It is early yet some people have started to perceive Web 3, or Web 3.0, like the future or next (actually third) generation of the internet.
For a long, the debate has been in the air that big tech companies dominate the internet and its centralisation looked invincible. This is where the idea of a decentralised internet comes into the picture- the idea of Web3 which is based on blockchain technology.
Will it reinvent the internet? Before we address this question, let's understand the basics of Web3.
The Web 1, 2 and 3
The early phase of the internet is called Web 1, or Web 1.0, when the internet was actually decentralised and one could navigate to individual static webpages, unlike now when we type a word in Google search and find thousands of pages related to the topic. In the first phase of the internet, the only way to create a website was by writing codes.
Web 2, or Web 2.0, is what we are living through now. The internet is centralised, mainly dominated by players like Google, Facebook, Amazon, and is regulated in a limited way by the governments. One does not need to write codes to create a webpage. Just buy a domain, create a page and your website is live. In the tech world, Web 1 is usually called static web and Web 2 is called social web.
What will change?
As the internet at present is dominated by big tech firms, Web3 will change how we use the internet. Some tech experts go to the extent to say Web3 may break the world free of that monopolistic control.
Tech experts explain that Web 3 will be a decentralized online ecosystem based on the blockchain, which means web platforms built on Web3 will be owned by users and not by any centralised entity. At present, cryptocurrencies use this blockchain technology.
Is the term 'decentralised' confusing you? Let's break it down first.
The infrastructure of most popular websites is usually owned by big tech companies with some regulations by governments. With time, they have become so bigger that a vast majority of the human population uses their platform. These websites either charge us or lets us use it for free, as long as we abide by their rules. Since we use these websites, they have our data which they can even sell to advertisers or this data can be even stolen by hackers.
That's why Web 3 is gaining buzz now since it assures decentralisation of the internet by using blockchain technology. A blockchain is a decentralized ledger of all transactions across a peer-to-peer network. Blockchain technology is built around the core concept of encryption which means the data shared and stored on the blockchain can only be accessed by people who have permission to do so.
Companies developing apps and platforms on Web 3 will require blockchain developers, machine learning specialists, app developers, front-end and back-end developers, user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) designers, data analytics professionals and content writers.
Skeptics
The idea of Web 3 is not free from skeptics. Tesla CEO Elon Musk says Web 3 is not real and seems more marketing buzzword than reality.