Web 3.0: Future of Internet or Just another Hype?

If you are following the recent developments in Crypto and Blockchain, you must have heard about this new version of the web which is web 3.0. Many believe it will revolutionize the way we interact with the internet, similar to when we adopted web2 in the early 2000s. Everyone is talking about how a massive game changer it is going to be for the internet. But what exactly is Web 3.0? How is it different than the web we are currently using? Let’s find out.

Web 3.0 is the internet of blockchain. It is the next version of the World Wide Web built on the blockchain network using decentralized protocols.

Like any good tv series, you cannot watch the third season without knowing what happened in the previous two seasons. So, let’s quickly recap how the Web evolved:

Web 1.0 (1991 – 2004): The Read-only Internet

Web 1.0 was the first installment of the World Wide Web that existed between 1991 to 2004. During that time, the internet was mostly a collection of static pages connected via hyperlinks. The content on these web pages was maintained by the companies who are hosting these websites. Users could load these web pages, but there was no way they could interact with them. There was no login, writing comments, or sharing posts. That’s why many people call it the Read Only internet.

Key features of Web 1.0

1. Static web pages
2. One-way flow of information
3. No user interaction
4. Read-only internet
5. Built on technologies: HTML, URL, and HTTP

Web 2.0 (2005 – Now): Read-Write Internet

Since 2005, the internet has evolved a lot. The concept of Web 2 was introduced at this time and it radically changed the way people interacted with the internet. Users were not only consuming information from the internet but also sharing their data with the internet, thereby creating two-way communication. Advanced web technologies like Javascript, CSS, and HTML5 led the development of feature-rich and interactive web pages. Interactive web platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube allow users to create their own content and share it across the internet. As users started interacting more with the internet, the centralized companies that run the websites, started collecting user data to better serve the audience.

Centralized companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Amazon, etc emerged as giant corporations during this era by leveraging on the user data that you and I share with them knowingly or unknowingly. For example, if you open your Facebook account, your news-feed will look very different than mine. That’s because Facebook collects data about posts you liked, and videos you watched, and based on that data, it recommends posts that you are more likely to watch. Every other platform uses your data to personalize your experience so that you spend more time on their platform, thereby creating more revenue for them.

It might not seem concerning at first, but if you look at the ads on these platforms you will realize they have a lot of information about you that you probably didn’t know about. The product you searched online they know it, where you go to work every day, when you pick up your kids, which restaurant you visit the most, which places you are travelling to, they have all the data. Suddenly it sounds concerning, doesn’t it? The worst part is, this data is owned by these big corporates. They control the platforms, collect user data, store it in centralized databases, and sell the data for profits.

Can you really trust these big corporates with your personal data? Reports of data breaches are nothing new. Facebook data breach in 2019 impacted 533 million users, Yahoo data breach in 2013 exposed 3 billion accounts, LinkedIn data breach in 2021 impacted 700 million users. There are many such examples. With so much data available online, privacy and security have really been a key issue of Web 2.0.

How Web 2 Works?

Web 2.0 works in a client-server model. When you browse the internet through your mobile or PC, your request will go to a centralized server. The server will process your request, fetch the details from its database and show the response on your device. If you are accessing the Facebook app, your request will go to the Facebook server. This server and the underlying database that contains your data is controlled and governed by Facebook itself.

Problems with Web 2:

1. Single point of failure: Centralized servers can go down, and during that time you can not access the website. There is nothing much that you can do really.
2. Security threat: Centralized databases that contain all the user data are extremely lucrative for hackers. Data theft often put users vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
3. Collects personal data: Apps that you install on your phone, or the websites you login, collects some sort of personal information about the users. Few details users give away willingly, however sometimes they collect data about their users without them really knowing about it. We unknowingly give access to our files, folders, location, camera, microphone, call logs to these apps. They can misuse the data or sell the data to advertisers for money.
4. Censorship: A central entity who runs the website, controls that platform. They can censor content, restrict accounts, or ban users from the platform in case of violation of their terms and conditions.

This centralized nature of control and money is why people are looking for an alternative.

