Web3 — A Simple Guide

Web3 has been announced by many people as the future of technology with capabilities to revolutionize the internet, it has fortunately been noted to have no full definition yet, but for the concept that lies around it. However, wired defines it as a decentralized online ecosystem based on blockchain.

The idea of Web3 has evolved and gained popularity in recent years. Web3 has become a buzzword in tech, crypto, and the financial space at large. With the world experiencing change and new developments at the dawn of a new day, the internet is far from what it used to be a decade ago, re-enforcing the reality of being one of the greatest technological advancements in the world.

Among the diverse things it stands for, Web 3.0 represents the next peak of the internet which will disarm the monopolistic control by big corporations and governments to distribute absolute control to everyone. With the prospect it holds, web3 has witnessed gross migration of top-tier stakeholders from web2 to its space. For example, Google took the challenge by building its Web3 division.

Going forward, some other stakeholders joined the buzz like Google’s former Vice President, Surojit Chatterjee who now works as Coinbase’s chief product officer. On this list also is Amazon’s Pravjit Tiwana who left his position as general manager of Amazon Edge Services to work as the chief technology officer of Gemini. Lyft’s former chief financial officer, Brian Roberts followed suit, joining NFT marketplace, OpenSea. The former head of gaming at YouTube, Ryan Wyatt joined polygon studios and leads as its CEO, wrapping up with AirBnB’s former human resources director who also joined Polygon in June.

There are a plethora of opportunities currently based in the web3 space and this has caused a surge in the number of the most demanded job titles which keeps peaking as more projects come to the limelight. The metaverse and Web3 space jobs include content writers and editors, blockchain developers, growth marketing managers, NFT social media and community managers, front-end and back-end engineers, media reporters, project managers, and gamification strategists.

This article spotlights different areas within the web3.0 space, niching down to the sporadic movement of crossing from a centralized web 2.0 to a decentralized web 3.0 will be the focal point. The article gradually unravels the beauty of web3 by crossing paths with web1 and web2, bringing the relevance of the dot-com bubble and youtube dominance since 2005 to play. Being an explainer article, it goes on to describe how web3.0 works, the associated risk, why it is important, the data growth metrics in the web3 space, and web3 platforms where prospects can get opportunities to learn more and secure jobs.

What is Web 3.0?

In its most basic form, Web 3.0 is predicted to be the future of the new look which the internet will wear. Primarily, the principle intention of this model of the net is to boost the general compatibility and the decentralized implementation of its content base which is user-generated in addition to the inclusion of tokenization that utilizes blockchain technology to bring value and control back to individual users of the web.

When a closer look is taken at Web 3.0, primarily based on the angle of leadership, it’s usually clear that Web 3.0 has a basic intention of prioritizing tokenization and artificial intelligence in addition to other different functions with the inclusive intention of creating what is known as a semantic web.

The web space has some quick reflections, starting with web1.0 which was static. web2.0 later sprung up with its cool features, making a few adjustments to what was already on the ground as it became heavily dependent on huge tech corporations to function.

As this article intends to discuss, web3.0 holds the fort as the lead in the space by being more unique and dynamic than any of the other web inventions. Unlike web2.0, web3 is reliant on technologies that consist of artificial intelligence, machine learning, semantic web, and blockchain, where it makes use of each of them to aid in supplying a higher level of transparency combined with a faster and more personalized user experience.

Web Evolution (web1.0)

To begin this analysis, the need to examine web evolution from start to present is quite necessary. Web 1.0 began at a point in time between 1989 and 2004. Specifically, in 1989, Tim Berners-Lee, a British scientist, invented the world wide web (www) while working at CERN. While Tim developed the web, the intriguing part of his invention revolves around the fact that it was created as a means of sharing automated information between numerous scientists in universities and institutions. This was a point in time when the internet was new to just about everyone and designed to be a “Read-only” space.

The principal use-case for the web 1.0 era existed to offer information to users. Sadly, at the time, all websites on web1.0 were dominated by static pages that were connected by hyperlinks. While this sufficed, links to intended sites were quite difficult to find, unlike today. It required users to find the web URL to gain access. The narrative is very different in today’s context as search engines have taken up the role to handle such complex tasks for us.

In all of these escapades, web 1.0 didn’t exist as a term, until Darcy DiNucci coined it in 1999. In addition, internet resources witnessed a high level of transformation as most of the websites were built on HTML language. These sites ran on static data center infrastructure built by the ISP (Internet Service Provider) companies. One singular innovation that web1.0 brought to human space included web pages that displayed while loading, giving users quick access. For example, Netscape Explorer was a web browser that brought about the means for developers to completely use JavaScript to create web forms and interactive content. Subsequently, cookie files were introduced as a means of keeping session information for the first time throughout the web browser.

