What the hell is web3?
The internet has been around for a little over 30 years and many of us can’t imagine a life without it. Whether you grew up with an internet connection or you discovered it in your adulthood, right now it’s a fundamental part of our routine.
It has evolved in many aspects and, at this point in time, we’re experiencing a shift in paradigm. So many new things are coming to light, and what once sounded like science fiction is now closer than ever to reality.
Web3 is one of those things.
Web3 vs metaverse
Before we go any further, it’s important to stress that web3 and the metaverse are not the same thing, despite being used interchangeably by many.
The metaverse, especially if you’re thinking of Meta’s roadmap for it, is decades away from us. Interoperability, hardware and software development, democratic access to both technology and education, and many other important details are still far from reality.
Web3 is a step in that direction. It lays the foundation for a trustless and transparent world wide web.
History of the WWW
In 1990 the first web browser and server went live at CERN, in Switzerland.
Other than research, it’s first practical use was a live shot of a coffee pot rigged up to a server and shared on that first browser, so researchers from the other side of the building wouldn’t waste a trip to the coffee room. From that, we can say that it was clear the internet had the potential to revolutionize our lives.
It took a year or two before it reached the general public but when it did, adoption was exponential. Before we knew it, it was an integral part of our daily routines.
As with any new technology, skeptics had a lot to say about it, and 1995 was the year critics took the stage to share their opinions and concerns about the “temporary fad” of surfing the web. Most of those statements didn’t age well.
“The truth is no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer network will change the way government works,” — Newsweek, 27 February 1995.
A lot has happened since then. Google went live, online classes became routine, the UN declared access to it a basic human right. Most of us start our days connected to the web, be it in the form of reading the news or checking up on social media. Our daily interactions are permeated by the connectivity provided by the web.
All those developments, and others that came throughout the years, can be divided into two eras: web1 and web2.
You’re probably reading this on web2 and soon enough we’ll be entering web3.
On the table below, you can compare the main characteristics of the past, present and future webs.
Web1 | 1991–2004
If you’ve been here since the 90s, you’re one of the OGs.
Back then, we could call it the wild west web. Few people knew how to use it and even fewer had the ability to work with it, the distinction between developers and consumers was very clear.
Nearly all content was text based and what little interaction we had was through chat rooms. If you’ve ever been on an AOL chat, congratulations, you’re getting old.
Things started to change at the turn of the century. Facebook, Orkut and Myspace made their debut between 2003 and 2004 and shifted the way we interacted through the web.
Web2 | 2004 — now
With wider reach and faster connections, the internet started to consolidate its space in our lives.
Through sites like Blogger, Flickr and MySpace, people could take a more active role in the web. You didn’t need to be a developer or work for a web-focused company in order to create content. You could simply upload your work and have it available for the whole world to see.
If you’ve been around for long, you’ve probably noticed a steady increase in advertisement throughout the web. First it benefited companies and providers, but soon enough it reached the general public, making it possible to earn money through creating content on the internet.
In just a couple of years, people could turn content creation into a full time job. From Youtubers and Tiktokers to small businesses and young entrepreneurs. Humanity is full of potential, and the internet allows us to reach unimaginable distances. Now, creators can make a living through adsense and paid partnerships.
All of it is possible because advertisement is one of the key points behind our current web. If you’re able to access something for free then it’ll certainly come with a ton of ads. Your time — and consequently your data — is the coin you use to surf the web2.
Data is the bargaining chip we use everyday in exchange for content. Over 1.8 billion people have shared their sensitive information with Google in order to use their email service, same goes for the 2.8 billion people that have a Facebook account. Right now you might even be logged into Medium, or maybe you’ve got here through Twitter. Are you able to recall every website you’ve ever made an account at?
As data leaks become routine, we are faced with the harsh reality that maybe we shouldn’t be handing out our information so easily.
If companies like Meta — parent company of Facebook and Instagram — or Alphabet — parent company of Google — were to have their databases breached, the amount of sensitive data that would fall in the hands of people with ill intent is catastrophic. Right now we’re all crossing our fingers that it never happens to us.