Web 3.0: Read-Write-Owned internet

Web 3 is the next generation of the internet built on a blockchain network using decentralized protocols. Users will not only create content for the Web but also govern and own a part of the network. Web 3 aims to provide an alternative to Web2 where we all are users, owners, and developers. Web3 will allow users to interact with each other through a peer-to-peer network without the involvement of any third party. Distributed technologies like Ethereum, and IPFS can serve as the backbone of the decentralized web. There are already thousands of Decentralized applications (dApps) being built that run on a blockchain or peer-to-peer (P2P) network of computers instead of a single computer.

For example, Odysee is a web3 alternative to YouTube. Unlike YouTube, you can not censor or remove a video because it exists on a blockchain. It works as a big torrent network where a user downloads a video and shares it with others who also download and watch it. So your uploaded video will be on thousands of other computers in the world and no central authority can take it down.

How Web 3 Works?

If you look at the Web 3 architecture, you can see that there is no centralized server or database where the request is going. That is because there is no centralized database where the application state is stored. Instead, it is stored in a distributed ledger that is present across all the nodes in the blockchain network. So, there is no single point of failure. Failure of one node will not affect the broader network. Additionally, the blockchain network is secured by cryptography, so no one can alter the smart contract code of a node and affect the network. This makes the network extremely secure without having to rely on somebody else.

Key Features of Web 3.0

1. No central authority: No CEO or family controls a company in web3. Any changes to the company have to be done through voting. Those who hold the most tokens (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations or DAOs in short) get to decide how the company changes.
2. No censorship: No central authority can censor content, de-platform users, or restrict access. It can not be shut down by a central body.
3. Anonymous Identity: You don’t need to provide your physical identity to interact with a blockchain network. So, your physical identity cannot be traced through your digital activity. You can view pages, download content, and make purchases without sharing your real identity.
4. No single point of failure: In web3, the application state is stored in a distributed ledger that is present across all the nodes in the blockchain network. So, the failure of one node will not affect the broader network.
5. Data privacy: You don’t have to give up your personal data at the mercy of some centralized company for their benefit. Users will have more control over their data.
6. Security: Blockchain networks are usually extremely secure, thanks to cryptography technology. So no one can alter the smart contract code of a node and affect the whole network.
7. Open Source: Web3 smart contracts are fully open source for anybody to see. So, building on web3 is really developer friendly. You don’t need APIs. You can just fork the code and build on top of that.

Limitations of Web 3.0

1. Slow Response time: Because of the decentralized nature, retrieving data and performing computation is a lot slower when compared to a central server. So, Web 3 apps are slower compared to Web 2 apps.
2. Poor user experience: To use Decentralized applications (dApps), users require a certain degree of technical knowledge in areas like wallet setup, interacting with web3 wallet, passwords, secret keys, etc. That is why it is still far away from web2 apps when it comes to being user-friendly.
3. Gas fees: To use web3 applications, users need to pay a fee (gas fee) to execute the smart contract. This discourages users to switch from their web2 applications which are practically free to use.
4. Long update time: Updating Decentralized applications take a long time as it needs to be approved by all the participants. So, frequent updates and patches are a challenge in web3
5. Being open source, hackers will have full access to the smart contract codes to find out any loophole.
6. Lack of censorship: Without any central authority, people might use web3 to upload hateful or illegal contents which cannot be taken down.

Conclusion:

Being a strong believer in crypto, I firmly believe decentralized technologies will overthrow centralized structures. It will happen in finance with Decentralized Finance (DiFi), and it will happen for the web. While web2 revolutionized how we interact with the internet, it also made us slaves to the centralized system. Web3 promises to bring control back to the people from these big corporates. It will help us create a more inclusive internet where nobody is left out irrespective of race, gender, geography, or opinion.

However, being a new technology, it has many challenges to overcome. While a few challenges may seem impossible to solve, the situation is not much different from when web2 was first introduced. Many of the things we do today over the internet, seemed impossible in the early 2000s. As the community grows, technological advancements will happen, and solutions will be built. Who knows, maybe this version of the web is going to be the best one yet!