To fully appreciate the concept of web3.0, contemporary internet users might have discarded the technology if they could. This is because the web1.0 static innovation could barely aid users in doing anything if they do not understand simple coding languages, mostly HTML. Video uploads, music downloads, blog ownership, and a few others are features that were absent in web1.0 and succinctly led to the emergence of Google.

The Dot-com Bubble

To many who have followed the web story for decades now, the dot-com bubble experience might not be new since it is interoperable with web1.0. In essence, the web1.0 story can’t be fully explained without the infamous dot-com bubble. The dot-com bubble refers to a point in time that occurred between 1995 and 2000 when investors started pumping heavy investments into internet-based startups. On the contrary, their main goal was to make huge profits out of these companies.

Notably, each of these companies had a commercial “.com” domain extension in the internet name address. However, the dot-com bubble also had a strong relationship with the NASDAQ composite index, which experienced a raise of 582% from 751.49 up to 5,132.52 starting from January 1995 to March 2000 and subsequently crashed.

Within this set-out period, many witnessed most of the gains from the bubble being lost. The reason for the loss was that several technology entities got bankrupt and faced liquidation as a result. Not intending to spare, a few companies however survived the harsh effect including Cisco, Microsoft, eBay, and Amazon who became some of the largest tech companies ever.

Being a historic tale, the dot-com bubble did fail and it was largely because rather than keeping a focus on fundamental company analysis by going over the revenue generation process and business plans of each company, many investors rather focused on the wrong metrics, which included traffic growth, unrevised business models, and high valuation with outrageous speculations. Most of all, the share prices of these companies surged consistently because of the overwhelming demand. Owing to this, the burst was inevitable and resulted in the crash of the market.

Web 2.0

The web2.0 era came with its features and offerings. Instead of being static, it allowed users to actively participate in the process of creating, engaging, and even sharing content online. While little may be said of web1.0 in terms of finance, the game is level-headed for web2.0. Through web2.0, broadband internet came to lime-light and also afforded corporations the ability to make money from user-generated content.

Specifically, Web 2.0 introduced broadband internet where corporations could start monetizing user-generated content and its overall shift to an elastic virtual infrastructure. Throughout 2007, half of all internet users ended up having a broadband connection and this allowed a higher volume of data to get transferred a lot more quickly through the use of an ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) connection.

With the launch of the most modern Web 2.0 applications from companies such as Google, YouTube, and Facebook, users got access to everything they could think of at the time. Due to the static nature of web1.0, web 2.0 went on with its pursuit to alter the entire ecosystem and revamp it. Among the many features that have been listed, it also included birthing new programming languages which were introduced. These programming languages enabled developers to have a higher level of flexibility.

Web2.0 crowned its emerging phase by properly creating solutions to one of the problems that sunk web1.0 — Building a web of trust between SSL and big brands wherein the security of information that was transferred online had to be secured. While Web 2.0 may not be considered as a technical shift in the aspect of the web and how it worked, it was however a shift in how it became used by users.

YouTube’s Dominance

As discussed in this article regarding the web2.0 section, challenges that were encountered on web1.0 fizzled out during web2.0’s administration and one of the key platforms that played a big role was Youtube. YouTube ended up introducing people to the act of importing motion pictures online. In order words, users could ultimately upload videos, they included videos that they produced themselves, and acted themselves. This in turn grew their visibility and metrics by a great deal, earning them popularity, fame, and money from the ads which was placed online in their content upload.

Web3.0 — The New Web Revolution

Being coined by Tim Berners-Lee, the concept of Web 3.0 is to introduce technology that can bring enhancement to the way through which every user is given access to the capacity to create, share, and even connect their content.

The prospects of web3.0 are poised to have a far-reaching impact. In this sense, web3.0 will most likely utilize the entire concept and scope of artificial intelligence. Ultimately, the goal of this web is to have all of the information merged and interconnected; what this means is that all of the gadgets and services will make use of similar data. It is this introduction of the web that puts its main emphasis on personalization, collective ownership, and a more healthy way through which content is delivered.

How does Web 3.0 Work?

Just like the model through which blockchain networks operate in an interconnected manner, where miners or nodes can make use of their computing power as a means of verifying transactions within a specific network, the decentralized web is built in like fashion as a system of connected computers which runs on a global level being privately owned and independent from others. The primary goal of the decentralized web (web3.0) will be to displace security odds and provide private, secure, and censorship-resistant access to information and services.

