What is Web3?

In 2014 one of the co-founders of Ethereum cryptocurrency Gavin Wood coined the term “Web 3.0”, which has become quite a buzzword lately. It is common knowledge that web3 is a decentralized internet built on the blockchain. Nevertheless, it still seems to be a confusing concept, as if it were only for computer-savvies. So, today we decided to put this notion in simple English.

The history behind Web 3.0

Web 3.0 dates back to its predecessors Web 1.0 and Web 2.0, the latter being used now most actively and effectively.

Web1 is the World Wide Web, which included navigating static web pages, from the early 90ies. It was the very first step of the mankind to the internet, so it didn’t seem that gripping and prospective to those who were not techno geeks at all.

Later on, there appeared Web 2.0, which gave rise to e-commerce and social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram and many others. The invention of smartphones and cloud computing has contributed a great deal to Web2 advancements. At this stage of its development Web2 is widely considered as an eye-catchy, innovative and interesting issue to anybody. There are some shortcomings, though. The greatest of them is that one needs to surrender their personal data to use the services provided by different sorts of platforms. So, we can’t say a word about it being confidential enough. This is the reason why Gavin Wood considers Web 2.0 to be “a broken model”. They say “come up with an alternative before criticizing the existing”, and here Gavin Wood again has something to say to the world.

The idea behind Web 3.0

Web3 is considered to be a catch-all term for decentralized digital infrastructure. The motto of Web 3.0 for its creator Gavin Wood has been “Less trust, more truth”, since he wants every internet user to feel more confident, while having calls via apps, for example. This idea can be supported by web3’s being decentralized, i.e. without having any central gatekeeper. Anybody can become a provider or a co-provider of this relevant service. In the interview to “The Wired '' Gavin Wood claims that all you need to do is “to educate yourself on material that is freely available”. One more data safety guarantee is the fact that a Web3 user don’t have to hand over any personal information.

From a technological point of view, we must state that blockchain technology and artificial intelligence are used to support the services of Web3. According to Gavin Wood, blockchain technology uses both cryptography and certain game theory economics to derive its service. Web 3.0 is not profit-oriented, unlike the majority of existing Web2 platforms, and all the financial obligations are to be solved in a peer to peer fashion.

Web 3.0 appears to be quite a game-changer, doesn’t it? Then why does it remain largely theoretical?

The Stepping Stones

The era of Web 3.0 is not there yet down to several stepping stones, and it might not seem that beneficial to some people. Let’s dig deeper into the matter!

First things first, nothing can be anonymous in Web3, since everything is written into blockchain. So, however an individual wants to remain anonymous, it won’t work in Web 3.0.

Secondly, since there is no gatekeeper, there is nobody to prevent users from harmful disinformation and hate speech in virtual space. This does look like a serious shortcoming, since the political situation in the world is extremely volatile, and the international relations leave much to be desired.

The third stepping stone seems to be a question of politics, so we can’t but mention it here. Taking power away from such market leaders as Amazon and Google seems unbelievable. At least, for now.

Web3 is certainly considered to be a free of monopoly platform, even the only hope of preserving liberal democracy for some. It might seem a far-fetched idea to those who don’t dive deep into the matter, nevertheless Gavin Wood states that transition to Web3 is inevitable for humanity. All in all, Web 3.0 is gaining more and more attention in modern society, regardless of its shortcomings. One might rely on developers to be able to handle them and present us a groundbreaking version of the internet.