchemix Finance is a future-yield-backed synthetic asset platform and community DAO
- DeFiner: Decentralized finance network for crypto savings and loans.
Alternatives to mainstream social and applications
Web3 isn’t just aimed at goods exchange and finance, but it already allows some blockchain-based applications, called dapps. Let’s look at some of them:
- Minds: One of the best alternatives to Facebook and Youtube. If you subscribe, you can reach me here.
- Aether: Open source dapp for self-government communities, particularly hinted for Reddit lovers.
- Mastodon: Ever wondered about a twitter alternative? Here you are! Not only you can send your 280 characters message, but it’s also fully open source.
- Osiris Browser: Browser which I personally use, two of its most important features are: being completely ads-free and reaching a from X3 to X7 higher speed compared to other browsers.
- Karma: If you’re inside the community of those people who don’t appreciate Instagram, Karma is its perfect workaround. An important detail of this blockchain-protocolled Instagram clone is the opportunity to get tokens whenever you receive likes or shares.
- Signal: What about some instant-messaging platforms? After discovering that end-to-end encryption used by Whatsapp is not so secure, many people landed on a safer side, preferring using Signal.
Now… what?
What is going to be the consequences of Web3 both currently and in the future?
Are we going to assist in a global switch directed to something decentralized? Let me know your thoughts about it in the comments!
For now…
To be continued
