Web 3.0: More power to the people!
Web 3.0. Metaverse. Artificial Intelligence. Machine Learning. NFTs. Cryptocurrency. Internet of Things… – you have to have heard about one of these buzz words, let us break it down
In 1989, the internet came into existence. It was called Web 1.0 or the Static Web and provided access to information with absolutely no interaction but importantly it was a decentralized platform where development, ownership, and operation were not controlled by a few. Web 1.0 was the dominant and more reliable form of the internet till 2005 when Web 2.0 was introduced. Web 2.0 is the internet as we know it today.
It is also known as the social web, it is very interactive and led to the formation of big tech companies that created interactive web platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Google, iTunes, YouTube, and so on. On Web 2.0, platforms and apps are developed, owned, and operated by big tech companies. These big tech companies created centralized platforms whilst making it easier to connect, browse and transact.
In Web 2.0, these platforms and apps collect data from users and the owners of the apps use the data for what they please. The biggest challenges are that they use users’ data for their financial gain and that they decide what should be on the internet and when it should be on the internet. But Web 3.0 is shifting things, by giving power back to the people (decentralized like Web 1.0) whilst creating open-sourced interactive web platforms (Web 2.0).
Web 3.0 is the creation, operation, and governance of the internet by users, creators, and practically anything online. Ownership is defined by digital tokens and cryptocurrency; the more you have over a network, the more control you have over its operations and governance. This leads to the number one criticism of Web 3.0 whereby early adopters and venture capitalists are more likely to own more tokens and cryptos leading to more ownership of the web.
Web 3.0 is focused on decentralization and ownership. Web 3.0 processes information and data in a human way and interprets the information using artificial intelligence mainly machine learning. This data is generated from various sources; this is where the internet of things comes in. Any device that can be connected to the internet will generate data that you can choose to sell so it can be used to offer more personalized solutions to you.
This is bad for big tech companies as the selling of our data to advertisers is where their revenue comes from. As such many of them are moving to the Metaverse – a digital world where digital assets can be purchased and sold by anyone. These big tech companies are creating digital assets that can be sold.
Although Web 3.0 has not been fully nor officially launched, there are a few early-stage platforms that have already started rolling out Web 3.0 such as Siri and Alexa, which are platforms that collect data from ios or android devices connected to the internet whilst using artificial intelligence to decode the information and understand it in a human way.
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