What Web 3.0 Means for Data in the Future

Differences Between Web1, Web2, and Web3

How can we characterize the story of the Internet and its key achievements? Web 1.0 represented a new digital global platform for technology consumption. The initial objective of Web1 was to help people find information more effectively.

The main characteristics of Web1 are:

• It features GIF graphics
• All content comes from the server’s filesystem
• E-mail is used to send HTML forms
• Frames and tables are its HTML elements
• It contains static pages that are connected via hyperlinks.

Web 2.0 contributed to the emergence of user-driven feedback and social networks. The major objective of this Internet is to ensure interaction and create more content for a growing audience.

The key features of Web2 are:

• It allows such forms of interaction as social media, commenting, blogging, tagging, social networking, and podcasting
• It contributes to such functions as sorting, retrieving, and classification of information
• It has dynamic content responding to users’ needs
• It applies Developed Application Programming Interfaces

Web 3.0 focuses on the rise of the ‘smart’ web based on blockchain technologies. Web3 's meaning is associated with more excellent user utility, openness, and decentralization.

The main characteristics of Web3 are the following:

• It is a semantic web whose basic mechanisms are search and analysis.
• The incorporation of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence makes Web3 more responsive to user needs and smarter.
• The Internet of Things drives the connectivity of multiple applications and devices and provides the opportunity to connect to the Internet without a smart device.
• Participation is possible without authorization.
• It can be used for decentralized autonomous organizations, decentralized finance, privacy, and digital infrastructure, blockchain games, and metaverses.

Why Web 3.0 Is Criticized

Of course, the idea of Web 3.0 provokes much criticism and skepticism because it is unique and can resist Web2. Jack Dorsey, the Twitter founder, is convinced that in fact, the real power brokers can be venture capital firms. Opponents of Web3 view it as a trustless Internet that large and dominant corporations do not support. However, mainly, Web 3.0 is criticized for the following reasons:

• It is chaotic and full of contradictions. The main dilemma here is that there is no single authority who can bear responsibility for the data. The lack of control and regulations can lead to scam content and harassment.
• Its architecture causes many issues. The slow development of Web3 is the outcome of debugging and testing problems, depending on third-party tools and particular blockchains.
• Web3 apps cannot ensure decentralization in full measure, therefore, they are accused of manipulation.

How Web3 Can Contribute to the Rise of Data

Proponents of Web 3.0 have the hope that it will transform approaches to data use. First, storage on the blockchain and distributed ledger technologies will contribute to the rise of data. Second, Web3 companies will displace platform business models like Facebook and Twitter that monetize users’ personal information. In addition, the hegemony of a very small number of giant companies will be shifted with the help of decentralization and they will not be able anymore to access our data without permission. A highly distributed data ecosystem will contribute to the representation of a new kind of web that will guarantee better storage and management of information. Third, Web3 can make centralized business models obsolete because relying upon blockchain applications will mean leveraging machine learning software and machine-readable data and rebuilding e-commerce. Thus, the third generation of the Internet can become the driving force for data-driven technologies like completely distributed data ecosystems, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.

What else can we expect from Web3 use? What can it bring us in practice? Let’s see what features have a high chance of being incorporated!

• Anonymous single-sign-on. This option will allow you to have one authentication method and username across all websites.
• Tokenization and individual ownership. Users’ activities online can be rewarded with a token and generated in an asset in a crypto-wallet. Such an approach drives participation and contributes to ownership.
• Self-governing. Users can obtain the decision-making power to influence rules that govern a site.

Conclusion

All in all, it is obvious that with Web3, the Internet is not going to be the same as it will become a tool that can prioritize users’ needs in terms of data. Unique features of Web3 will make existing platforms obsolete and create the basis for new technologies and opportunities. Of course, Web 3.0 is criticized and viewed as something that will fail, but, anyway, it offers new technologies and approaches to the use, storage, and management of data. Thus, the data revolution will be inevitable because Internet transformations have already started. If you want to know how to implement the third web generation to drive your business, feel free to contact us. We are interested in your ideas to turn them into reality.