Over the past 20 years, the internet has changed the world and the lives of billions of people. Most of us don't go a day without some kind of interaction with the internet. Social media, online shopping, gaming, and the world wide web have solidified a place in all our lives, but it's always changing.
Today, a new term is circulating, known as Web 3.0 (or Web3). But what is Web 3.0, and is it that much different from Web 2.0?
What Is Web 2.0?
Before we discuss the new possibilities offered by Web 3.0, let's discuss the kind of internet we all use today: Web 2.0. Web 2.0, also known as the Social Web, is a version of the internet that focuses on user-generated content and social platforms, like YouTube, Twitter, or Instagram. It's generally seen as the internet's second stage of evolution, succeeding Web 1.0.
The term "Web 2.0" found its footing in the tech industry back in the early 2000s, after the founder of tech publisher O'Reilly Media, Tim O'Reilly, discussed the concept of Web 2.0 at a conference. It then became something of a buzzword, with people fantasizing about the kind of possibilities Web 2.0 could provide humanity with. O'Reilly defined Web 2.0 as "the web as a platform," with it later taking on terms like "democracy" and "social web" in its broad definition.
Since its coining and the following hype, the term "Web 2.0" has somewhat fallen out of mainstream circles. But that's not to say our modern-day internet isn't representative of what it stood for.
It's important to note that Web 2.0 isn't a totally new type of internet entirely separate from its predecessor (Web 1.0). Rather, it describes a new or developing way of using the internet. Take cloud computing, for example. Web 2.0 emphasizes this technology, wherein online resources, such as computing power and storage space, can be accessed immediately by users.
Think about what the web is mostly used for on a day-to-day basis. Millions of businesses run using the internet, along with all the streaming and gaming services. There are also entire economies that exist within the confines of the internet! The cryptocurrency market, for one, relies on the internet to function. But above all these stands social media, which has proven incredibly popular and influential in our modern world.
Almost all of us use social media in some capacity, whether it's watching a few YouTube videos a week or running entire businesses via online marketplaces like Etsy and Depop. This evolution from static to user-generated content over the past 10 to 15 years is what Web 2.0 essentially represents.
Currently, we all use a centralized version of the internet (as we always have), with central servers that harbor and process information. Though this internet model isn't necessarily bad, it's susceptible to server malfunctions and cyber attacks. On top of this, a centralized internet allows for a small group of individuals to harbor all the information within a network at once, which can be risky.
In light of these issues, there's now a new way the internet is being conceptualized, known as Web 3.0. So, what exactly is Web 3.0, and is it the future of the internet?
What Is Web 3.0?
The term "Web 3.0" has seen a spike in popularity and is generally used to describe a version of the internet that is decentralized.
A decentralized network is one in which there is no central authority. In other words, no person, or group of people, harbor all the information and processing power within the network at any one time. Instead, it is decentralized and spread among multiple entities. This means that no one can control or change the network's ecosystem entirely on their own.
You may have heard the term "decentralization" in relation to cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. This is because cryptocurrencies operate on a blockchain, with each "block" on the chain containing multiple transaction records.
These blockchains provide transactional information to everyone within the network in the form of a distributed ledger. If a transaction within any given block is altered, removed, or added, the block will be rejected by the rest of the network, making it very secure and reliable.
It's this technology that can provide a network with high levels of transparency and security, and such attributes could certainly be useful for the internet as a whole. On top of this, decentralized networks have no single point of failure, meaning that the network cannot be brought down via the attack of one server or node.
This makes Web 3.0 an exciting possibility. Of course, the concept itself isn't new, having been first imagined over fifteen years ago by Jeffrey Zeldman, a key contributor to the development of both Web 1.0 and 2.0. But it's only now that the idea of a decentralized internet is becoming a closer reality.
On top of decentralization, Web 3.0 will also incorporate a lot of AI-powered features into its ecosystem. Content creation, for example, could go from being solely curated by humans to also being AI-generated. In this case, a whole industry could be created in which companies use intelligent machines to produce content for a human customer base.
In addition to all this, Web 3.0 also allows for much more user control. Individuals can participate in the control web protocols, essentially becoming shareholders rather than users or customers (as they would currently be considered using Web 2.0). Users can tokenize online files such as memes, online tickets, videos, and artworks (similarly to NFTs), opening up a whole new way for online creators to turn a profit and create businesses using their intellectual property.
Web 2.0 vs. Web 3.0: The Future of the Internet Is Here
The range of features offered by Web 3.0 can entirely transform how we view and use the internet, with users having more control, new industries being born, and networks being able to function without a central authority and single point of weakness. Though Web 3.0 is currently in its infancy, it may not be long until we see it become the norm across the world.