An Overview of Web 3.0, Part 1

Part 1: Introduction to Web 3.0

What Is the Web 3.0?

Web 3.0, sometimes known as “Web3′′ or “Web 3′′, is a word that has recently become very popular in the tech community. It refers to the 3rd generation of the internet, which encourages decentralised standards and seeks to lessen reliance on giant tech firms. Furthermore, Web 3.0 applications and websites will be able to handle data in a sophisticated human-like manner thanks to advances such as distributed databases, natural language processing, deep learning, and autonomous agents.

This is the first of a two-part series that will introduce you to Web 3.0, its architecture, features, practical applications, as well as its relationship with cryptocurrency. The second instalment of the series will highlight the difference between Web 3.0 and the Metaverse; further, explore how Web 3.0 fits into the cryptocurrency, NFT, and gaming industries; and give full details on the criticism of Web 3.0 by big some names in the tech industry.

It is necessary to understand what came before Web 3.0 to completely comprehend it. Here’s a bit of background on Web 3.0.

Brief Background

The internet has grown dramatically in recent years, and its applications today are nearly indistinguishable from its earliest days. The development of the web is sometimes divided into three phases: Web 1.0, Web 2.0, and Web 3.0.

Web 1.0 (1989-2005)

Although only providing access to restricted content with little to no user involvement, Web 1.0, also known as the Static Web, was the earliest and most dependable internet in the 1990s. Building user pages or simply reacting to articles by leaving comments wasn’t a thing back then. Because there were no algorithms to sift through internet sites in Web 1.0, it was incredibly difficult for consumers to obtain useful information. During the era of Web 1.0, information was created by only a few people and data was primarily sourced from directories.

Web 2.0 (2005-present)

Web 2.0, popularly known as the Social Web made the internet much more engaging due to developments in web standards such as Javascript, HTML5, CSS3, and others. These web technologies allowed companies to establish engaging web portals like Medium, Facebook, Wikipedia, YouTube and so many more. This opened the door for the growth of social networking and consumer content creation, as information can now be transferred and exchanged across several platforms and applications.

Web 3.0 (On its way)

Web 3.0 is the next phase of internet growth. According to Tim Berners-Lee, the Semantic Web is intended to “naturally” communicate with networks, individuals, and household gadgets. As a result, both humans and robots will be involved in content development and decision-making activities. This would permit for the smart generation and dissemination of highly personalized information directly to each web user.

Web 2.0 vs 3.0 On An Architectural Basis

Web 2.0 refers to the iteration of the web that many of us are familiar with today. A web controlled by businesses that offer services in return for your details. Web 3.0 refers to decentralised programs that operate on the blockchain. Web 3.0 applications allow users to join without having to monetise their data. Web 3.0 apps, often known as decentralised applications (DApps), have a fundamentally different design from Web 2.0 applications. Consider Medium or Tumblr, a basic blogging service that allows users to post their material and engage with information from other users alike. It may appear easy as a web 2.0 application, but a lot goes on behind the scene.

The architecture of Web 2.0

Initially, vital information like members’ data, publications, labels, remarks, claps, and many more must be stored somewhere. This necessitates a database that is regularly updated. Next, Medium’s business logic must be defined in backend code which may be written in Node.js, Java, or Php). This backend code controls what occurs whenever a new member registers up, posts a new article, or remarks on another user’s post. Finally, frontend code which is usually implemented in JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, must describe the UI logic for the blog portal. The frontend code controls the appearance of the site as well as what occurs when a member interacts with every item on the webpage. To summarise, when you publish content on Medium, you connect with its frontend, which communicates with its backend, which communicates with its database. This code is all housed on centralised servers and delivered to consumers via a web browser. This is basically how most Web 2.0 apps now function.

The architecture of Web 3.0

Blockchain technology has opened up a whole new world of possibilities for Web 3.0 apps. In contrast to Web 2.0 apps, Web 3.0 simply bypasses the intermediary. There is no central server to hold app data or code, and there is no single webserver to house backend code. Rather, you may use blockchain to develop apps on a decentralized state system controlled by random internet servers. Rather than controlling the backend, Web 3.0 allows you to develop smart contracts that specify the architecture of your apps and distribute them into the decentralized state machine. That implies that a user who wants to create a Web 3.0 app must publish their code on this shared state machine.

** Features and Practical Applications of Web 3.0 ** Now we explore the 4 major features of Web 3.0:

1. Ubiquity
   

Web 3.0 will essentially take ubiquity a step beyond by making the web available to everyone, at any time and from any location. Later in the future, connected gadgets won’t be limited to phones and computers, as they were in Web 2.0. IoT (Internet of Things) technology will enable the development of a multitude of new sorts of smart gadgets.

2. Semantic Web
   

Consider the following sentences:

We love Web 3.0 We <3 Web 3.0

They have different syntax but their semantics are nearly the same because semantics solely addresses the interpretation of the information. Through data analysis, semantics on Web 3.0 would allow robots to decipher meaning and sentiments.

3. Artificial Intelligence
   

Even though Web 2.0 has comparable features, it is still mostly human-based, which allows for unethical activities like prejudiced product evaluations, manipulated ratings, and so on. As a result, to deliver accurate data, the web requires AI to understand how to discriminate between what’s real and what’s not. After the Gamespot trading incident, Google’s AI algorithm reportedly erased hundreds of thousands of negative ratings of the Robinhood app from the Play Store after detecting efforts at rating fraud meant to intentionally try to belittle the app. This is the application of artificial intelligence in motion and it will soon be integrated into Web 3.0, allowing blogging platforms to sift through data and personalise it to each member’s preferences. AI will eventually be able to present people with the highest refined and impartial data available as it improves.

