Web 3.0 is an emerging conceptual implementation of the Internet focused on decentralization. While it is still in a conceptual stage, many organizations are working towards building Web 3.0. Since Web 3.0 will change the way we are using the Internet, we must be aware of this developing trend.
Evolution of Web
To realize the significance of Web 3.0, we must first understand the Web or the Internet as we perceive it today.
Web 1.0
The Web started in the early 1990s, and it mainly contained static content. There were a few content creators, and the vast majority were just consumers. The content creators mainly wanted to publish information about themselves, and the users or consumers referred to their websites to find information. Due to this model, Web 1.0 is also referred to as read-only Web.
ISPs in the Web 1.0 era used to offer services to host static web pages, and many enterprises used these services to host their content. This trend continued up until the advent of social networking around 2004.
Web 2.0
Web 2.0 transformed the Web into a platform of software applications. As opposed to the static content in Web 1.0, Web 2.0 consisted of websites that provided various services via the Internet. Email, e-commerce, and social networking were the initial services available in Web 2.0, and these services mainly targeted individual consumers.
Later, enterprise software companies also caught up in this trend of offering services via the Internet. Enterprise services such as customer relationship management, human resource management, purchasing, inventory management, etc., became available in a software as a service model.
The diffusion of Web 2.0 was further fueled by the availability of smartphones and 3G, the pioneering technology behind mobile Internet access. It made the Web always available to everyone. However, the most significant impact on Web 2.0 was that the general public transformed from content consumers to content creators.
Why Web 3.0
Web 2.0 is ruling the world at present, and it has enabled multitudes of people and businesses to collaborate and deliver services. However, it has are some drawbacks.
Web 2.0 is built around application platforms that are owned by certain organizations. These organizations develop the platforms and attract users by employing different marketing methods. Once an organization has a sufficient user-base, it starts monetizing the users directly or indirectly. Advertising, selling products, and offering services are monetization mechanisms.
Since the applications delivered via the Internet are accessible to anyone in the entire globe, these organizations can scale their platforms to millions of users. Once an organization has hyper-scaled, it can dominate its domain by closing avenues for new entrants.
This centralized model of Web 2.0 has raised concerns over user trust, privacy, and transparency. To obtain a service offered by a Web 2.0 platform, users submit some personal information to the platform. Then, the user trust that their personal information will be safeguarded by the organization that owns the platform. However, if the organization fails, the users could be powerless to take any actions. The situation could be even worse if an organization deliberately exploits the personal data of users it owns.
Web 2.0 is enabling a few large organizations to control the entire population in the world, and web 3.0 is an attempt to overcome this massive drawback.
Decentralization – the main goal in Web 3.0
Decentralization is the main goal of Web 3.0. HTTP, which is the protocol that forms the foundation of Web 2.0, works in a client-server model. A typical consumer sends a request to a server, and the server takes certain actions based on the request and sends the response.
In contrast, Web 3.0 aims to adopt a peer-to-peer architecture where the content would be served from multiple computers owned by end-users. HTTP does not natively support these types of services. Several projects, such as Polkadot, Kusama, etc., have spawned to fill this gap by developing alternative protocols. While these projects are still at their elementary stages, their evolving phase looks encouraging.
Features of Web 3.0
Web 3.0 is characterized as open, trustless, and permissionless, and this is quite different from how Web 2.0 works.
Open
Open-source software powers Web 3.0. These software projects are governed by the community and are built collaboratively. The software is executed in public with a full view so that how they function is transparent to everyone.
Trustless
The absence of centralized platforms also makes Web 3.0 trustless. In this model, anyone can interact with anyone else without going through a central platform such as a social networking application.
Permissionless
Web 3.0 does not require anyone to be authorized to interact with anyone else. Therefore, it is said to be permissionless.
Enablers of Web 3.0
Blockchain
A blockchain is a distributed system consisting of a growing list of records linked using cryptographic keys. Bitcoin is the pioneering implementation of blockchain, and there are many subsequent projects, such as Namecoin, Litecoin, Zerocach, etc., that have stemmed from the original Bitcoin project.
Bitcoin was originally intended for cryptocurrency. However, blockchains are now being used for other applications such as financial services and games; Blockchains support the open, trustless, and permissionless nature of Web 3.0.
Blockchains are ‘open` on how they are developed and executed, and all blockchain projects are open-source, and their development is community-driven. Also, in public blockchains, all transactions and data records are visible to the public.
Blockchain achieves trustless transactions by smart contracts and making data immutable. A smart contract defines the conditions for the transaction and executes those conditions. This ensures that the two parties involved in a transaction are guaranteed their desired outcome.
Blockchain uses cryptography to securely transfer information without the involvement of a 3rd party or a middleman. So, they are inherently permissionless.
With all these characteristics, blockchain is going to be a fundamental building block in Web 3.0
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
In Web 3.0, computers are expected to search, understand, and present information like humans, and the applications in Web 3.0 will present information that is more relevant to the users. AI and especially natural language processing, a branch of AI, will be critical enablers for this behavior.
Machine Learning, another branch of AI, will also play an important role in Web 3.0 by allowing computers to learn and improve over time.
Edge Computing
Web 2.0 relies on computing and storage in centralized data centers. However, Web 3.0 focuses on decentralization, so computing power also must be decentralized.
Edge computing puts the computing power at the consumer devices such as laptops, smartphones, cameras, etc. By distributing data across such devices, reliability will be improved, and latency can be reduced.
Challenges in Web 3.0
Web 3.0 aims to decentralize the Internet and put more power in the end users’ hands. This concept of decentralization enables novel use cases, but it also creates many challenges and has some drawbacks.
Censorship
Web 3.0 will enable more users to be content creators so that the total volume of content would increase dramatically. However, the absence of centralized control will make censoring harder, so implementing parental control, content filtering, etc., will be challenging. This could make Web 3.0 unsafe and harmful for certain user segments.
Security
Suppose a malicious user discovers a potential loophole in any major application or protocol in Web 3.0. In that case, there may not be a practical mechanism to prevent that user from exploiting the whole system. Since there is no centralized control, exploitation could create a catastrophic impact.
Scale
Web 2.0 is already quite large, but Web 3.0 could be even bigger. Organizing and managing information in Web 3.0 will be complex and challenging. While Web 3.0 will rely on AI and machine learning to interpret data, the existing AI algorithms are still not capable of meeting the expected demands in Web 3.0
Usability
The applications of Web 2.0 are focused on the end-user, and even non-tech users can quickly learn to use those applications. However, Web 3.0 is still revolving around a set of high-tech users, and new users must go through a steep learning curve before gaining any benefit from Web 3.0 applications. While this could change in the future, it is still unclear how it will change.
While Web 2.0 applications may have complex backends, most of them are accessible from any front-end device with basic computing capabilities. In contrast, Web 3.0 demands high-end devices with very high computing power. Therefore, users who own low-end devices could be left-out in Web 3.0.
Web 3.0 looks promising and even more exciting than Web 2.0. The entire range of technologies required to realize Web 3.0 is not available yet, and however, many initiatives are focused on developing those technologies. It is critical that anyone in the technical field know about the title wave that will change how we interact with the Internet and embrace Web 3.0
EN 
ES