Web 3.0 explained for Muggles like me
I’ve repeatedly been trying to explain the transformational power of Web 3.0 to my colleagues that are hearing more about #NFTs, #Crypto, #DeFi (Decentralized Finance), Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (#DAOs), #Metaverse...etc and want to understand more.
⚠️ Disclaimer → #Web3 is way much more complex than this, but let’s just start with the basics of the evolution of the web:
⚡️#Web1 (roughly 1990-2005): World Wide Web (www). Read
Remember when digital encyclopedias were a thing? Well, around this time for the first time ever we had a world where some (developers, aka Magicians) could write on the internet and others (most of us, aka Muggles) would learn from them.
It’s those static pages that you would look for to do you homework in different “search engines” when Google wasn’t yet the clear winner.
Users = consumers
⏬⏬⏬
⚡️#Web2 (roughly 2005-current): Social Web. Read + Write
Remember when you created your Facebook profile? That's when most of us were able not only to read but also to write (create content) and upload it to the internet and exchange with one another.
The Muggles (users) not only consume content but also create and interact with one another. Everyone was joining social platforms to interact.
Platforms like YouTube (Google) and Facebook/Instagram (Meta) are at the center of these interactions, owning the data that arises from the exchange of content and selling it as advertisements.
All the big data is stored and managed from single servers (aka computers) centralized in a few authorities.
Users = creators = product
⏬⏬⏬
⚡️#Web3 (2020 - the future): Semantic web. Read + Write + Own
When we (as users) are able not only to read and create but also own our content.
This is a concept that refers to the theoretical possibilities of the use of distributed ledger technology, more well known in its version of Blockchain.
The main difference of what we see today is that, instead of a single server to store data, Web3 uses a decentralized network of peer-to-peer (P2P) servers (computers) that store the data distributed. This distribution makes it more secure and open.
For the P2P network model to work, each computer (and the person that owns it) gets incentivized with cryptocurrency. That is what you probably heard (more if you are in Latam 🙂) about your friend’s friend “mining”.
Because of this P2P model, Web3 is referred to as removing the intermediary (banks, tech companies, etc) from transactions (of money or information). Theoretically, you can tokenize every interaction of computers.
Users = owners
📌The more idealistic (aka me) believe that this model is going to create a new economy and shape how we interact with each other.
There is a lot to know about this whole new world that is being created.