Computers, the internet, the web and the digital age have been evolving over the past years, and many super confusing terms have found their way into our everyday vocabularies.
If you have been paying attention lately you would have come across things like ‘Web3’ and ‘Blockchain’ as this have been the buzz phrases of recent times.
This confusion has always been there for a long time, as most people even use the word ‘web’ and ‘internet’ interchangeably as though they mean the same thing, meanwhile they are quite different.
World Wide Web — the world wide web, or web for short are pages/sites you see when you are on a device, when you are online.
Internet — the internet is a network of connected computers that the web works on.
The web has different versions,
We have version 1, version 2 and version 3.
Version 1: Also known as web1.0 was the first generation of the World Wide Web.
It is also referred to as the read-only web or the static web, where we have static web pages which we can only read informations from but cannot interact with (interactions which includes likes, comments, and even sharing), we could read stuffs like news and journals and the likes. Examples are MySpace and LiveJournal.
Version 2: Also known as web2.0, this is the current state of the internet (as at the time of this writing). While web 1.0 focused on reading, web 2.0 focused on participation and contribution.
On this version of the web users could now not only read contents on the web, but also create contents, share contents, like and comment on other people’s content and even chat or communicate with each other through the web. Examples are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Reddit.
Now back to our main focus Web 3.0
Web3 (also known as Web 3.0) is built on a foundation consisting of the ideas of decentralisation and openness (too many technical terms right, okay)
In simpler terms, web 3 is a version of the web where everyone will own what they do and share, and it will run on blockchain technology.
(explaining in a minute)
Breathe in….
The idea of decentralisation means that:
right now, the platforms we use like facebook, google and twitter are all on a centralized network
a centralized network is an arrangement on the web where participants like (for example) your facebook account and my facebook account must communicate with a central authority (facebook’s server) before we can chat with each other
on the other hand….
a decentralized network is an arrangement where there are multiple authorities or servers distributing the workload instead of relying on a single central server.
So web 1.0 was read-only, web 2.0 was read-and-write, and then web 3.0 is read-write-and-own
Some of the features that make web3 unique are:
- web 3 gives you ownership of your digital assets, like what you have, build or purchase online. web 3 allows for direct ownership through non-fungible tokens(NFTs)
- web 3 allows you to control your digital identity with an Ethereum address.
- web 3 has native payment methods. it uses cryptocurrency for spending and sending money online instead of relying on the outdated infrastructure of bank and payment processors.
This are just a few among many features that web 3 has to offer. web 3 will keep expanding in new areas of application and user-friendliness.
Due to permisionless access, decentralization, and increased connectivity, web 3.0 will be far superior to the existing web system.
