What is and is not Web3 | OpenPad Web3 Investment
A brief tour of Internet's evolution up to now and what Web3 brings to the table
TL;DR:
Web3 is more semantic and decentralized version of the current web system, Web2.
Slogan: Read-Write-Own!
Well, there is a correlation between owning and its monetary policy, right, my capitalist friend?
The term Web3 has been thrown around the crypto space for quite some time now, but to truly grasp the disruptive idea behind this terminology, let’s outline its general definition for starters; then, we’ll be deep-diving into what brought us here.
Pandora’s Box
The core idea behind Web3 - coined by Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood in 2014 - is to fight the centralized power and hyper-dominance of a handful of Web2 giants like Facebook, Amazon or Google by creating a decentralized version of the Web. So Pandora’s box opens with the underlying principle behind the blockchain technology, what’s called a “distributed ledger”. A database hosted by a network of computers instead of a single server offers users an immutable and transparent way to store information. Now that we got that out of the way, let’s try to interpret what this means. Compared to the traditional Web, this means that developers/users don’t have to store their data on these “single servers” that are owned by tech giants and which can be hyper-manipulative and commercial against the consumers. As this is not the right place for talking about the pros & cons of centralization, what we call “trustlessness” has the actual power to redefine and reshape the future of economies, societies, organizations, and how humans communicate.
Centralization has contributed to the onboarding of billions of users to the World Wide Web and created a solid and reliable infrastructure in terms of functionality. Simultaneously, a few number of centralized companies control significant covers of the internet, arbitrarily selecting what should and should not be permitted. Web3 can be the solution to this problem. Web3 emphasizes decentralization and is built, operated, and owned by its users, rather than being monopolized by giant technological firms. Individuals, rather than businesses, wield power in Web3.
Sounds cool, right? There was a pinch of idyllic & innovative idealism there, a hint of naive Pollyannaism, and boom, we got ourselves a disruptive new technology. It won’t be as simple as that; otherwise, how will we have the Cyberpunk neon themed dystopian futures that we’ve dreamt of in the 80s? How are we going to rage against the big man? It’s a debatable statement to argue that multi-trillion dollar corporations won’t be able to hold any power over us regular Joes and Janes, but who knows, the future is exciting.
We like stories around here, so let’s look at how we got here to emphasize Web3’s differentiating factors better.
History of the Web
Web 1.0: Read-Only (1990-2004)
In 1989, at CERN, Geneva, Tim Berners-Lee was busy developing the protocols that would become the World Wide Web. His idea? To create open and decentralized protocols that allowed information-sharing from anywhere on Earth.
The first inception of Berners-Lee’s creation, now known as ‘Web 1.0’, occurred roughly between 1990 to 2004. Web 1.0 was mainly static websites owned by companies, and there was close to zero interaction between users - individuals seldom produced content - leading to it being known as the read-only Web.
Web 2.0: Read-Write (2004-now)
The Web 2.0 period began in 2004 with the emergence of social media platforms. Instead of a read-only, the Web evolved to be read-write. Instead of companies providing content to users, they also began to provide platforms to share user-generated content and engage in user-to-user interactions. As more people came online, a handful of top companies began to control a disproportionate amount of the traffic and value generated on the Web. Web 2.0 also birthed the advertising-driven revenue model. While users could create content, they didn’t own it or benefit from its monetization primarily.
Well, there is a correlation between owning and its monetary policy, right, my capitalist friend?
Now back to Web3
Web 3.0: Read-Write-Own
Web3 is a new approach to web applications where the users have more control over their data, a more direct engagement with content creators, and as a result, a more streamlined social and financial experience on the internet.
Compared to today’s Web, where a user has 50 different logins for 50 different applications, an example of applying the Web3 paradigm would have the user with a single login for 50 different apps. Actually, this can be done in Web2 also but the general philosophy of abstraction of platforms and placing decentralized and unified approaches are the real deal to be considered.
The reason blockchain is often conflated with Web3 is because it is the most reasonable tool to facilitate this new paradigm.
Back to our introductory paragraph, the premise of ‘Web 3.0’ was coined by Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood in 2014. Gavin put into words a solution for a problem that many early crypto adopters felt: the Web required too much trust. That is, most of the Web that people know and use today relies on trusting a handful of private companies to act in the public’s best interests.
There is no concrete definition of Web3 but rather a few pillars upon which the idea is built.
Web3 is decentralized: ownership gets distributed amongst its builders and users, with no monopolies, no gods or kings, only man.
Web3 is permissionless: everyone has equal access to participate in Web3, and no one gets excluded.
Web3 has native payments: it uses cryptocurrency for spending and sending money online instead of relying on the outdated infrastructure of banks and payment processors.
Web3 is trustless: it operates using incentives and economic mechanisms instead of relying on trusted third parties.
Name of the Game
Ownership
Ownership is what brought citizens to their knees, history is full of controversial examples of this, yet we will be using a simple one. In feudal times, villagers lived and farmed on the lands of their feudal overlords and gave the lion’s share back to them. They did not own anything; they did not get a slice off of the pie; they just had the right to live on these lands. Sounds eerily familiar to how we use the internet.
Well, there is a correlation between owning and its monetary policy, right, my capitalist friend?
To leave things off on a brighter note, this disruptive and exciting idea is at its earliest stages; if it were a baby, it would have just learned to crawl by now, and hopefully, we will get to see it sprint faster than a Hussein Bolt hopped up on stimulants. As we have done throughout history, we must again relentlessly go back to building to make everything better for everyone. The future is full of potential; giving power back to its original owners, the citizens sounds like one hell of a promise.
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