What is Web3?

The internet is made up of machines all around the world that are linked together, ranging from laptops to small sensors. The World Wide Web is the software that we use on the internet to help us explore, access, and utilise resources or ‘content’ – data files that can range from films to text documents and are kept on all computers.

Most websites in the beginning were static, immovable pages. With the turn of the century, the move to Web 2.0 and dynamic content happened. Pages could now respond to user interaction, and ideas like blogs and wikis allowed users to produce new material.

As audio, images, video, and games were merged onto the web, this grew into new media. But, opponents began to challenge the dominance of today’s web by a small number of “big tech” businesses that, under the appearance of offering free services, really capture and exploit your private data for great profit.

Those who want a more secure and decentralised web consider Web3 to be the third big development. Others believe that by utilising blockchain, bitcoin, and NFTs, Web3 will provide the privacy, scalability, and security that is now lacking.

Web3 is garnering billions of dollars in investment, yet it is ill-defined. Perhaps it will feature ‘decentralised finance’ without the need for banks, but how will it be regulated and how will customers be protected from fraud? Perhaps it will entail ‘decentralised autonomous organisations’ – virtual businesses that run more like computer programmes than than according to laws imposed by certain governments. Perhaps it will use’self-sovereign identities,’ in which you confirm your identity via cryptographically secure’verifiable credentials.

Web3 is gathering buzz, but it is not without its detractors. Because it is so reliant on bitcoin, and cryptocurrency solutions are mostly consolidated under a small number of major businesses, the new web may wind up like the old web – centralised and dominated by big tech.

Web3 is not the only view of the web’s future. Another concept, dubbed Web 3.0, was conceived by Tim Berners-Lee, the original web’s designer. Unlike Web3, the goal of Web 3.0 is to ensure that every resource on the internet is identified, traceable, and accessible by computers in one huge network of meaning, or Semantic Web. He also developed the concept of decentralised social apps, in which users own their personal data and can control who gets access to it.

Berners-ideals Lee’s are about equality and freely exchanging information while protecting users’ privacy. There are fewer catchphrases. Is it for these reasons why tech corporations appear to be less enthusiastic about his vision? The slower adoption of this pioneer’s ideas appears to be a pity, as they may address many of Web 2.0’s difficulties.