As technology develops rapidly, it makes it difficult for one to be totally ignorant about the current trends and happenings around the globe. New feats in technology from time to time are put forward for the masses ogle or immediately incorporated for public use. Most recently, there are a lot of buzzes about the future of the internet and most likely, one may have stumbled on some words including "Web 3" ,"Web 2", "Blockchain", "Cryptocurrency" etc.
Well, I should say, it might sound new to some people, while to others, no! I myself, I got to first learn about the difference between"Web 2" and "Web 3", some few months before this post.
Like most conventional writers (or content creators) rituals go, I will immediately blow some wind (or should I say, powder) of knowledge into your vague world of almost complete/semi ignorance of Web 3 (i.e if you are a novice to the new trend). Taking the the first bold step, let's get it cracking by explaining what the "Web" means. Web refers to the World Wide Web (www), which is an information system where documents and other web resources are identified by Uniform Resource Locators (URL), which may be interlinked by hyperlinks, and are accessible over the internet. The internet however is a global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP). So basically , the most done day to day activities, like making social media communication, live streaming services, instant messaging etc.
Web 1.0, Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 actually refers to stages of development of the web and actually represent it's history.
Web 1 refers to the first stage of the World Wide Web evolution, which actually brought out the web pages in the late 1990s. Web 1 was just filled with Web that are just static pages and a huge majority of users are consumers of the content. In Web 1.0 advertisement on websites while surfing the internet was banned. Users of Web 1 were charged per page viewed. Web 1 is mostly regarded as the STATIC WEB.
Web 2.0 refers to the second stage of evolution of the world wide web. It includes websites which highlights user generated contents, usability and interoperability for end users. Web 2.0 is also called the participative social web. Web 2 refers to the version of the internet most of us know today. It is the very Web that has brought us technologies like social networking, instant messaging, live streaming etc. It brought to us useful Web Applications like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram etc. Web 2 is significantly influenced by the use of a central large server for data storage and Web 2 is also called the Dynamic Web.
Web 3.0 is the most recent stage of evolution of the web. It's most core feature is seen in it's decentralization of data storage systems which allows users of the web to also be a key contributor in it. It uses a connection of several interlinkable computers called nodes , of which data isn't owned but instead shared. This distributed network of computers working together enables the development of useful technological features on top of it . Technologies like blockchain technology, cryptography etc. are facilitated by the possibilities brought about by Web 3.0. Web 3 is often called the SEMANTIC WEB.
SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WEB2.0 AND WEB 3.0
| FEATURE | WEB 2.0 | WEB 3.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Decentralization | Web 2 is built on a centralized system whereby data storage on the web is handle by a single (or group) data entities, the servers, which are owned by companies providing the web services. It therefore means that these bodies detect what happens of the data of its web users | This is the core feature of web 3.0. Data storage and information utilization on the web is decentralized, leaving out the central server storage system. Data could be stored in multiple locations simultaneously and hence letting it be decentralized. |
| Ownership/Censorship | Content generated and consumed on Web 2 are regulated and owned by the web providers. This problem of content ownership overlaps also with yet another issue, Censorship, whereby content restriction is implemented in order to hide explicit contents and also suppress free thinking. It some instances it might seem advantageous-providing sanity and nonchalancy to the system. But it significant ways, it ways, it demeans transparency | Being a decentralized system, Web 3.0 offers complete and explicit ownership to the users contents. Since no central body is regulating the flow and type of content, users are allowed to express themselves more freely, without the fear of censorship of contents. |
| Scalability | Scalability here refers to the amount of information exchange between the source and user at a given time. It depicts its speed and capabilities. Web 2.0 currently seems more advantageous in scalability, when compared to Web 3.0. Because of the use of large servers which process information and enable long distance and large scale communication much more effective. This is as a result of fact that data exchange comes from one central source location to the users making it possible to reach almost all designated users at the same amount of time | Scalability is still a major problem in web 3. Owing to the relative infancy of the Web 3, most of its applications are being hindered by this. Most significantly is the blockchain, where transactions registration on blocks are lagged. The distributed network of nodes (computers) makes information exchange between nodes less scalable, especially if the nodes are far apart. This is however improved as computational ability of the nodes used in the network improves. |
| Trustless and Permissionless | Web 2 is a system where virtually every page you use requires one or more means of user verification; where most user personal information are required for trust processes. | One of the core features of web 3 is that it allows participants to interact directly without going through a trusted intermediary (Trustless) and anyone can participate without authorization from a governing body (Permissionless). This allows a lot of peer-to-peer applications where users make interactions anonymously. |
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Top comments (2)
I would argue this is simply an inherent problem with the idea of block-chain. It's not an issue that can easily be figured out with a bit of time; rather, it's the thing that makes web 3 a bad idea until proven otherwise.
As for the censorship argument, although it feels like I'm beating a dead horse here, but some things deserve to be removed from the internet and the fact that web 3 doesn't have a concept for this process makes it incompatible with the law in many areas of the world.
As for "Permissionless", that is about as true as it is for Web 2. You don't need permission to open a HTTP connection to twitter either, in that sense. But just as with conventional websites, it isn't hard to implement these restrictions on top of a block chain either. Permissions would simply be represented as tokens and checked via smart contracts.
And last but not least, the "decentralisation" is also somewhat fake. In the end, the network is still owned by people, and anything that the majority of the network can be convinced of can also be implemented, take the etherium fork for example (you can tell I play too much skyrim because I almost spelled "aetherium")
EDIT -- forgot to say this, but: Web 3 is a scam don't fall for it
web3isgoinggreat.com/