What Is Web 3 and Why Is Everyone Talking About It?

The third generation of the Internet, referred to as Web 3, is focused on giving small users more control over large tech companies.

You may have recently heard the term "Web 3" (also spelled "Web 3" or "Web 3.0") being bandied about a lot. It simply refers to the upcoming version of the Internet, which supports decentralized protocols and aims to lessen reliance on major tech firms like Youtube, Netflix, and Amazon. But what is it, and why do people think about it?

What is Web 3?

It makes sense to understand Web 3 in light of its predecessors. The early Internet, also called Web 1, was a collection of links and homepages that first appeared in the late 1990s. The websites were not very interactive. Apart from reading things and posting straightforward content for others to read, there wasn't much else you could do.

"If people remember their original AOL account, it was an ability to look in a curated "walled garden" at a set of content that was not interactive but was presented to you on AOL, the way that Time Magazine used to show you the articles they wanted you to see inside of their magazine, except you could see it on a screen," said Brian Brooks, the CEO of Bitfury, in a speech to the U.S. Congress in December 2021.

Next was Web 2. About a computer code that enables you to open and edit files rather than view them, some people refer to this as the "read/write" version of the Internet. People could create their content and publish it on blogs like Tumblr, online forums, and marketplaces like Craigslist using this version of the Internet. Later, the emergence of social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram raised the bar for content sharing.

After some time, the general public learned how their personal information was being collected by tech giants and used to develop customized marketing campaigns and advertisements. Facebook, in particular has come under fire numerous times for violating data privacy laws, and in 2019 it was fined $5 billion, the highest amount the Federal Trade Commission has ever imposed (FTC.)

Despite the amazing free services that Web 2 has brought the world, many people are tired of the new "walled gardens" that these large tech companies have established and want more control over their data and content. Web 3 is useful in this situation.

It's possible to think of Web 3 as the "read/write/own" stage of the Internet. Users can take part in the governance and management of the protocols themselves rather than just using free tech platforms in exchange for our data. People can thus become shareholders and participants rather than just clients or commodities.

These shares, which in Web 3 are referred to as tokens or cryptocurrencies, signify ownership of the decentralised networks known as blockchains. You can influence the network if you possess a sufficient number of these tokens. Owners of governance tokens have the option to use their funds to vote on issues like the development of a decentralised lending protocol.

Here is Brooks once more: "The real message here is that what happens on the decentralised internet is determined by the investors versus what happens on the main internet is determined by Twitter, Facebook, Google, and a small number of other companies."

What can you do on Web 3?

 

Web 3 enables the spread of cooperative governance frameworks for previously centralised products. A meme, a work of art, someone's social media posts, or even passes to one of Gary Vee's conferences can all be tokenized.

The gaming sector is an excellent illustration of the paradigm shift. Players complain nonstop about the glitches that developers include in their preferred video game or how their favourite weapon's balance has been thrown off by the most recent patch. With Web 3, players can contribute to the game and decide how it should be run. Virtual worlds powered in part by Web 3 are being developed by large Web 2 companies like Meta and Ubisoft. By enabling players to become the immutable owners of the items they accumulate, non-fungible tokens (NFT) will also significantly contribute to the transformation of the gaming industry.

  

Criticisms of Web 3

 

The best web 3 services company is primarily criticized for falling short of its ideals. Blockchain network ownership is concentrated in the hands of early adopters and venture capitalists rather than being evenly distributed. This topic has recently come to the fore because of a public Twitter spat between Block Inc. CEO Jack Dorsey and several venture capitalists regarding Web 3.

The concept of "decentralisation theatre," in which blockchain projects are decentralised in name but not in practise, is at the core of the criticisms. Examples of decentralisation theatre include private blockchains, venture capital (VC)-backed investments, or decentralised finance (DeFi) protocols where a small number of people control hundreds of millions of dollars.

Additionally, there are obvious figureheads despite the community of protocols' purported lack of leadership. The co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, continues to wield enormous power over the network even though he is no longer actively involved in its development, as noted by Izabella Kaminska, the outgoing editor of the FT blog Alphaville: "Vitalik is a funny and contradictory phenomenon in his own right. The Crypto Syllabus was informed by Kaminska that the man "operates as the spiritual leader of a de facto headless system while holding incredible sway and influence over the headless system he created and oversees.

Within protocols for decentralised finance, things aren't much better. Voter apathy is rampant, they frequently rely on centralised infrastructure, and there is still a high barrier to entry for building them because building blockchains seems to be esoteric magic only for the most specialised engineers.

However, Web 3 has a lot of potential despite its issues. Over the next ten years, regular users will learn whether it's too idealistic to put into practice.

Other than web 3 there is also another technology that is in high demand named metaverse. Build your own metaverse-like app through Metaverse Development Services.