What Is Web 3.0?

Web 3.0, also known as Web3, is rumored to be the third generation of the World Wide Web (WWW). Currently a work in progress, it is a vision of a decentralized and open web with greater utility for its users than today's Web 2.0.

Versions of the Web

Internet pioneer Tim Berners-Lee is credited with coining the term World Wide Web to refer to the global web of information and resources interconnected through hypertext links.

The initials WWW, for World Wide Web, used to (and often still do) preface a web addr⭕ess and were among the first characters users typed into a w🍎eb browser when searching for a particular resource online.

Web꧃ 2.0, which succeeded Web 1.0 of the 1990s and early 2000s, is the version of the Internet (a term often used interchangeably with the web) with which we are all familiar today.

Web 1.0

Berners-Lee pioneered the early development of the internet in 1990 when he was a computer scientist at CERN.

By October 1990, he had written the three fundamental technologies that became the foundation of the web, including the very first webpage editor💦/browser (WorldWideWeb.app):

• HTML: HyperText Markup Language, the markup or formatting language of the web.
• URI or URL: Uniform Resource Identifier or Locator, a unique address used to identify each resource on the web.
• HTTP: HyperText Transfer Protocol, which allows for the retrieval of linked resources from across the web.

By the mid-1990s, 𒐪the introduction of web browsers such as Netscape Navigator ushered in the era of Web 1.0. This was the age of static webpages retrieved from servers—a far cry from the slick content that is taken for granted today.

Mosܫt internet users at that time were delighted by the novelty o🃏f features such as email and real-time news retrieval. Content creation was still in its infancy, and interactive applications were rare. This engagement improved as online banking and trading became increasingly popular.

Web 2.0

During the first two decades of the 21st century, the bland webpages of Web 1.0 were replaced by Web 2.0's interactivity, social connectivity, and user-generated content. Web 2.0 makes it possible for user-generated content to be viewed by millions of people around the world, virtually in an instant. This unparalleled reach has led to an explosion of this type of content.

The exponential growth of Web 2.0 has been driven by key innovations such as mobile internet access andꦗ social networks, as well as the near-ubiquity of powerful mobile devices like iPhones and Android-powered smartphones.

In the second decade of this millennium, these developments enabled the dominance of apps that greatly expanded online interactivity and utility—Airbnb, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter (now X), Uber, WhatsApp, and YouTube, to name a few.

The phenomenal revenue growth of these dominant platforms has made many of the Web 2.0-centric companies, such as Apple, Amazon, Google, Meta (formerly Facebook), and Netflix, among the world's biggest companies by market capitalization. (There is even an acronym for them used by traders: FAANG.)

These applications have also spurred the growth of the so-called gig economy by enabling mill𓄧ions of people to earn income on a part-time or full-time basis by driving, renting their homes, delivering food and groceries, or selling goods and services online.

Web 2.0 has also b🔥ee🃏n tremendously disruptive to certain sectors and industries, to the point of being an existential threat. They either have failed to adapt to the new web-centric business model or have been slow to do so. Retail, entertainment, media, and advertising have been among the hardest hit.

Web 3.0

Web 3.0 represents the next phase of the evolution of the web/internet and could potentially be as disruptive as Web 2.0 was. Web 3.0 is built upon the core concepts of decentralization, openness, and greater user utility.

In a 2001 paper, Berners-Lee discussed the concept of what he referred to as the Semantic Web. Computers had no reliable way to process the semantics of language (i.e., figure out the context in which a word or phrase is used).

Berners-Lee's vision for the Semantic Web was to bring structure to the meaningful content of webpages and enable software that would carry out sophisticated tasks for users.

Web 3.0 has moved well beyond the original concept of the Semantic Web as conceptualized by Berners-Lee in 2001. This is partly because it is very expensive and monumentally difficult to convert human language, with all its subtle nuances and variations, into a format that can be readily understood by computers, and because Web 2.0 has already evolved substantially over the past two decades.

Defining Features of Web 3.0

Though there is as yet no stan𓆉dard definition of Web ✤3.0, it does have a few defining features.

Decentralization

This is a core tenet of Web 3.0. In Web 2.0, computers use HTTP in the form of uniqu⭕e web addresses to find information, which is stored at a fixed location, generally on a single server. Web 3.0 information will be found based on its content and thus can be stored in multiple locations simultaneously.

It becomes dꦫecentralized. This would break down the massive databases currently held by internet giants like Meta and Google and would hand greater control to users.

With Web 3.0, the data generated by disparate and increasingly powerful computing resources, including mobile phones, desktops, home appliances, and vehicles, will be sold by users through decentralized daꦫta networks, ensuring that users reꦏtain ownership control.

Trustless and Permissionless

As it is based upon open source software, Web 3.0 will also be trustless (i.e., the network will allow participants to interact directly without going through a trusted intermediary) and pe💮rmissionless (meaning that anyone can participate without authorization from a governing🎉 body).

As a result, Web 3.0 applications will run on 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:blockchains or decentralized peer-to-peer🦹 networks, or a combination thereof. Such decentralized apps are referred to as dApps.

Artificial Intelligence (🔴AI) and Machi𓆏ne Learning

In Web 3.0, computers will be able to understand information similarly to humans, through technologies based upon Semantic Web concepts and natural language processing. Web 3.0 will also use 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:machine learning, a branch of artificial intelligence (AI) that uses data and algorithms to imitate how humans learn, gꦦradually improving its accuracy.

These capabilities will enable computers to produce faster and more relevant results in a host of areas like drug development and new materials, as opposed t𝕴o merely targeted advertising that forms the bulk of current efforts.

Connectivity and Ubiquity

With Web 3.0, information and content will be more connected and ubiquitous, accessed by multiple applications and with an increasing number of everyday devices connected to the web. One example of this is the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Internet of Things.

Potential and Pitfalls of Web 3.0

Web 3.0 has the potential to provide users with far greater utility, go💖ing well beyond social media, streaming, and online shopping, which comprise the majority of Web 2.0 applications that consumers use.

Capabilities like the Semantic Web, AI, and machine learning, which are at the core of Web 3.0, have the potential to greatly increase appli൲cations in new areas and vastly improve user interaction.

Core features of Web 3.0, such as decentralization and permissionless systems, will also give users muc🍌h greater control over their personal data.

This may help limit the practice of data extraction (the collecting of information from web users without their consent or compensation) and curb the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:network effects that have enabled technology giants to become near-monopolies through exploitative adverꦓtising and marketing practices.

However, decentralization also brings with it significant legal and regulatory risks. Cybercrime, hate speech, and misinformation are already difficult to police and will become even more so in a decentralized s൩truc🌳ture because of the lack of central control.

A decentralized web would also make regulation very difficult. For example, which country's laws would apply to a specific website whose content is hosted in numerous nations globally?

The Bottom Line

To use a cine🎉matic analogy, if Web 1.0 represented the black-and-white movie era, Web 2.0 is the age of color/basic 3D, while Web 3.0 would 🍷be immersive experiences in the metaverse.

Just as the 2010s were the decade when Web 2.0 became the dominant force in the global business and cultural landscape, it might be Web 3.0's turn soon.