A happy new year to everyone!
Yes, I’m aware we’re halfway into February but as this is my first post this year, I thought I’d start by extending felicitations long overdue.
In previous newsletters, I intimated that I would be delving more into matters relating to technology and the creator economy. While it appears to be a departure from my writing scope which typically centres social commentary and politics, I believe that there is an information gap that needs bridging in the tech space with a lot of novel things popping up at breath-taking speed.
Without much ado, let’s take an exploratory dive into what has been one of the most exciting buzz terms to come from tech in the past year.
I present to you, Web 3.0.
The evolution of Web 3.0
A common mistake many people make, me included, is to conflate the Web as being the same as the Internet. In truth, they are different. If the Internet describes a collection of computers all linked together globally, the Web refers to the collection of all the HTML pages, digital music, GIFS, photos, videos etc. that can be found on the Internet. The Web is quite simply a part of the whole.
Web 3.0 describes the third generation of the Internet where websites and applications will process information in a decentralised manner that is built on the blockchain technology.
The third generation refers to an iteration of the Internet evolved from the current paradigm, Web 2.0.
The World Wide Web was created in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee. Web 1.0 which lasted from 1989 till 2005 was read-only and not very interactive. It ran on the web protocols HTML, HTTP and URI which are still in use today.
Because Web 1.0 was quite passive, its limitations became very apparent with the dotcom boom and the dynamic information technology age that the world was undergoing. Web pages were static as they ran mostly on HTML, updating and managing web pages could only be done by web masters and the pages themselves didn’t work so well with web consoles.
Web 2.0 which came circa 2005 improved on the limitations of its predecessor. It has been described as the read-write web. It is more participative by encouraging more social interactions, more user-friendly and provides a software architecture which businesses are able to leverage on.
It is no coincidence that the rise of social media coincides with the advent of Web 2.0. Facebook, Twitter, Netflix and a host of other content sharing platforms came into force with the adoption of Web 2.0.
However, this has also presented its challenges particularly as critics of Web 2.0 say that tech corporations have harvested user data in such a way that they are at the mercies of these companies who can seemingly violate user privacy at will. The need for a decoupling and the decentralisation of those powers among other concerns have given impetus to Web 3.0.
Web 3.0 has been described as the read/write/own stage of the Internet with users being able to take control of web protocols through increased participation and democratisation that aims to wrestle power away from Big Tech. It comes with a lot of prospects such as structured data, automation, integration, and compatibility across various applications.
Advancements in AI and machine learning mean that both users and machines will be able to interact with data. In fact, the cornerstones of this new generation of the internet are AI and what Berners-Lee calls the Semantic Web which is another name for Web 3.0.
The graphic below may help highlight the basic differences between the three generations of the Internet.
Image source: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/
Decentralisation
One of the prominent features that Web 3.0 proponents talk about is decentralisation. Here’s how Jason Griffey of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University describes the decentralised web:
“The term ‘Decentralized Web’ is being used to refer to a series of technologies that replace or augment current communication protocols, networks, and services and distribute them in a way that is robust against single-actor control or censorship.”
By now I assume anyone reading this has an idea what cryptocurrency is, a digital payment system that permits peer-to-peer financial transactions devoid of any central regulatory authority and is in essence, decentralised. Crypto operates using the blockchain—a digitally distributed ledger that is immutable and stores records of all transactions which is visible to all.
Decentralisation as a concept is gaining acceptance in tech with its applications seen in gaming, decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs) and most saliently with the adoption of Defi, short for decentralised finance.
Decentralised finance aims to disrupt central banks by offering bank-like services such as high interest-earning accounts, lending & borrowing, and currency exchange—all on the Ethereum blockchain through self-governing systems.
Here is an excellent resource to learn more about Defi.
What Web 3.0 is not
So far, I’ve touched on the evolution of the Internet and the concept of decentralisation in explaining what Web 3.0 is. However, it might also be instructive to shed light on what it is not.
Web 3.0 is not the same thing as the metaverse. Sorry to burst the bubble on that one if you thought so as some apparently do. While the two concepts may have a nexus in that they both provide a glimpse into what the future of the Internet is, the metaverse combines both features of virtual reality and a digital second life.
The metaverse is fluid (read as vague) in definition but most people agree that it is an immersive 3D world where people can engage in activities that take place in the real world such as building communities, playing games, entertainment and even conducting transactions.
Leading the charge on this front is Meta, the Zuckerberg owned company rebranded from Facebook. It has spent billions of dollars in research and development geared towards accelerating the company to the metaverse.
Similarly in January, Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard an interactive gaming franchise, in a deal worth almost $69 billion. The company said its acquisition was a ‘metaverse play’.
While critics maintain that the metaverse is a vague concept and despite Meta's plummeting stocks going by its latest financials, reports that the metaverse will fizzle out may be premature. It is quite a risky punt betting against what some see as the future.
Another important thing to note is that while Web 3.0 will become the new paradigm, it isn't in anyway disconnected from Web 2.0. In the same way Web 2.0 is layered on aspects of Web 1.0, Web 3.0 will also be built on foundations already laid down by Web 2.0.
This means that user hardware and devices will still largely remain the same while interfaces in use now will still support Web 3.0.
Is Web 3.0 really all that?
While there's a lot of hype around it, not everyone is sold on Web 3.0. You need not look further than the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, for proof.
In a widely circulated blogpost from earlier this year, CEO of Signal, Moxie Marlinspike, highlighted fundamental concerns regarding Web 3.0. A few issues stand out.
One, despite the premise that Web 3.0 will allow users own protocols and run their own servers, people in fact do not want to do so.
Two, decentralisation as promised is at odds with reality. Marlinspike referenced non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralised apps (Dapps) to make this point.
“For example, whether it’s running on mobile or the web, a dApp like Autonomous Art or First Derivative needs to interact with the blockchain somehow—in order to modify or render state…
“That’s not really possible to do from the client, though, since the blockchain can’t live on your mobile device (or in your desktop browser realistically).
“So the only alternative is to interact with the blockchain via a node that’s running remotely on a server somewhere.
“A server! But, as we know, people don’t want to run their own servers. As it happens, companies have emerged that sell API access to an ethereum node they run as a service, along with providing analytics, enhanced APIs they’ve built on top of the default ethereum APIs, and access to historical transactions. Which sounds… familiar.
“At this point, there are basically two companies. Almost all dApps use either Infura or Alchemy in order to interact with the blockchain.”
The point, or irony here, is that almost all Dapps run on APIs owned by either one of two companies which appears to defeat the goal of decentralisation.
However, despite these objections, it remains early days and there’s no reason to not expect that the tech ecosystem will adapt to address these issues. As with crypto which got bad rep in the beginning from experts, skeptics and financial institutions alike, it has now gained wide acceptance in a short space of time.
This wraps up my explainer on Web 3.0. There’s a lot of stuff to be excited about and I hope in subsequent newsletters to explore the interesting things happening in the world of tech. Meanwhile, if you liked this post feel free to share and subscribe.
What is Web 3.0?
A great read. Thank Stephen
Amazing as always stepho. Interesting to see how web 3 would actually look like, but looks like there might be a consolidation of powers like web 2. Let see!