You are a participant in the contemporary Web if you are reading this. Will the current standards of Web stay forever? Or have they already started changing? What is Web 3.0? Will Web 3.0 have any impact on the current Web development standards? There are so many questions that you may be having around the current state of Web and where it is headed.
In this article, we will explain how the Web developed, where it's headed, what is Web 3, and why knowing all of this matters.
Consider the everyday impact of the internet on your life. Consider the changes that the internet has brought to society. Platforms like social media Apps for mobile. And now, as we speak, the internet is undergoing a further paradigm change. So imagine the impact that the change in Web will have.
The Internet's evolution
The web has changed significantly over time, and its applications are nearly unrecognizable from its earliest days. The words "web 1.0," "web 2.0," and "web 3.0" are often used to characterize the evolution of the internet.
1. What is Version 1.0 of the World Wide Web?
The web's initial version, Web 1.0, was released in 1995. The majority of participants were content consumers, whereas the makers were often developers who created websites that comprised mostly text or image-based material. Between about 1991 and 2004, Web 1.0 existed.
Instead of dynamic HTML, Web 1.0 was comprised of static HTML-based websites. The data and content were supplied through a static file system rather than a database, and the sites lacked any interaction whatsoever.
Consider Web 1.0 to be a read-only version of the Internet.
2. Web 2.0 - What is it?
The majority of us have only encountered the web in its present version, termed Web2. Consider Web2 to be the social and interactive web.
It is not necessary to be a coder/developer to contribute to the creative process in the Web2 universe. Numerous applications are constructed in such a manner that anybody may create them.
You have the ability to create and share a notion with the world. You may also post a video and make it available to millions of people to see, connect with, and comment on. So there are many different ways that Web2 created for everyone to participate in the world of the Internet that we currently have.
Web2 is very easy, and as a result, an increasing number of individuals worldwide are becoming creators. Not just as Web developers but as content creators too.
The Web2 brought about the most changes in its life span:
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More web technologies were introduced
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Websites were made responsive to cater to different devices and screen sizes.
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Internet was easily available to a vast population so the user base for applications grew drastically and to manage that different architectures were created to manage the load.
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The foundation for distributed architecture was laid.
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Microservices were created.
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Websites became smart, responsive, fast, and worked in real time.
And these are just a few things, there are many more changes that Web2 gave birth to. While the web in its present state is fantastic in many respects, there are a few areas where we can improve significantly.
Two major concerns are:
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Monetization and
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Security Concerns related to Data in the Web 2.0 Era
2.1 Apps Monetization Issue
Consider how popular services such as Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc. were in their infancy compared to how they are now. Generally, the following steps are followed in an application's lifecycle:
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A business introduces an application
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It starts getting traction and the traffic increases gradually.
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Following that, it capitalises on its user base.
When a developer or corporation releases a successful app, the user experience is often rather sleek and generally the application caters to one usecase. This is how they first gain traction.
Many software startups are initially unconcerned about revenue generation. They are solely focused on growing and retaining new users - but at some point, they must begin to generate revenue.
Additionally, they must take into account the function of external investors. Often, the limits imposed by venture funding have a detrimental effect on the life cycle, and ultimately on the user experience, of many of the services we use today.
When a firm develops an application and raises venture money, investors often anticipate a return on investment of tens or hundreds of times what they invested.
This implies that, rather than pursuing a sustainable model of development that they can support organically, the firm is often compelled to pursue one of two paths: Advertising or Data sales.
For a large number of Web2 businesses, like Google, Facebook, and Twitter, more data translates into more personalized advertising. This results in an increase in clicks, which results in an increase in advertising income.
The utilization and centralization of user data are critical in the current setup because it is used for various aspects like personalization of the App, showing related Advertisements, etc.
2.2 Privacy and security
Data breaches occur on a regular basis in Web2 applications. There are even websites devoted to tracking data breaches and informing users when their personal information has been exposed.
You have no control over how your data is saved or processed on Web2. Indeed, businesses often monitor and keep user data without the knowledge of their users. The firms who operate these platforms own and manage all of this data.
Especially on Social media websites, this can prove dangerous. For example, if a social activist tweets something on X(formerly Twitter), and Twitter is storing the IP address used for tweeting, etc. info without the user's consent, then governments can force Twitter to get hold of the Activist and punish him/her. This can be a case in countries where freedom of speech is questioned and often punished.
Governments often shut down servers and confiscate bank accounts when they suspect an individual is expressing a viewpoint contrary to their propaganda. Governments may easily interfere, control, or shut down programs when centralized servers are used.
Governments often control and play around with bank funds and bank management, since bank services are also digital and subject to centralized management now. They have the ability to close bank accounts or restrict access to money in times of market instability, severe inflation, or other political disturbances.
Web3 attempts to address many of these limitations by completely rethinking how apps are built and interacted with from the bottom up.
3. Web 3.0 - What Is It?
Although Web2 and Web3 have several essential differences, decentralization is the main one.
Web3 adds some more properties to the Internet as we know it today. Some of them are:
There are main characteristics of applications created on Web3, and we have covered them below.
3.1. Payments to run the System
Web3 developers are not often responsible for developing and deploying apps that operate on a single server or that hoard their data in a single database (usually hosted on and managed by a single cloud provider).
