Internet, a system architecture that has revolutionized communications and methods of commerce by allowing various computer networks around the world to interconnect. Sometimes referred to as a “network of networks,” the Internet emerged in the United States in the 1970s but did not become visible to the general public until the early 1990s. By 2020, approximately 4.5 billion people, or more than half of the world’s population, were estimated to have access to the Internet.
Tim Berners-Lee’s internet was to be "a collaborative medium, a place where we all could meet and read and write.” An interconnected computer system designed for scientists to share experiments was soon dominated by AOL, Compuserve, early Yahoo and other portals.
The Internet has now become an integral part of our lives. With the introduction of Social media, Ecommerce, Fintech, News/Blog, Mobile Apps we have fully relied on it to run and make our lives much easier and connect together.
The Evolution Of Web
Even though we live in a connected world, with more and more devices getting connected with the Internet – including our mobiles, watches, cars, TVs, and fridges – our data is still centrally stored: on our computers or other devices, on the USB stick, and even in the cloud. Although the industry of the internet has evolved considerably to its current state, it has been around 20 years but it still is immature and needs a major improvement.
In order for us to understand Web3 we first need to clarify ourselves about the differences in the three main stages of the web that have evolved Web 1.0, Web 2.0, and Web 3.
Web1.0
Web 1.0 was the first version of the web introduced to us roughly around 1090-2005. This vision materialized into an initial version of the web that was composed of interconnected static resources delivered via a distributed network of servers and accessed primarily on a read-only basis from the client side — “Web 1.0”. It was marked by static content (rather than dynamic HTML), with data and content served from a static file (rather than a database). Sites built here had no interactivity at all.
The creators were developers who built websites that provided information to the users generally served in the form of Text, image and Videos.
In short, Web1.0 is read-only-web.
Web2.0
O’Reilly Media coined the concept of Web 2.0 in an attempt to capture such shifts in design principles, which were transformative to the usability and interactiveness of the web.
The Internet we use today predominantly builds on the idea of the stand-alone computer. Data is centrally stored and managed on servers of trusted institutions. The data on these servers is protected by firewalls, and system administrators are needed to manage these servers and their firewalls. This was about siloed, centralized services run by corporations. Most of the value accrued to a handful of companies like Google, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook.
Currently most of the applications that we use are Web2.0 applications which was roughly around (2005-2020). Its content dominates the Internet we all know and use today. Most of us might know of applications like social media, instant messaging, and applications which help to upload media and share contents to anyone around the globe. It’s the application that allows us to log in and do nearly everything that we generally do daily like shopping, making payments, chatting with others, e-health and many more. The applications here are dynamic and often this is served from a centralized database.
Web 2.0’s business model relies on user participation to create fresh content and profile data to be sold to third parties for marketing purposes. Where everyone is trying to build an audience, collect data and monetize that data through targeted advertising.
Web 2.0 is often called the “social web” for centralized authority.
Web3
Web3 is “…an internet owned by users and builders, orchestrated with tokens.” In web3, control is in the hands of the individual.
Chris Dixon (investor)
The concept of Web3 was recently introduced around late 2020.
Midst of the Web2.0 transformation, the web fell out of touch with one of its initial core tenets - decentralization. It is often called ”Decentralized web”. It generally encompasses both decentralized applications commonly known as dApps and decentralized finance commonly known as DeFi like cryptocurrencies, assets or tokens.
The bitcoin network was introduced in 2009, which offered up ethos that Web3 pioneers. Important to note that the internet has not reached what we consider to be Web3, but there are products and services being built that are considered to be “Web3”. This simply means that they adhere to the following principles to varying degrees: open, decentralized, censorship-resistant, immutable, trustless, and permissionless.
We are now at the beginning of the Web3 era, Which combines the decentralized, community-governed ethos of Web1 with the advanced modern functionality of Web2. This relies on two new technologies: decentralized networks and blockchain.
Decentralization: No permission is needed from a central authority to post anything on the web, there is no central controlling node, and so no single point of failure … and no “kill switch”!
Decentralized networks are ones in which the code that powers an application is distributed across hundreds of servers. And a “server” in this case could mean a black box in a server farm, or even the computer you’re working on right now: in decentralized networks, individual users can offer their machine to be part of the network and in some cases be rewarded for their efforts.
Blockchains are special computers that anyone can access but no one owns. It is a distributed database that is shared among the nodes of a computer network. As a database, a blockchain stores information electronically in digital format. Blockchains are best known for their crucial role in cryptocurrency systems, such as Bitcoin, for maintaining a secure and decentralized record of transactions. Blockchain is the technology at the heart of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies. DApp infrastructure is often used for online gaming, DeFi lending protocols, and cryptocurrency tools, but in theory any application could be run as a DApp. This tokenized economy empowers efficient trades by entirely removing an intermediary. Blockchain immutability and cryptography are used to meet the highest security standards to enable perfect transparent audits, prevent data breaches, and avoid identity thefts.
What are dApps?
Web3 applications either run on blockchains, decentralized networks of many peer to peer nodes (servers), or a combination of the two that forms a crypto economic protocol. Dapps are decentralized apps which are built on ethereum smart contracts. These applications are built on a decentralized network which combines a smart contract and a frontend user interface. On Ethereum smart contracts that are accessible and transparent.
What is Smart Contract?
A smart contract on the other hand is code that lives on the Ethereum blockchain and runs exactly as programmed. A smart contract is like open APIs – so your dapp can even include a smart contract that someone else has written. Once smart contracts are deployed on the network you can't change them. Dapps can be decentralized because they are controlled by the logic written into the contract, not an individual or company. This also means you need to design your contracts very carefully and test them thoroughly.
They are like normal apps, and offer similar functions, but the key difference is they are run on a peer-to-peer network, such as a blockchain. DApps—which are often built on the Ethereum platform—can be developed for a variety of purposes including gaming, finance, and social media.
Decentralization: No permission is needed from a central authority to post anything on the web, there is no central controlling node, and so no single point of failure … and no “kill switch”!
History of the web by Web Foundation
- Web1 – Static
- Web2 – Dynamic
- Web3 – Decentralized
Summary
Web 3.0 will bring us a fairer internet by enabling the individual to be a sovereign.It offers a new way that combines the best aspects of the previous stages of web. It’s very early in this movement and a great time to get involved.True sovereignty implies owning and being able to control who profits from one’s time and information. Web 3.0’s decentralized blockchain protocol will enable individuals to connect to an internet where they can own and be properly compensated for their time and data. The centralized storage of information are the ones who own and profit from it but with this technology we empower the creator themselves.
For example we use Google Drive or Dropbox to share our files and folders to other people in the cloud but instead we could use Storj which helps to transfer and share files and data through a peer-to-peer connection.
References and recommendations
The Ultimate Guide to Web3
Web3 education
What is Web3
Web3 in a Nutshell
Ethereum Organization
Thank you .
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