4. Spatial Web and 3D Graphics
   

The capacity to absorb huge amounts of data and convert it into real information and meaningful actions for users is a frequent necessity for a Web 3.0 app. However, these programs are still in their initial phases and they have a lot of opportunity for growth but are still very different from how Web 3.0 apps may work. Big tech corporations are already developing or transitioning items into Web 3.0 apps. Siri and Wolfram Alpha are two algorithms that make use of Web 3.0 features.

Siri

Ever since its debut in the fifth generation of the iPhone, Apple’s voice-controlled AI assistant has evolved, grown more sophisticated, and increased its capabilities. Siri can fulfil complicated and customised instructions by combining voice recognition and machine learning. Siri as well as other AI assistants, such as Amazon’s Alexa and Samsung’s Bixby, can now interpret queries and respond with the appropriate answer.

Wolfram Alpha

Wolfram Alpha is a supercomputing information processor that, unlike search engines, resolves your inquiries instantly through computation rather than providing a list of links. Try it out by searching for “England versus Brazil” on both Wolfram Alpha and Google search. Google search will show you World Cup outcomes even if you don’t include it as a keyword. Alpha, on the other contrary, would provide you with a comprehensive comparison of the two nations, as you requested. That is a significant distinction between Web 2.0 and 3.0.

Web 3.0 and Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency usually comes up in discussions about Web 3.0 and you may wonder why. This is because crypto plays a significant part in a lot of these protocols. It offers financial motivation in the form of tokens to users who wish to help create, control, contributes, or improve one of the projects itself. These protocols may frequently provide an array of options such as computation, storage, connectivity, identification, web hosting, and other online services previously supplied by cloud service providers. Users can earn a decent living by engaging in the protocol in a variety of technical and non-technical roles. Customers of the platform often pay to utilise the protocol in the same way that they would pay a cloud platform such as Amazon Web Services. Unless in Web 3.0, the money is distributed straight to members of the network. This, like many other kinds of decentralisation, eliminates superfluous and frequently wasteful middlemen. Several online hosting protocols, such as Filecoin, Livepeer, and Arweave, have released utility tokens that dictate how the network operates. These coins also compensate network participants at various levels. Native blockchain technologies, such as Ethereum, also work in this fashion.

The Endless Possibilities of Web 3.0

Web 3.0 enables the emergence of collaborative governance mechanisms for formerly centralised enterprises. A joke, a beautiful painting, a user’s social media activity, or tickets to a popular event may all be tokenised. The video games industry is an excellent illustration of this fundamental change. Gamers complain incessantly about the bugs that programmers leave in their favourite video game, or about how the newest update has thrown off the fluidity of their favourite in-game tool, vehicle, or weapon. Players may stake in the game and decide on how certain game objectives may play out via Web 3.0. Web 3.0 is being used by major Web 2.0 firms such as Meta (formerly Facebook) and Ubisoft to create immersive experiences in virtual worlds. Non-fungible tokens (NFT) will also play a significant part in altering the video game industry by enabling users to become the permanent proprietors of the in-game objects they accumulate. The second instalment of this post will go through these Web 3.0 principles and applications in-depth.

Is Web 3.0 Ready?

The web (Web 2.0) has continued to serve us well, offering an unending sea of knowledge to help us live better lives. Even with all this, it still raises several issues that Web 3.0 can address. While Web 3.0 offers a lot of potentials, it still has a long road ahead of it. More consistency among Web 3.0 initiatives will be necessary for information flow to effortlessly. For Web 3.0 to genuinely thrive, additional infrastructures will be required. As blockchain becomes increasingly significant in creating rewards on multiple networks where individuals have greater control over their information and who can access it, new transactional systems are likely to evolve from Web 3.0.

What To Expect

Web 3.0, the next iteration of the internet, will offer a more personalised and tailored surfing environment, an intelligent and more human-like query helper, and other decentralised features that are believed to contribute to the establishment of a fairer web. This will be accomplished by permitting each user to have supreme authority over their information and by providing a better overall experience as a result of the plethora of advancements that will be implemented when it is ready. Whenever Web 3.0 arrives the internet will become immensely more embedded in our everyday routines. Almost all of today’s traditionally offline devices, from household appliances to all modes of transportation, will become part of the IoT ecosystem. Web 3.0 will allow people to engage with its decentralised servers and apps (DApps), developing new virtual domains such as blockchain and digital assets to drive a slew of new technological milestones for the current century and more centuries to come.

References

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https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-web-3-0

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https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/what-is-web3/

Ebun-Amu, C. (2021, February 3). What is Web 3.0 and how will it help you? Retrieved from MUO:

https://www.makeuseof.com/what-is-web-3-0-and-how-will-it-help-you/

Fabric Ventures. (2019, December 31). What is web 3.0 & why it matters. Retrieved from Fabric Ventures:

https://medium.com/fabric-ventures/what-is-web-3-0-why-it-matters-934eb07f3d2b

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https://www.preethikasireddy.com/post/the-architecture-of-a-web-3-0-application

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https://lifeboat.com/ex/web.3.0

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