am not suggesting web3 is real - seems more marketing buzzword than reality now - just wondering what the future will be like in 10, 20 or 30 years. 2051 sounds crazy futuristic!"
Elon Musk - 20 Dec 2021 - Twitter
What is web 3.0? Why is it considered the future of the internet? And why will it be a big move to decentralize social media and online data?
To comprehend Web 3.0, we must first grasp Web 1.0 and Web 2.0.
Web 1.0 refers to the earliest stage of development of the World Wide Web. Previously, there were just a few content providers in Web 1.0, with most users being content consumers. Personal websites were prevalent, with static content housed on ISP-managed web servers or free web-hosting providers. These early websites were referred to as "read-only" web pages.
Advertisements on websites while surfing the internet were prohibited in Web 1.0. Web 1.0 is a content delivery network (CDN) that allows for displaying information on websites. It is suitable for usage as a personal website and charges the user based on the number of pages viewed. It features directories that allow users to locate specific information.
By October 1990, Berners-Lee, a computer scientist at CERN, had created all three key concepts that would become the foundation of the web, including the first webpage editor/browser (WorldWideWeb.app):
1. HTML: Hypertext Markup Language, the layout or styling dialect of the web.
2. URI or URL: Uniform Resource Identifier or Locator, a unique URL used to identify each hyperlink.
3. HTTP: Hypertext Transfer Protocol, which enables the retrieval of related materials from the internet.
Web 2.0 refers to websites worldwide that emphasize user-generated content, usability, and interoperability for end users. Web 2.0 is also known as the participatory social web. It does not refer to a change in any technical specifications but rather to how Web sites are built and used. The internet allows for interaction and collaboration in a social media discussion as the creation of user-generated content in a virtual community. Web 2.0 is a more sophisticated version of Web 1.0.
We live in an era of web progress in which contemporary technology is utilized to secure data but ultimately lacks control over privacy and security. The end of Web 2.0 is inevitable. Web 2.0 is replaced by its more intelligent sibling, Web 3.0, addressing security and privacy concerns. Instead of insecure databases and opaque data sharing procedures, Web 3.0 will return control to the consumers, allowing them to access data from anywhere, primarily due to technological advancements. Web 3.0 will emphasize web interaction and limit managing user content, transforming the web into an extensive database concentrating on correctly classifying the information and keeping it private and secure through advanced technologies.
What benefits does Web 3.0 now offer?
Web 3.0 will decentralize technology, and blockchain technology is the solution to issues related to security and privacy. Blockchain technology makes it possible to keep data secure. With the decentralization of data, personal information will no longer be held in large data centers and corporation databases. Bitcoin was the opening act that marked the beginning of Web 3.0. Public blockchains such as Ethereum provide a decentralized platform for running smart contracts and enable anyone to communicate directly by eliminating intermediaries. For example, Apple, Google, and Facebook would have no authority over user information in Web 3.0, leading to increased personal security, privacy, and freedom of speech.
Web 3.0 is the new wave of online services for websites and apps that will focus on employing a machine-based understanding of data to deliver a data-driven and Semantic Web. Web 3.0's primary goal is to develop more intelligent, connected, and open websites.
Because Web 3.0 has yet to be deployed, there is no clear definition. It took more than ten years to go from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0, so Web 3.0 is predicted to take almost as much, if not more, to ultimately adopt and transform the web. It is better, for now, to look at Web 3.0 as a rising trend in approaching the internet and web content that will spread among us rapidly in the coming years.
We might build Web 3.0 with AI, semantic web, and omnipresent features in mind. AI helps end-users receive quicker, more relevant data. A website that uses AI should be able to shift through and provide the information that it believes a particular user would find helpful. Social bookmarking can deliver a higher search ranking than Google since it uses user votes. People, on the other hand, can manipulate such outcomes. AI might differentiate real results from false ones, delivering social bookmarking-like outcomes without negative feedback.
Web 3.0 aims to make Web searches quicker, simpler, and more efficient, even for complicated queries.
A user interacts with an online communication application's front-end, which connects with its own server and database. The code is transmitted to people via an Internet browser.
Web 3.0 lacks centralized databases for application state storage and a centralized web server for back-end logic. Instead, apps are built on a distributed chain maintained by anonymous web nodes.
Web 3.0 involves four aspects:
1. Ethereum blockchains are peer-to-peer virtual systems accessible globally. Anyone may write to the virtual system. Everyone in the network owns it collectively. Ethereum Cryptocurrency users may write but never change data.
2. Smart contracts are blockchain-based systems. App developers use high-level languages like Solidity or Vyper to construct state change logic.
3. Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) — these computers run the smart contract logic. They deal with the state changes on the state machine.
4. The front-end defines the UI logic. Smart contracts define application logic.
Features of Web 3
Decentralization
Given that information would be retrieved according to its content, it would be possible to store it continuously and simultaneously in many different places. This is the decentralization of data storage. Decentralization would dismantle internet companies like Meta and Google's enormous datasets and give people more power.
Trustless and permissionless
In addition to being decentralized and built on open-source software, Web 3.0 will be trustless and permissionless, allowing users to engage directly without a trusted middleman or intermediary. Web 3.0 applications will operate on blockchains, decentralized peer-to-peer networks, or both. These decentralized programs are called Apps.
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning
In Web 3.0, machines will have the ability to grasp information comparable to that of humans, thanks to technologies founded upon principles from the Semantic Web and natural language processing. Web 3.0 will leverage machine learning, which combines data and algorithms to simulate how people learn, enhancing its accuracy. These skills will allow computers to deliver faster and more relevant outcomes in medical research and novel materials, rather than just targeted advertising. For instance, if you want to travel but have a limited budget, you now have to spend a significant amount of time researching various travel options, such as flights, hotels, and rental cars, on a variety of websites while simultaneously comparing the costs of each option. With Web 3.0, intelligent search engines will compile all of this info and create personalized recommendations on your profile, sparing consumers a significant amount of time.
Connectivity and ubiquity
Web 3.0 makes information and content more linked and ubiquitous, accessible via different apps and many daily gadgets connected to the web.
Everyone must enjoy this, right?
Nope. There's been a high-profile critique of web3. Musk said it "looks more like a marketing phrase than a reality right now." Tweeting, "Has anyone seen Web3? I can't seem to locate it."
Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey questions if it will be free and open. He responded, "You don't own web3. It's up to the VCs and the LPs they have. It is impossible for it to avoid these temptations. In the end, it's just a centralized corporation operating under a new name."
Many contemporary web3 plans are built on blockchain, which might be energy-intensive and contributes to carbon emissions and climate change. For example, it is believed that the Bitcoin blockchain uses almost the same amount of energy as Finland. Other blockchains, such as those that are constructed on algorithms based on proof-of-stake rather than proof-of-work, require a far lower amount of energy to operate.
In the end, Web 3.0 presents many advantages and disadvantages. It will remain a controversial topic in the coming years, but we all know it evolves fast. Web 3.0 has already begun and is gaining more and more size. Some will consider it a spreading disease, and others will see it as an evolution. Will it allow free unlimited freedom of speech on the internet? Will it affect the fabric of human social interaction? Will it affect the economic-political laws that guide us? One can only speculate about these topics with considerable pessimism or optimism.