What is Web 3.0, and why is it so important?
A look into how the internet is going to change, and what it means for your data.
Over the next few decades, the amount of data humans process is going to explode. Researchers predict the number of Internet-capable devices will triple by 2030 (from 8 to 24 billion), and we already process insane amounts of data every single day (over 1 million terabytes a day!). The question is: how will we handle this explosion of data? Like humans have handled every other problem — we will change the tool we use. The Internet is primed for a wild transformation.
“Web 3.0” (also referred to as the spatial web) is a future concept of the Internet. Emerging technologies like blockchain, VR, and AI are becoming more sophisticated and widespread. Web 3.0 describes a way to tie these technologies together, make them compatible with current tech, and extract as much value for humanity out of them as possible. In this article, I will talk about a few ways web 3.0 (specifically blockchain) will transform how we store data and advertise online.
The Future of Data Security
The current ‘centralized’ model of the Internet is flawed. At its inception, the Internet was designed to be decentralized. In 1962, at the height of the Cold War, ARPA Director Licklider envisioned a decentralized telecommunications network made of multiple computers that would be impervious to a Soviet attack. If one node went down, the rest of the network would still function.
It is antithetical, and unwise, to rely on huge centralized databases to store our data. A data breach or hack could happen at any time and expose your information to malicious actors (hackers, identity thieves, phone scammers). If you think, nothing like that will ever happen to my data, don’t be so sure. In April of this year, a Facebook hack exposed sensitive information of 533 million Facebook accounts, leaving these people susceptible to identity theft or worse.
In the next 10 years, you will see a shift away from relying on large centralized databases. Web 3.0 will accomplish this with a decentralized model, specifically with blockchain. While it has been tightly associated with cryptocurrencies, blockchain has many different applications — one being secure data storage. The details can get tedious but the concept is simple. Web 3.0 proposes spreading all the user data a company has across hundreds, thousands, or millions of computers (the larger the network, the more secure it is). Each computer will hold a fraction of the total dataset, so if hackers wanted to expose your information, they would need to gain access to every single node in the network. Even more exciting, with the use of smart contracts (“rules” of the blockchain that dictate what types of interactions/functions are allowed) strict rules about how your data is used, viewed, analyzed, and shared could be enacted.
A decentralized data storage system is akin to Licklider’s initial vision because it spreads the responsibility over many nodes, so if one goes down the system still functions. In the past, this meant the telecommunications network still worked, but today it means your data is still secure and inaccessible to hackers.
The Truth of Advertising
If you’ve spent any time on the Internet, your internet search history and habits are being carefully watched. Companies that dominate the Internet data market (Google, Facebook, etc.) record everything they possibly can about you and what you’re doing online. The current business model of tech giants is to:
- Collect information about your Internet search history;
- Store this information so it can be analyzed by their algorithms;
- Use their algorithms to show you the ads you’re most likely to click on; and
- Sell your attention to companies buying ad space
With more data on your (and others!) Internet history, the more accurate their predictions will become. In turn, they can sell ads at a premium.
Web 3.0 and blockchain provide a solution to tech companies mining and selling your Internet “paper trail”. Internet companies are beginning to create stable cryptocurrencies to pay users for each ad they see. Instead of keeping all the revenue, the company takes a percentage and you get the rest. Brave, a web browser embracing web 3.0 is already doing this with its BAT token.
Things that seemed impossible now will be commonplace with web 3.0. Think back to the 1990s (web 1.0), when the concept of powerful pocket-sized computers was considered science fiction. Now, in the days of web 2.0, we stream 4k video to our phones without giving it a second thought. In the next era of the Internet, everything will change.
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