WEB 3 / Blockchain — More Than Just The New Shiny Kid On The Block
I’m sure you must have heard about terms like web 3, blockchain, cryptocurrency, bitcoin, etc.
When people hear about terms that have to do with blockchain technology, it sometimes sounds like another new shinny technology on the block. But I believe this technology is much more than that and it has the potential to alter our world in a very dramatic way.
Ray Kurzweil in March 2001 published an essay arguing that humans found it hard to understand their own future. He stressed that this is historically correct and that technological evolution is exponential. Web 3 is a part of this evolution and the world would slowly start to adopt this.
In this article, I intend to share some interesting thoughts with you so please stay with me.
A little bit about Web 3
In order to fully grasp the context of what web 3 is about, let me start by walking you through a brief history.
The dawn of the internet age started with the introduction of Web 1 otherwise known as Web 1.0. This lasted for roughly 12 years (between 1991 to 2003).
At this time, most of the users of the internet were consumers. Developers served static text and image content to the browsers. It is important to note that whilst web 1.0 was around, we were not seeing so much dynamic HTML content coming from some database. The content creators in this era were the software engineers that served static content.
After the age of Web 1, we moved over to the glorious reign of Web 2.
A large portion of what we have today is Web 2, think of it as the interactive web. With web 2.0, non-developers can create content on the internet. You don’t have to be a developer to have social media content, a website, or web content in general. That is because contents can now be served dynamically from a database.
In fact, most web content creators today are not software developers. Most users with the highest following on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter do not need to write a line of code to serve content. The game-changer with Web 2 is the ability to save and retrieve contents from a database and dynamically serve it to the web. With web 2, data would have to be retrieved from some server (data center) and this would then be sent to the users’ browsers.
Web 2 was a game-changer but there is something even better and that is where Web 3 comes.
You can read more about the evolution of the web here.
Web 2 vs Web 3
There are a few differences between Web 2 and Web 3. But one of the major differences between this duo is decentralization. We have established earlier that Web 2 works with data from some data centers so this allows individuals or corporations to call the shots. The organization/individuals that own the servers determine a lot of things, this is the way a typical Web 2 application operates (think of the big names like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc):
- They create and launch their application on the web.
- They acquire users and launch a market strategy to monetize their platform.
- They keep increasing their product offerings and come up with ways to scale and generate more revenue for their platform.
You’d realize that the company calls all the shots and they control the movement of revenue. One of the major phenomena that allow this model to thrive is Data.
The more they acquire more users, they have access to more data and they find ways to use this data to generate more revenue.
Whilst this article is not going to be focused on how companies leverage user data to generate revenue, you would see many ways this can be done by just doing a quick google search.
As a result of this, data-breach has become a big issue and this is one of the things Web 3 hopes to resolve using decentralization.
Where does Blockchain fit into the mix?
In Web 3, developers would not usually build and host it on servers somewhere around the world (we’ve established earlier that this is the guiding principle for Web 2). Web 3 makes use of decentralized networks. With decentralized networks, developers are incentivized for creating a stable network within the blockchain. This is why crypto-currency is often mentioned with buzzwords like blockchain, decentralization, etc.
This is the guiding principle of Web 3.
Wealth on the internet would become more distributed as people would now get incentivized for their contribution to the blockchain.
It is important to state that Web 3 is the web holding the blockchain technology. While the blockchain is a distributed, decentralized, and digital ledger, there are protocols and standards guiding its use and access. There is also a high-security vulnerability on Web 3 when compared to Web 2. In other words, it is susceptible to cyber-attacks and lots of funds can be lost. It is also immutable(this facilitates transparency and trust).
Prophecy: The Digital Gold Rush
Between 1896 to 1900, there was a massive gold rush in parts of Canada and the United States. Many people relocated to locations where gold mines were situated. In fact, people were said to quit their lucrative jobs just to work at gold mines. Those were interesting times and I could just imagine what it felt like.
Just like there was a rush in the 1800s / early 1900s, I believe there would be another rush for assets, it would be digital assets this time around via digital mining. I believe that individuals and organizations need to start coming up with ways to position themselves for the opportunities that would come with the adoption of Web 3.
There are many ways people would be able to buy digital assets, using Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), would be key to doing this. Just like the value of assets varies, the value of NFTs would also vary depending on a lot of parameters. If you are wondering what NFTs are, then watch this video and this video too.
Blockchain technology would be applied in many areas eg gaming, payments, insurance, real estate, voting, logistics, gambling, etc.
If you are a developer, you can get started by learning how to develop for Web 3, this article can get you started.
For non-developers, you can be part of this evolution by learning how the blockchain works. I believe we would need designers, product managers, etc to understand how Web 3 works so we can start rolling out amazing products.
I do hope this article was informative. Do feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn if you want to have an interesting discussion around this topic.