Rather than that, Web3 apps operate on blockchains, decentralized networks of numerous peer-to-peer nodes (servers), or a mix of the two, referred to as a crypto-economic protocol. These applications are often referred to as dapps (decentralized applications), a word that is frequently used in the Web3 community.
To ensure a decentralized network is reliable and safe, network members (developers) are rewarded and compete to give the greatest quality services to everybody who uses the service.
When discussing Web3, it's common to hear the term "cryptocurrency." This is because many of these systems are built on cryptocurrencies. It offers a cash incentive (tokens) to anybody interested in developing, governing, contributing to, or enhancing one of the projects.
These protocols often provide a range of various services, including computation, storage, bandwidth, identification, hosting, and other web-based services that were formerly supplied by cloud providers.
Individuals may earn a livelihood by engaging in many aspects of the protocol, both technical and non-technical.
The service is often paid for by consumers, similar to how they would pay a cloud provider such as AWS today. With the exception of Web3, all funds are sent directly to network members.
Numerous online infrastructure protocols, including Filecoin, Livepeer, Arweave, and The Graph, have created utility tokens that regulate the protocol's operation. Additionally, these tokens are used to compensate network members at various levels. This is true even for native blockchain systems such as Ethereum.
3.2. Payments with No Strings attached
Additionally, tokens enable a borderless and seamless native payment mechanism. Stripe and PayPal, for example, have facilitated the creation of billions of dollars in value via electronic payment processing.
These solutions are extremely useful and yet fall short of enabling full worldwide interoperability among Payment methods. Additionally, they demand you provide sensitive information and personal data in order for you to utilize them.
Crypto wallets such as MetaMask and Torus make it simple and safe to incorporate international payments and transactions into Web3 apps.
Solana networks, for example, have a latency of several hundred digit milliseconds and transaction prices of a few pennies. Unlike the present financial system, users are not required to go through the multiple, friction-filled stages associated with making a payment. They just need to download or install a wallet to begin sending and receiving money without the need for any gatekeeping.
3.3. Creating Businesses in a New Manner - Token Economy
Additionally, tokenization and the establishment of a token economy are facilitated by tokens.
Consider the status of the development of a software firm at the moment. Someone comes up with a concept, but they need funding to get started.
To raise funds, they raise venture capital and sell a stake in the firm. This investment instantly establishes misaligned incentives that, in the long term, will work against the goal of delivering the greatest possible customer experience.
Additionally, even if the business does succeed, it will take years for anybody engaged to gain any of the value, sometimes resulting in years of labor with little actual return on investment.
Consider, instead, the announcement of a fresh and innovative initiative that addresses a genuine need. From the beginning, anybody may contribute to its creation or investment. The corporation announces the release of a certain amount of tokens, allocates 10% to early builders, and 10% to the general public, and reserves the remainder for future contributor payments and to finance the project.
Stakeholders may use their tokens to vote on changes to the project's future, and those who contributed to the project's development can sell part of their holdings to profit when the tokens are issued.
Individuals who believe in the initiative may purchase and retain ownership, while those who fear the enterprise is moving in the wrong path can sell their interest.
Due to the fact that all blockchain info is entirely public and accessible, consumers have complete visibility into what is occurring. This contrasts with investing in private or centralized enterprises, where many details are sometimes shrouded in secrecy.
This is already taking place on the Web3 domain.
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One such application is Radicle (a decentralized GitHub alternative), which enables stakeholders to engage in project governance.
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Gitcoin is another platform that compensates developers in Bitcoin for contributing to and working on Open Source projects.
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Yearn enables stakeholder participation in decision-making and proposal voting.
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Uniswap, SuperRare, The Graph, and a slew of additional protocols and initiatives have all created tokens to facilitate ownership, participation, and governance.
3.4. Decentralized Autonomous Organizations
DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations), which provide an alternate method of constructing what we typically refer to as a corporation, are getting enormous traction and investment from both conventional developers and venture capital organizations.
These tokenized organizations work on the concept of organizational structure by providing genuine, liquid, and equitable ownership to a broader range of stakeholders and aligning incentives in novel and intriguing ways.
For instance, Friends with Benefits or FWB is a decentralized autonomous organization comprised of Web3 developers and artists. It is roughly two years old, has a market valuation of upwards of $125 million as of this writing, and have raised investments, one of which is - $10 million in funding from a16z.
DAOs might easily fill a full article on their own, but for now, we will just state that we believe they represent the future of developing goods and (what we previously referred to as) corporations. This is an excellent piece summarizing the present DAO landscape.
3.5. Identity in Web3 world
Identity also functions quite differently in Web3 than it does now. Typically, IDs in Web3 applications are associated with the wallet address of the person engaging with the application.
Unlike Web2 authentication mechanisms such as OAuth or email + password (which almost usually require users to provide sensitive and personal information), wallet addresses are fully anonymous unless the user chooses to publicly associate them with their own identity.
If a user decides to use the same wallet across several dapps, their identity is also effortlessly transferrable across apps, allowing them to gradually build up their reputation.
Conclusion
The future is of course Web3 based and a lot of big products have started to adopt it. But it won't be that easy for Web3 to beat Web2, because business models of a lot Big tech companies are based on monetizing upon the data that they collect from their userbase.
So it would be fun to see how it all shapes up and what is in store for us in the future.
