Section 1 // ○ Level: Easy Quick Links: 2: Blockchain 3: Smart contracts | Dashboard: Web3 Starter Pack
<aside> 🥡 KEY TAKEAWAY Web3 is the next iteration of the Internet which incorporates concepts such as decentralization, blockchain technologies and token-based economics. Web3 promise increased data security, scalability and privacy for users.
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The best way to understand what actually Web3 is, is to take a step back and see its predecessors (the previous internet paradigms) Web1 and Web2. As of today, we’re witnessing a revolution in progress - the Internet, technology and the computers we’ve know for 30 years are always evolving. It’s a natural process that happens over time. Remember when we had to go to internet cafes just to check our email or open our MySpace profile? Or how just a few of us had a mobile device that was not even connected to WiFi? It’s natural for things and processes to grow, evolve even mature, and become an everyday use for the masses.
Let’s dive into a timeline of important events since the inception of the Web 👇
The U.S Government’s APRANET sent its first electronic message in 1969, but the Web as we know it today didn’t emerge until 1991 when thanks to HTML and URLs it was possible for user to navigate between static pages. Back then, the World Wide Web replicated existing medias and that’s how computerized versions of magazines, newspapers and newsletter were consumed by the readers. People were satisfied to check their email and do some research by reading. In order to do that so, you had to sit in front of a desktop PC and connect to the Internet via dial-up. 😩
When mobile devices were introduced to the world and then social networks showed up, the world shifted from content consumers to content creators, bloggers, brand representatives and so on. The Internet became more usable as we are able to consume, interact and create new content on the Internet. The web moved from static to interactive and the rise of e-commerce skyrocketed because of smartphones and cloud computing - which were the major drivers’ growth of Web2.
Web2 is experiencing a new shift and becomes Web3. You can think of it as an upgraded digital experience where people can read, write and own the World Wide Web. The creator economy moves to creator ownership economy where ideally no more platform monopolies would exist.
Since 2005 the Internet acts like a centralized database monopoly that is owned and operated by few tech giants like Google, Facebook, Amazon and others. To simplify, we are the users of the product and we do not own our data. The whole point of Web3 is getting ownership and decision-making away from a small group of people into the hands of the community - the real users. In Web2 stakeholders and the CEOs are the decision-makers of the future of a platform that holds our personal data and monetize it through various channels.
It’s absolutely normal for people being skeptics and pessimist about new and not-yet discovered trending shifts. We have many things to be yet figured out which are related to government regulations, cybercrime, carbon footprint, education and entry barriers for the masses. But Web3 is just getting started and 👇
<aside> 🥡 KEY TAKEAWAY The Internet becomes decentralized for the first time since its inception. It’s governed by AI, transparent and distributed by everyone in the network.
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Simply put, it is the next iteration of the Internet. It aims to become a decentralized Internet - online, shared and governed by us, rather than centralized entities.
As a term it was coined by Gavin Wood (the Ethereum co-founder) in 2014 when Web3 was explained as being a decentralized digital infrastructure and the whole data will be stored on the network, thus any changes will be recorded and verified by the entire network, transparent and governed by AI.