What is Web3
Introduction
How do you feel about the internet? It could be more accurate to say how the internet made you feel. Maybe you’re excited that it’s made communication easier or frustrated that bad actors have taken advantage of its openness to spread misinformation. Either way, one thing is clear: like many other inventions with potential for good and evil, the internet was only ever going to be as good as we made it.
The blockchain promises to make all this better by providing us with a new way of interacting online — one fairer, safer and more private than anything we’ve ever had. In this post, we’ll explore everything from Web3 itself through its history and how it works today before finishing off by looking at how far this journey is toward completion (spoiler alert: not very!).
How the internet has changed
The internet has changed how we work, play, and live. It is a global network of computers that are connected. The internet allows people to connect, share information, and collaborate on projects.
Web3
“Web3 is a decentralized web. It’s a new internet. It’s a new way to interact with your data and with your money,” said Matthew Hodgson, creator of Metamask, the most popular Ethereum wallet extension for browsers.
Web3 isn’t just about cryptocurrency; it’s an umbrella term that encompasses the entire ecosystem of blockchain technology and related technologies like smart contracts (essentially self-executing code).
The Web3 concept has been kicking around since 2014 when Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin introduced it in his white-paper “Ethereum: A Next-Generation Smart Contract and Decentralized Application Platform.”
Web2
Web2 is the internet we’ve been using for the past 20 years. It’s centralized, controlled by a few big companies, and not very secure or private. Web3 is a new way of thinking about how you access information on the internet. It’s decentralized and fair. It supports free speech and privacy while giving users more control over their data than they’ve ever had before.
Fairness through decentralization
· Decentralization is the key to fairness.
· The internet today is not fair. It’s quite unfair: a few large companies control what you see online, shaping how you experience the web by deciding which sites get promoted and which are considered spam.
· This lack of fairness stems from a lack of decentralization, meaning that these big companies have too much power over how users interact with the internet.
Privacy through blockchain
While blockchain’s decentralized nature provides privacy and security, it allows users to control what they share or keep private. When users request information on the blockchain, they can decide whether or not they want that information shared with third parties by using encryption technology.
This works by generating a private key that acts as an identifier for your digital assets and transactions on the blockchain. This allows you to decide what parts of your information will be visible while keeping other parts hidden from the public view.
Privacy through encryption is necessary for users who live under authoritarian governments where freedom of speech is limited or illegal. This feature is especially important for those living under oppressive regimes such as China (which just recently banned cryptocurrency trading).
Security through encryption
A secure computer system protects data from unauthorized users or processes. There are several levels of security that can be achieved, but encryption is the foundation of all three:
Security in transit: Data traveling between two computers must be encrypted to protect it from being intercepted by third parties. This includes traffic to and from your computer and any data sent over the internet.
Security at rest: Data stored on your computer should be encrypted so that if someone gains access to your hard drive, they won’t be able to read it without authorization (or a lot of time).
Security in use: Once you’ve secured your data on a computer, you need to protect it while it’s being processed for example, when using an app or accessing a website over an unencrypted connection like HTTP instead of HTTPS
Machine learning through AI
Machine learning is artificial intelligence that helps computers learn from data. Machine learning, in turn, relies on another tool called deep learning, which enables machines to learn from their experiences and make predictions based on their knowledge. Machine learning and deep learning use neural networks of simulated neurons that are loosely inspired by our brains’ structure.
AI systems are made up of algorithms that give computers the ability to perform tasks usually associated with humans: recognizing speech or images; solving problems; planning actions; making decisions based on available data; processing language (natural or human languages); taking into account context when interpreting information such as text messages and many others.
The metaverse
“Metaverse” is a term that refers to a space where people can meet and interact with each other. It has roots in science fiction, and the concept was popularized by Neal Stephenson’s 1992 novel Snow Crash. The word metaverse comes from “meta,” which means beyond or above something, “virtual reality.”
The idea of the metaverse isn’t just about creating an immersive virtual world where users can go on adventures with friends; it’s also about building an ecosystem for creators who want to build out their worlds, too. There are already several examples of this type of world: Second Life (2003), World of Warcraft (2004), and EVE Online (2003), although not all MMOs allow for player-driven content creation as these three do).
