Web 3.0 Versus Web 2.0
The concept of Web 3.0 heralds sweeping changes with regards to how we interact with the internet — it seeks to take the impetus of interaction from the big tech companies we’re so adherent to and place it in the hands of the users.
This has huge implications for creators — Web 3.0 has the power to democratise content, potentially removing the need to be subservient to algorithms, SEO practices, and issues of intellectual property. It can also change the game in how creators interact with their communities, with platforms like Incent that allows creators to reward their communities with cryptocurrency based on trackable metrics — this idea of trackability, accountability and decentralized reward frameworks form an attractive part of the promise of Web 3.0
The concept, broadly speaking, of open source — not just the literal tech (things like Linux, etc), but the spirit behind it — has been around for a long time. It’s only now though, through an iterative process it’s reached the point where it can proliferate and encompass how we all consume content on the internet.
It’s been a long road; how did we get here?
Web 1.0
Otherwise known as Hypertext web, this progenitor of the internet had fairly basic functionality but was foundational in establishing what could be possible. Considering that users were limited to static, read-only sites at this stage, it wasn’t a platform that could be considered inherently intuitive for creators. Despite interactivity being severely limited, rudimentary forms of E-commerce did emerge, largely through displaying static ads — a small-scale form digital transformation when compared to magazine ads.
Web 2.0
Also commonly referred to as the Social or Participatory Web — the central tenant of Web 2.0 was that users could not only consume content but create it. Over the course of Web 2.0, we’ve evolved and refined the idea of interactivity, from social media, Twitch and YouTube to mass personalization and targeted advertising. For better or worse, we’re at a point where the internet interacts with you as much as you interact with it. This has raised massive issues around privacy, GDPR, data-sharing, intellectual property, and — what should and shouldn’t be on the internet. The way this has panned out means that big tech generally sets the standards, with knee-jerk regulatory and legislative action serving to be arguably out of touch.
Web 3.0
It’s arguable the Web 3.0 seeks to take the best of it’s progenitors while filtering out the more pernicious aspects. It proposes a decentralized open web that preserves ownership (not just the intellectual but the tangible). Web 3.0 will do away with biased algorithmic practices that stack the deck in the favour of the house. This is all built on the back of the blockchain, which can enable fair and transparent data transfer, authenticated in a decentralized way that makes it beholden to the users as opposed to dated top-down models.
The fact is, the audience is there and we’re savvy to the point of being ready for Web 3.0 — a decentralized, somewhat self-governed form of internet that opens the doors for creators to have the onus and freedom to create freely and interact with their audiences in a manner that best fits them without being dictated to or at the mercy of big Big Commerce.
Incent is a crypto fintech company based in Sydney, Australia. The project was founded in 2016 and has, since 2020, pioneered crypto-powered View 2 Earn (V2E) influencer marketing with the Ingage platform. Find out more about their Web3 build here.
