Over the years, everything evolves trying to adapt to new demands and technologies that are available. Web3 is a clear example of this. Blockchain technology is transforming the internet that we have known for years. Thus, the idea of a website is being considered where the user is no longer present only as a consumer, but above all as a possessor. This is the basic premise of Web3.
What is Web3?
Many technologists have been raising the idea of a new Internet service based on decentralized blockchains, or what is the same, distributed and shared ledger systems that support cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum or Bitcoin.
Web3 refers to the evolution of the World Wide Web into a more intelligent network, in which data sharing and the use of decentralized applications are encouraged. The new web will be powered by blockchain technology and smart contracts, and will be characterized by being more secure, private and scalable.
Although its popularity has not stopped increasing in recent months, it is a concept that has been used for several years. One of the investors who helped popularize this concept, Packy McCormick, defines Web3 as “an Internet that is owned by developers and users, coordinated with tokens.”
Web3 features
- Designed to be faster, safer and more efficient.
- It works better with mobile devices.
- Ability to support mobile and enhanced reality applications.
- It will allow users to create and manage their own data. That is, they will have control over how their data is used.
- It will not be subject to the limits imposed by centralized service providers.
Where did Web3 come from?
Web3 is not exactly a new concept. Its predecessors are Web1 and Web2, two terms that revolutionized the technological world at the time.
- Web1 or Web 1.0 refers to the first stage of the World Wide Web, which was characterized by the publication of static information on web pages. It was developed in the late 1990s and became popular in the 2000s. In Web 1.0, users could not interact or collaborate with information on web pages. It was kind of like a book, where you can only read the content and you can’t make any changes. Web 1.0 was characterized by the rise of personal websites, online forums, and commercial websites.
- Web2 emerged to break all the problems in Web1. In this second generation of the World Wide Web, users could interact and collaborate with each other. The web ceased to be a static tool to become a dynamic, interactive and collaborative web. It is characterized by the active participation of users and giants of social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. People began to generate and share their own content through social networks, blogs, wikis and other means.
- The predictions are that these two concepts will introduce the new Web3, based on open protocols and decentralized networks managed by the users themselves. In this sense, this new website combines infrastructures from the two previous generations and includes new ones such as blockchain technology.
Is Web3 the future of the Internet?
Experts assure that this new infrastructure is going to be the future of the Internet that we know today, while other critics consider the opposite; that web3 is a double-edged sword with the intention of untying all the cultural and political baggage of current industries.
Others are at a point where they do not consider any of these options, and are faithful followers of the traditional technology already present today.
What we do know is that blockchain technology has brought new concepts to the current market that are having enormous success. This is the case of virtual universes parallel to the real world, also called metaverses, or the revolution in the real estate market thanks to Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT).