Web3 and Blockchain Technology
Web3 is the answer to this dilemma.
What is Web3
Web3 is an idea, vision, and movement for a decentralized web that is nearly free of centralized third-party intermediaries. This feature essentially makes it pro-privacy for a user’s data and also renders it more user-centric instead of platform or business-centric. The idea was first presented by none other than the inventor of the World Wide Web Tim Berners-Lee in 1999 as a Semantic web that would involve AI.
Web3 Applications
Using Blockchain technology, all data and content of Web3 are jointly hosted in peer-to-peer networks
Bitcoin
Cryptocurrency is not tied to or under the control of any government. This has the potential to change the relationship between governments and their people.
NFT
NFTs can be issued for digital artwork, in-game items, real estate in a metaverse, and more. This gives artists the ability to sell NFTs to indicate unique ownership of digital art.
DApps
Using Blockchain technology, developers have been creating decentralized alternatives to popular services. There are now social networks such as Diaspora and media repositories such as LBRY. Ethereum takes this further and hosts a wide number of apps within its Blockchain.
Smart contracts
Blockchains are also the basis for smart contracts. Currently, the largest smart contract platform is Ethereum. They have smart contract coding languages, which automatically perform actions agreed by both parties such as transferring assets or imposing penalties
DAOs
DAOs are governed by smart contracts that are reached via voting system. Token holders can vote based on the number of tokens they carry. This makes their governance bottom-up, with every stakeholder having a stake and a say in the organization.
Pros and Cons of Web3
Blockchain technology and decentralized systems have their fans and detractors.
Advantages
You own your personal information: Users are able to enjoy dApps and participate in Web3 economy without giving away personal information. This gives users more bargaining power when volunteering such information. For example, Datacoup exchanges cryptocurrency for information.
No middlemen: Smart contracts enable people to make agreements without lawyers. Creators can receive better compensation for their work, with platforms taking less of a cut. Removing middlemen frees up resources for other users.
No censorship: With content no longer tied to any specific platform, content creators no longer have to worry about being censored, demonetized, or de-platformed.
Disadvantages
No regulation: While Web3 content cannot be censored, this also means fake news (news designed to deceive) can be freely disseminated. This requires users to exercise greater vigilance, judgment, and digital literacy.
High energy consumption: Blockchain technologies involve duplicating the same information over thousands of nodes. To verify the addition of new content, each node then has to send the information yet again to other nodes. All these activities consume large amounts of resources. As measured in late 2021, the electricity spent mining Bitcoin at a given moment was enough to power Austria or Finland.
Cover for criminal activity: The anonymous nature of cryptocurrency makes it the perfect way to finance illegal activity. It’s no coincidence that ransomware often demands payment in crypto.
The early Web
Web most of us know today is quite different from originally imagined. To understand this better, it’s helpful to break the Web’s short history into loose periods—Web 1.0 and Web 2.0.
Web 1.0: Read-Only (1990-2004)
In 1989, at CERN, Geneva, Tim Berners-Lee was busy developing the protocols that would become the World Wide Web. His idea? To create open, decentralized protocols that allowed information-sharing from anywhere on Earth.
The first inception of Berners-Lee’s creation, now known as ‘Web 1.0’, occurred roughly between 1990 to 2004. Web 1.0 was mainly static websites owned by companies, and there was close to zero interaction between users – individuals seldom produced content – leading to it being known as the read-only web.
Web 2.0: Read-Write (2004-now)
The Web 2.0 period began in 2004 with the emergence of social media platforms. Instead of a read-only, the web evolved to be read-write. Instead of companies providing content to users, they also began to provide platforms to share user-generated content and engage in user-to-user interactions. As more people came online, a handful of top companies began to control a disproportionate amount of the traffic and value generated on the web. Web 2.0 also birthed the advertising-driven revenue model. While users could create content, they didn’t own it or benefit from its monetization.
Web 3.0: Read-Write-Own
The premise of ‘Web 3.0’ was coined by Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood shortly after Ethereum launched in 2014. Gavin put into words a solution for a problem that many early crypto adopters felt: the Web required too much trust. That is, most of the Web that people know and use today relies on trusting a handful of private companies to act in the public’s best interests.
Why is blockchain technology the future?
Blockchain facilitates the verification and traceability of multistep transactions that require verification and traceability. It can ensure secure transactions, lower compliance expenses, and accelerate data transfer processing. Blockchain technology can aid in contract administration and product auditing.
