Web 3 proponents see it as the evolutionary leap of the World Wide Web.
Web3 – What is It?
Web3 has become a catch-all term for the vision of a new ,better internet.
At its core , Web 3 uses blockchains, cryptocurrencies and NFTs to give power back to the users in the form of ownership.
Web3 gives you ownership of your digital assets in an unprecedented way.
The web has evolved a lot over the years,.And the applications of it today are almost unrecognizable from its most early days.
Web3 allows for direct ownership through NFTs (non-fungible token)..No one, not even the game’s creator has the power to take away your ownership .
And if you stop playing, you can sell or trade your in-game items on open markets and recoup their value.
On Web3 your data lives on a blockchain .When you decide to leave a platform ,you can take your reputation with you .
Additionally, plugging it into another interface that more closely aligns with your values.
Web3-Web 2 Scenario
In Web 2 ,you are largely beholden to the community standards of whatever platform you are posting on. In theory, there should not be a problem for this.
Social Media should provide users with an avenue to connect and share in a constructive manner.
Unfortunately, the reality of these things is not that simple.
Despite Facebook’s best efforts ,moderating the platform has proven to be a gargantuan task.
Given how the platform houses billions of users at this point ,some activity on the site will inevitably end up falling through the cracks.
Unseen by the powers that be. In some cases .Those that make it through end up organizing to socially disastrous results.
In other instances ,some perfectly valid initiatives get caught in Facebook’s censorship algorithms.
With affected users suddenly feeling completely stripped of their right to free speech
Inevitably such instances serve as taking points for pundits reflecting on the future of Social Media .
Web3 – Reformation in Social Media
In a 2017 Wired Article ,Chelsea Barba, Neha Narula, and Ethan Zukerman pondered the feasibility of a decentralized social media network.
In their words ,the biggest hurdle towards mass adoption of such platforms was simply attracting users.
Social networks ,in particular are difficult to bootstrap due to network effects.
We join them because our friends are there ,not for ideological reasons like decentralization .
While this may have been true then and is largely still true today . Though some argue that failing to challenge this notion may spell future doom for the ‘human race’.
So how can these Social Platforms serve humanity in a way that adds value?
It would be paramount for future social media platforms to be open-source ,decentralized in ownership.
Additionally, democratic in decision making and feature ‘explainable.
Implementations of the AI that powers these hypothetical platforms content algorithms.
With Web 2 ‘s Social Giants like Instagram and Facebook still in the early stages of of their inevitable Web 3 transitions.
Let’s look at some Web 3 -native social platforms hoping to steward these new changes moving forward,
When you imagine a social media platform ,what does it look like?
Chances are, it resembles Facebook with its never ending feed of content in all forms written posts, images ,videos and now even NFTs.
But if Instagram and Twitter have shown us anything, social media platforms can flourish even if they are just focusing on one media.
Read More Web 3 Technology – How To Work As A Web3 Developer?
Web3 user experience – Take example of Mirror. Billed as truly Web3 alternative to sites like Medium and Sub Stack .
Mirror prides itself on its decentralization thanks to how splits its ownership among its user base.
Anything you publish on the site is indisputably yours . Additionally , you are free to mint anything, you post onto your site as an NFT .
And then, set up subscription fees with crypto ,and even set up a DAO using the sites built-in-tools.
The best part? It’s all designed to be easy to use .Users can freely read and write on the platform by connecting their crypto wallet .
Thanks to its ease of use, Mirror has proven to be an invaluable platform for Web 3 community and project leaders to post anything on the site.
Whether its a detailed whitepaper or an elaborate Ship Post, Mirror is a great option.
Web3 – How it is different
Are you looking for a more diverse content experience on Web3 ?
Give MINDS a try .Essentially a decentralized take on Facebook, MINDS users can enjoy a full-fat social media experience .
Without any of the existential horrors that lurk on web 2 social media.
As such, MINDS is built around a feature set exemplilfis its ideals of internet freedom.
According its website, emails providing users with a meaningful avenue for free speech but the right to privacy ,self sovereignty.
Additionally, community governance ,a fully-functional crypto economy and an open-source platform.
Read More Web3 Technologies – Colossal Money-Making Technologies In The World Web3?
Web3
While committing to the ideals of Web3 in full by using social media platforms built in its image is a notable pursuit ,the jump is not so easy.
As outlined in the Article 2017 Wired Article previously mentioned ,most people join a social media platform because their friends are there .
Not because it’s necessarily a reflection of their ideas and principles. But that might not be forever.
Ironically, the core principle of Web3 -which is to put ownership of the internet back in the hands of its billions of users .
It might result in a resurgence of the types of internet experiences users in the late 90s and early 2000s enjoyed.
When everyone’s de facto page was Yahoo, users looked to build their own micro -communities centered around their hobbies, interests and connections.
Web 3’s take on Social Media – hopes to recapture that beautiful fragmentation of old and invites users to join and form communities .
Based on something deeper than fandom their ideals and principles.
