Web 3️⃣ Point 0️⃣ - Coming in 🔥

As the decentralised bandwagon keeps rolling, this week we take a dive into “Web 3.0” and ask what the hell is it and why should we care? 

Before we get into this, a few of you may be asking, “Web 3.0?, what happened to 1.0 and 2.0”? Well, it should not be a surprise that given the evolution of the internet since the early 1990’s there has seen substantial iterations. Web 1.0 is earmarked as your standard web pages basic brochureware sites with consumable content. Post 2000 saw the rise of social media as we know it today and the e-commerce phenomenon we know and love. This is where on mass, we currently sit as Web 2.0. Web 3.0 (you’ve already guessed it) is where we’ve started to see the marvels of Crypto, NFTs and DAO’s hitting the mainstream as we welcome the decentralised networks into our devices. 

But what what do we even mean when we say decentralised? 

Let us first consider how Web 2.0 operates through its data structures, typically “data packages” will be set between one computer to another when they communicate. This could include anything from your basic profile information to photos, bank details etc, on Facebook, this could be updating profile page details which is then stored in a centralised database owned by Facebook. As has been well documented, we know, from here we have limited control of our data as it is distributed at will for the benefit of advertising campaigns et al to cycle back all the products & services that we are likely to want to buy. Whilst the security concerns are obvious, that alone is not enough to stir a real need behind a new movement (despite what we are told by the tech giants), but if we consider the inefficiencies and costs of processing this data, we suddenly have a real commercial use case to look for alternatives. 

Decentralisation changes the game in how this data is handled but critically the environment in which it enters is fundamentally different. The term “peer to peer” is often used in this context to articulate the redundancy of the middle man. A decentralised environment is one that is owned and contributed to by everyone and does not require the need for a central organisation. These central organisation are replaced by smart contracts which govern the agreement in which 2 peers enter into. These smart contracts not only set the terms but also the protocols & workflows to which a single party can carry out a certain action ensuring that not only are the terms verbalised but they cannot be physically overwritten. Thus (in theory) resulting in a network of trust. 

Although incepted in 2010 arguably it is still the theory rather than evidence that is driving the movement of Web 3.0. If we look at the perceived benefits and use cases we can see the principles that the movement adheres to: 

• Individuals can control their own privacy & security. Whilst retaining ownership of our data & digital footprints by using tokenised digital assets.
• Of the governance & protocols that exist, all of it is open source and open to the scrutiny of the network.
• Organisations can be more adaptable to adjustments to peer-to-peer communication and unique governance ties directly with participants.
• Societies can become more efficient by removing the intermediary and ensuring value is returned directly back to the users and suppliers from within network.
• Through mutual ownership and governance of these new decentralised systems of intelligence participants can collaborate to solve problems. Evidence of this can be seen via the means of a Decentralised Autonomous Organisation or “DAO”. Which acts as its own self governed entity and is influenced by equal ownership who all conform to the terms of the smart contract. In practice it means that all participants get their say in the way the organisation operates. 

Why does this matter? Well right now, today, it doesn’t really per se, unless you’re all in on your Bitcoin, NFTs or Discord account, quite simply because critical mass has not been established both in the adopted consumers and also the applications (dApps) available. This isn’t to say however that we are not near the edge of that tipping point and the themes of security, ownership & equality carry such great potential for the future and there certainly is a great deal of positive weight behind the hype. 

The sceptics among us will comment that although Web 3.0 can eradicate the many known foibles of Web 2.0 we can’t help but think, what will Web 4.0 need to do to put a plaster on the impacts of Web 3.0.

What we cannot forget, is that the same theory and hype was applied to Web 2.0. Many of us will remember the rise of social media in how it was going to “connect us” and provide a utopia of an engaged collaborative society. Whilst there are so many benefits (and quite simply I would not be blogging today without it), we cannot ignore the resulting tirade of mental health and corruption narratives that blight the ecosystem that we have all so freely contributed to. No one in 2005 could have necessarily envisaged this net outcome and the depth in which it has impacted societies.

The sceptics among us will comment that although Web 3.0 can eradicate the many known foibles of Web 2.0 we can’t help but think, what will Web 4.0 need to do to put a plaster on the impacts of Web 3.0.