Web3: ready for a new technological revolution?
The future of the Internet is here already.
You can’t talk about Web3 without mentioning Blockchain. Also defined as the ‘third incarnation of the network’, Web3 aims to transform the web as we know it today into a decentralized ecosystem free from the control of Big Tech.
More than just innovation, it is a real epoch-making change, made possible by the development and spread of Blockchain-based technologies, such as cryptocurrency, tokens, NFTs, DApps or crypto wallets.
For companies and for those who work in the network, the Web3 opens up a myriad of new business opportunities, value creation and interaction with users; for users, it represents a new, safer and more democratic model of using the web in the financial, work, recreational and management of many aspects of daily life.
Web3: the evolution of the species.
From its inception in 1991 until today, the web has changed a lot, moving from being a restricted tool to a circle of a few experts to a universal and indispensable tool, something that we all take for granted.
In these thirty years, the Internet has profoundly transformed, upsetting the economy and the very way in which we carry out many activities, making possible what we used to have difficulty even imagining.
By schematizing, you can distinguish three main periods in the evolution of the network: Web1, Web2, and Web3.
Web1: The read-only network.
Web1 or Web 1.0 defines the period between the birth of the Internet and the mid-2000s. At this stage, the distinction between developers and users is clear and the web is populated by static sites and portals, based on texts and images that do not allow any type of interaction. For this reason, we also talk about ‘read-only web’.
Web2: from blogs to social media.
With the birth of Wikipedia (2001) and the first blogs, the transition begins towards the second evolutionary phase of the web, Web2 or Web 2.0. Innovation is the ability for the user to interact, publish and exchange information.
Then Facebook, Twitter and YouTube up to the most recent social platforms arrive and the various marketplaces and the border between creators and users of content becomes thinner and thinner. In the background, the power of Big Tech grows, which centrally manages the entire network.
Web3: Internet in the Blockchain era.
Today we are witnessing the transition from a client/server network to one based on Blockchain technology, that is, on registers distributed over a peer to peer network. The Web3 is the new frontier of the Internet, an ecosystem in which data is stored in a decentralized way: no longer kept by private companies, but saved in multiple copies on the network and regulated by a shared protocol called smart contract.
In Web3, user data no longer belongs to large companies such as Google or Amazon, but can be managed without a central control authority, as it is the structure of the Blockchain itself that ensures total security, transparency and traceability of operations.
In short, for those who use a DApp – that is, a decentralized application based on Blockchain – nothing or almost nothing can change on the front-end: what changes radically, however, is the architecture used, which with Web3 definitely marks the entrance into a new era.
There is no web without Web3: what changes, benefits and new opportunities.
Compared to the idea of the web to which we are all accustomed, made of newsfeed, like, streaming and online shopping, the Web3 opens the doors to a completely new paradigm and to an almost unlimited number of new applications.
A revolution destined to involve and encompass more and more sectors, from finance to insurance, from figurative art to music, from industry to agriculture, to the real estate market and collectibles.
Everyone’s network, for everyone.
Thanks to the Blockchain architecture and the distributed register system, the Web3 is no longer bound to the control of large private corporations that dictate the rules and can decide how and when to change them, penalising some and privileging others arbitrarily.
Through Blockchain and Decentralized Applications, everyone can have equal access to the network and fully exploit its full potential, without limits or barriers to entry, in a free and democratic way, which is impossible with the tools of the Web2.
Web3 moves from a system based on a central authority to a trustless model, where each transaction is certified by network nodes, in a democratic and transparent way, and where each individual user can participate directly in common decisions.
Top security and privacy protection
But being able to rely on a decentralized structure such as that of Blockchain, also allows to significantly increase the security of the network: in the absence of a central authority, the vulnerability of the system is also reduced, as a Single Point of Failure (SPF) is missing.
Even in the event of a computer attack or a problem with a particular server, the data will never be lost, but will always remain available at the other nodes of the network.
In addition, unlike Web1 and Web2, Web3 guarantees maximum protection of the user’s sensitive data: access to DApps and related services is in fact anonymous and takes place through the use of crypto wallets, without the need to enter your ID or to go through Google or Facebook accounts.
Digital law, real property.
In Web3 not only the user is not bound to the great giants of the Internet, but his data and information no longer belong to third parties able to exploit them for commercial purposes.
In addition, Blockchain offers numerous possibilities to create value and manage ownership of financial assets without relying on banks or other institutions. An example are NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, non-fungible tokens that uniquely certify the possession of digital and non-digital goods, documents, requirements and access rights to certain services.