So will any of these Web 3 social media platforms challenge the big titans of Web 2 ? Maybe , maybe not.
But if these monopolies ever implode, they will be around to help the internet make sense of the wreckage that no one gets harmed in the fallout,
The Creator Economy & Rise of Web3
The explosion of Social media platforms led to the emergence of creator economy .
Suddenly creators could share their content on a massive scale with their followers and contribute to a multi-billion dollar industry.
However, creators see only a fraction of their revenue with Web 2 social media platforms like Facebook ,Instagram, Tik Tok and YouTube.
The centralized nature of content ‘gatekeepers’ platforms is to blame.
Web 3 introduces decentralization – and the opportunity for true digital ownership.
Many creators see it as a path to becoming less reliant on traditional platforms and a more egalitarian business model.
As the web matured, we grew to rely more and more on a handful of large companies.
Google built the fastest and most convenient search engine ,and have been rewarded with control over 74% of all search traffic.
Web 3 is different from previous generational shifts.
It’s about who has control over the technologies and applications that we use everyday.
Additionally, it’s about breaking the dynamic that has shaped the last decade of the web . Besides, the tradeoff between convenience and control.
Web 3 rejects the Premise
We can have the benefits of the internet without handing the majority of power to a minority of companies.
Web3 is a movement to build different technologies and make better choices. We are not trying to replace the web.
But rather keep what we like while changing its underlying structure . A reformation, not a revolution.
3 Trends of Web3
1.Money will become a native feature of the internet.
In the past ,internet was simply a portal to the offline, traditional financial system. But cryptocurrencies are fundamentally digital .
Sending a transaction does not require interacting with some offline system .It only requires sending a message over the internet.
2. “Decentralized” applications will offer users new capabilities.
“Decentralization” has become a central concept for web 3. However, its often used more as a slogan than a precise technical description .
Decentralization can refer to a huge range of possibilities.
3. Users will have more control over their digital identities and data.
The core rules that govern our decentralized service are defined in an open-source protocol .
Users interact with that protocol using client=software of their choice. In other words there would be of apps ,all made by different developers.
But which all connected to the same social network .
Today, most of our online identities belong to someone else., like a Gmail address or Facebook account.
Web 3 is laying the groundwork for personal control of line identities.
In general, a greater share of our use of the internet will be through platforms and systems that collect no data about us.
Web3 is a worthwhile vision for the future . Cryptocurrency and blockchain enthusiasts are rightly criticized for focusing myopically on technology.
Rather than the problems that technology is supposed to solve.
Web 3 is agnostic about whose platform ends up being used.
The focus is on what the technology can actually do what problems it solves for people.
Conclusion –
A decentralized Future
We are witnessing the evolution of the internet from centralized Web 2 ‘gatekeeping’ business models to more decentralized ones.
All made possible by Web 3 ,which intends to give their participants autonomy and control.
Decentralization and digital ownership help level the playing field for all participants involved.
Micro-influencers ,in particular ,who struggle in saturated social media platforms with unfair revenue models can benefit greatly from what Web 3 offers.
Social media platforms like Meta (Facebook, Instagram) to enter this space .
The move signals that Web 3 has enormous value and will play a fundamental role in the future of the creator economy.
Traditional social media platforms have just started jumping on the Bandwagon.
Web3 is a young and evolving ecosystem. Gavin Wood coined the term in 2014 ,but many of these ideas have only recently become a reality.
In the last year alone ,there has been a considerable surge in the interest in cryptocurrency ,improvements to layer 2 scaling solutions.
Besides, massive experiments with new forms of governance ,and revolutions in digital identity.
We are only at the beginning of creating a better Web with Web3 ,but as we continue to improve the infrastructure that will support it, the future of the web looks bright.
The promise of web 3 is that at least this time, constraints on power and control are design requirements ,not afterthoughts.
Read More Web 3-Why Do We Need To Move To Web 3?
FAQs
What is the Web?
The Web is the common name for the Word Wide Web . a subset of the internet consisting of the pages that can be accessed by a Web browser.
Many people assume that the Web is the same as the internet and use these terms interchangeably.
What are the 3 types of Web?
a. Static website design
b. CMS or dynamic website
c. eCommerce web
Is Google a web?
A search engine is a special kind of website that helps users find web pages from other websites.
What is Web and how it works ?
A web [age is a way to display information on the internet. its made up of elements like text ,images, links , videos or buttons.
Based on the information those pages contain, they are organized into an information hierarchy.
This allows navigation from one page to another.
Why is internet not a web?
The internet allows any computer in the world to exchange data with any other computer in the world.
As a result, a client programme on one computer can access a server on another computer.
The Web is a hypertext system that runs over the internet as one of its services.
Can the Web exist without the internet?
Although they are intermingled and used together, they are certainly not the same. The internet could exist without the Web.
But the Web as we know it could not exist without the internet.
In simple terms, the internet is the physical infrastructure on what services like the Web run.
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