We trust these companies with a significant amount of lives, be it with our information or with how much we rely on them in our routines. That in itself poses a risk we are all too familiar with: server crashes. Given that these services are centralized and function through servers, if something happens at the core we all feel the consequences of it.
In October 2021, Facebook servers went down for approximately six hours, making it impossible to use any of their products — like Instagram and Whatsapp. It might seem like something small if you look at them simply as social networks to connect with friends, but small businesses that rely on those apps will disagree. If you need numbers to believe, it’s estimated that the company lost $13 million dollars in advertising for every hour it was down.
Centralization is the root of many problems in our current web. Data security, overreliance and censorship, just to name a few.
Unfortunately, these companies provide very necessary services. They handle the need for trust between users, aggregate content, and provide a “platform” where people can speak and be heard. Web3 wants to achieve all of that in a decentralized and transparent way.
Web2 “Platforms” VS Web3 Platforms
Bill Gates was once quoted saying:
“A platform is when the economic value of everybody that uses it, exceeds the value of the company that creates it. Then it’s a platform.”
That definition leaves very little space for maneuvering.
The term has been thrown around a lot lately, with many companies calling themselves a platform of some kind. If we were to take Gate’s definition as a basis to decide what is and what isn’t, we’d realise not a single real platform exists on web2. Nearly all we see today is a relationship between creators and users being intermediated by companies.
The main issue faced by P2P — peer to peer — interactions is the need for trust. In web2 that problem is solved by middlemen, where the likes of Amazon and Airbnb handle the need for trust. Unlike the old school chat rooms, people are no longer anonymous.
Despite the rich creator economy we see flourishing nowadays, their value is only as much as the ad revenue they generate. Creators depend on the advertising traffic they bring and the centralization of companies behind these “platforms” allow for things like algorithms to sway the reach of content to their liking.
One of the points of web3 is giving creators the ability to handle their content without the need of centralized “aggregators” — giving rise to proper platforms.
Web3
We can define web3 as trustless, decentralized and anonymous, made possible through the use of blockchain technology — you can read more on how it works on these posts here and here.
It’ll be trustless because any and everyone can verify the authenticity of an information, through this transparency we’ll no longer need intermediaries to handle our trust. Decentralized because blockchain doesn’t rely on servers, it exists on every computer in the network and it’ll continue to operate regardless of parts of it going down. Anonymity comes from the fact that your data is your own, no one has access to your private information and verification is done through cryptography.
When we think of decentralization and freedom from intermediaries, community becomes a focal point. We are seeing a rise in the popularity of DAOs — decentralized autonomous organizations — where users have the power to decide the future of the platforms they’re a part of. Through voting, decisions are made to benefit the whole, not to bring profit to a central organization.
A creator economy will be empowered through tokenization. Users have the power to choose what they want to consume and new ideas can be made possible by the community surrounding it. Venture capital will no longer be necessary nor will dictate the direction innovation goes. We can see examples of it with projects like Bored Ape Yacht Club and Decentraland.
Limitations
With new technologies comes the need to bridge the gap between expectations and reality.
Some web3 limitations are inherited from the blockchain itself. Developers still need to work on the network’s scalability. While transaction times and costs are high, use — and consequently adoption — will be limited.
Accessibility is also an issue. Blockchain is still finding its way into the mainstream radar, and education is an important step that needs to be taken. It’s essential that people understand what’s behind the technology in order to make a conscious decision of adopting it or not. Without healthy discussions of the pros and cons, we’ll find ourselves drowning in misinformation and scare campaigns.
As utopic as it all seems, we’re already paving the way in the right direction. Web3 is sprouting on the fertile ground provided by the past 30 years of internet use, but there are still many aspects of it that need to be studied, discussed and experimented with in order to make it viable.
Just like with web1 and web2, there are many skeptics and some of them will bring to light valid points of discussion. Evolution, development and experimentation is the only way forward, as remaining static won’t solve the problems we face with the current state of the web.
What we are experiencing right now is historic and taking part in it is a unique opportunity.
Want to learn more about the world of NFTs? Stay connected by following our socials and subscribing to our blog!
