Web3 is the next iteration of the World Wide Web, hosting decentralized applications running on Blockchain technology. Web3 uses a technology stack built on top of a decentralized blockchain, which allows for novel business and social models. Web3 will first provide value to major enterprises via applications benefiting from the new blockchain-enabled business models, as well as social and gaming networks. Web3, so the story goes, will displace big companies with open protocols and community-driven, decentralized networks, merging the open infrastructure of Web1 with the community involvement of Web2.
Called Web 3 and web 3.0, Web3 does away with the need and functions of Web 2.0s central authorities and gatekeepers, like major search engines and social media platforms. Instead of the web being monopolized by major tech companies, Web3 embraces decentralization, being built, operated, and owned by its users. What makes Web 3.0 appealing is that Web 3.0 is decentralized, meaning instead of consumers accessing the Internet via services that are mediated by companies such as Google, Apple, or Facebook, individuals own and control sections of the Internet themselves. Web3 provides decentralized protocols and technology stacks which can be used to create parts of a metaverse, and the new communities and economies it will enable.
Web 3.0 (also known as web3) is the third iteration of the Internet, which connects data in a decentralized manner in order to deliver a faster, more personalised user experience. Web 3.0 is the third generation of Internet services for websites and applications, which will focus on using a machine-based understanding of data to provide a data-driven, semantic web.
Additionally, Web3 will allow websites and applications to make better use of data and adapt information for every user. Core features from Web 2.0, such as decentralization and permissionless systems, will also allow users much greater control over their personal data.
Data decentralization and establishing a transparent, safe environment will be enabled by advancing technologies like distributed ledgers and blockchain storage, which will challenge Web 2.0s centralization, surveillance, and exploitative advertising. In a decentralized Web, individuals will have rightful control over their data when decentralized infrastructures and application platforms replace centralized tech companies. With Web 3.0, the data generated from a variety of increasingly powerful computing resources–including phones, desktops, appliances, vehicles, and sensors–will be sold to users via decentralized data networks, which ensures users maintain control over ownership.
Because of Web 3.0s core decentralization features, Web 3.0 lends itself to technologies like blockchain, distributed ledgers, and decentralized finance (DeFi). It is the blending of older-generation Web tools with cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence and blockchain, and interconnectivity among users and increased Internet use. More concretely, the Blockchain is a basis for the Web, since Blockchain is changing the data structures on the backends of semantic Web.
Web3 is not just a way of managing data, but web3 is also a way to re-allocate ownership across the entire web. In broad terms, though, web 3 refers to an Internet made possible by decentralized networks like bitcoin and ether.
Proponents envision Web3 as an Internet where we no longer need to give up our personal information to companies such as Facebook and Google to use their services. Web 3 is, essentially, a new way for individuals to use the Internet without giving up their privacy and valuable data.
Even if you are not a fan of Blockchain technologies such as Bitcoin and NFTs, you may have heard of Web3 (or Web 3.0). Now, everywhere we look, people are talking about Web3 (or sometimes, Web 3.0) — the supposedly next great evolutionary leap for the Internet. The sky-high claims surrounding web3 – that web3 is going to capture the internet, overturn the financial system, redistribute wealth, and make the web democratic once more – need to be taken with a grain of salt.
Advocates claim Web3 will bring about new economies, new classes of products, and new services to the internet; that it will bring democracy back to the web; and that it will define the next era of the web. The idealistic ones say Web3 will change the internet as we know it, overturning the traditional gatekeepers and bringing about a new, digital economy without intermediaries. A growing chorus of skeptics warns that web3 is corrupted by speculation, theft, and privacy issues, and that the pull of centralization and the proliferation of new middlemen is already undermining the utopian claim to a decentralized web.
Wood, as well as those supporting the concept of Web3, argue that Web 2.0 is controlled by Big Tech, which is itself subject to regulatory bodies, who may or may not be effective in maintaining the publics confidence in the Internet or data security. Proponents envision Web3 taking a variety of forms, including decentralized social networks, play-to-win video games that award players crypto tokens, and NFT platforms that enable individuals to buy and sell pieces of digital culture.
In this paper, we look at what is, potentially, the next great iteration of the web; one where users wrest control away from the centralized corporations currently dominating the internet. We are just in the early days of building the better Web with Web3, but the future of the Web looks brighter as we continue to enhance the infrastructure that will power Web3.
Web 2.0 is the current version of the Internet (a term that is often used interchangeably with the web) with which we are all familiar, whereas Web 3.0 represents its next stage. While Web 3.0 uses technologies built around semantic Web concepts and natural language processing to make user interactions more intuitive, Web 3.0 also has other features, such as widespread usage of artificial intelligence and machine learning, as well as trustless/permissionless systems like blockchains and peer-to-peer networks. Web 3.0 is the latest Internet technology to leverage machine learning, AI, and blockchain for achieving true, human-to-human communications.