We have seen a number of jargon and crypto concepts rising in the market today. From Defi to NFTs, each crypto segment promises a more considerable and better means of digital transactions and advancement in the way the bitcoinsuperstar operates. The cryptocurrency and blockchain industry has been rising and witnessing an increase in its demand and thus, reaches a more expansive audience. Web3 is another buzzword or a cryptocurrency segment, people have been talking about a lot. The concept has emerged in an attempt to bring blockchain applications such as smart contracts, decentralised apps together, however is still very unclear and difficult to pin down in the market today.
WHAT IS THE WEB3 BUZZWORD?
As anticipated by the Web3 Foundation, it is a public internet service where data blocks and content are registered on tokenized, and blockchains, along with the access to manage it on a peer-to-peer distributed network. Web3, also known as web 3.0, objectives are to be decentralised, free of intermediaries, immutable version of the web and to be built via cryptographic verifiability just like cryptocurrency and other decentralised applications (NFTs, DeFi) have been.
However, at the moment, Web3 is more of a vague concept and is still being examined. The fuzziness has somewhere created a certain degree of disagreement across the industry, where some believe it is a revolutionary way to bring the internet back to its libertarian roots, Elon musk defined web3 as nothing but a “marketing buzzword”.
WEB3 AND THE CRYPTO INDUSTRY
The concept consists of blockchain-based decentralisation and is believed to be the backbone of networks that are built by public housing networks. The fundamental idea behind the segment is – One participating in web3, for posting a photo on the blockchain network will result in a token, giving a stake of ownership. This will allow you to participate in making decisions such as removing misinformation, content reporting etc, however, the idea is still facing a lot of indecisiveness.
THE HISTORY OF AND ORIGIN OF WEB 3.0 FROM WEB 1.0 AND WEB 2.0
How does the latest blockchain segment differ from its prior versions?
From 1990 to 2004, the web 1.0 version was the succession of the contemporary internet services and typically engaged users via static web pages (read-only-content, developed and spread by gatekeepers like yahoo and AOL). After which the web 2.0 which encloses 2005 to the current day, can be defined as more of a dynamic and interactive web where the static pages were accompanied by apps and user-generated content. Functioned by dominant platforms, web 2.0 deals with the market power of FAANG companies, which are all exchange services – Facebook (meta), amazon, apple, Netflix, and google.
Whereas, web 3.0 differs from web 2.0 as it is not ruled by powerful gatekeepers and entrusts a more unfair internet service. Here users are repaid for their assistance of the token ownership while keeping the private data secure on a distributed, tamper-proof ledger. The mechanism has resulted in the rise of DAOs (Decentralised autonomous organisations) – developed as a highly democratic internet community with no authorisation or oversight structure.
WEB 3.0 APPLICATIONS
The technology aims to take the underpinning NFTs technology and cryptocurrency features to convert it into a new potential web. One needs to create a crypto wallet in order to access web3 applications. Along with this, a new browser, understanding of the new world terminology, and the readiness to pay the volatile gas fees are also required to take part in the ethereum runner blockchain and its applications. This somehow becomes a barricade for users to invest in and be active users of the technology.
Mastodon and GitHub clone radicles, decentralised social networks are constructed on the web3 principle while on the other hand, a majority of web3 applications revolves around crypto-asset trading or cryptocurrency enhancement in gambling.
Tim O’Reilly, who forged the web2.0 term defines web3 as the future of identity and social media, also asking for the adoption evidence by mentioning the concept as a better mousetrap than the previous versions of internet technology. The rising technology consists of multiple projects on their portal however focuses majorly on the underlying protocols needed to build a reconcilable internet service.