Risks of Web 3.0

While the eulogies keep peaking for the new norm in the web space, web3.0 is not left without some setbacks and ropes to untie. To a great extent, the present projects are largely sponsored by venture capitalists who have the potential of regulating what goes on in the space within these projects. Some of these projects include Polkadot, Filecoin, Chainlink, Helium, Theta token, etc. In simple terms, we can envisage a future of a centralized web again which will mean that the world will likely maintain a circle of moving from a point and heading back to the same point.

In a bid to prevent a future such as this from occurring, many practices have already been witnessed and implemented throughout blockchain networks, such as the Bitcoin example.

Going forward, while the aspect of having a feasible decentralized web can be achieved, the other way round also poses a threat in the sense that without the right security measurements being implemented, there are likely possibilities to encounter issues with monitoring and regulating Web 3.0. It becomes a dicey situation at this point because this will serve as a double-edged sword in terms that while it will allow for a lot of freedom, it could also result in a cybercrime spike. To curb this dead-end situation, Web 3.0 will require the use of hardware that is much more powerful than today’s technology.

Why Web 3.0 is Important

Bringing to the fore all that web3.0 stands to offer, as well as what makes it important can be likened to political dispensations where the need to vote for credibility and good leadership cannot be over-emphasized. The choices to make will likely be between web2.0 and web3.0. However, chances are that the polls might favor web3.0.

Web2.0 currently runs on an unbalanced creator economy where just a few authorities decide the welfare of all and these few can be likened to big platform owners and captains of industries whose projects are used by a vast population daily.

For example, Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Twitch, are platforms that have access to a relatively large amount of user data in exchange for access to their platforms. In turn, these data are traded in high volumes with the big corporations they sell it to. Sadly, these data are used to track and control human behavior as well as detect what they do by voluntarily offering services or products they think these users will like to have in their user feeds.

This is the power of emotional intelligence which these corporations use in turn to control the unbalanced creator economy (web2.0). Frankly speaking, users are at the point in time where there is a great need to be aware of how each individual’s data is put at risk due to its high centralization.

On this note, some past decades have witnessed some situational breaches of users data by (banks, retailers, and social platforms) and this has placed data at risk since it can be inappropriately used, hence, demonstrating that contents posted and provided by users to online platforms cannot be fully private. Issues such as this has led to the reason why companies like Gener8 will come into the game to change the narrative, intending to give power and wealth back to the users.

The importance of web3.0 will begin by taking note of its surrounding technology. Web 3.0 is built specifically by the use of cryptographic primitives and open-source code where prospective users are allowed to contribute to projects through code review that can boost the security and entire transparency of the web. This will ultimately lead to providing a level-headed ground to display the dynamic power within the creator economy.

Being built and powered by blockchain technology, web3.0 will fully adopt the concept of interoperability where users can easily vote or move from one desired platform to another. A closer inference can be drawn from Bitcoin which serves as a full decentralized project on blockchain technology. The Bitcoin economy was built in such a way that it can’t be tampered with by any single entity or corporation except by a unanimous vote of the collective creator economy where the miners on the network will validate it.

Within the present web 2.0 framework, users necessarily wait for platforms to carry out some required actions whenever complaints, errors, or a breach has been successful. In web3.0, the terms are entirely different in the sense that creators are allowed to act through built-in governance and moderation methods. This is by far one of the most outstanding reasons and the way web 3.0 is envisaged to provide value, wealth, and power back to the creators.

Summarizing the Differences Between Web 1.0, Web 2.0, and Web 3.0

• In Web 1.0 — The content base is static or passive with the use of HTML or CSS as its core language. It has no virtual environment and is driven by static advertising via banners. In web1.0, data storage is kept in a single internet site server, and the interaction in this ecosystem is done via desktop browsers. Lastly, the information here is structured through the use of SQL.
• In Web 2.0: The content base is user-generated and this spreads across network platforms. In terms of technology, there is dynamic HTML, JavaScript, and Java. Web2 makes use of a 3D virtual environment with interactive advertising feel while the statistics storage is owned by large tech giants. Interaction within the web2 space is through mobile touch displays, having an unstructured information system (Big Data).
• In Web 3.0: The content base is user-owned in the form of a non-fungible token (NFT), for example, an artwork, music file, or even a text file. The technology consists of blockchain, artificial intelligence, and machine learning with its virtual environment being 3D, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Metaverse. Additionally, the advertising is personalized according to the behavior of the user, and the data storage is in the form of distributed servers owned by none. In terms of the interactions, these encompass wearables, AR, VR, voice assistants, and Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices. Lastly, information is stored on distributed ledgers provided by blockchain technology.

Data Growth and the Path to Web 3.0

While it remains undeniable that data volumes surge daily at an exponential rate and creates an interoperable connection for content management per second, the debate concerning Web 3.0 and its connection to the digital world of data is still open.

In 2006, Tim Berners-Lee said,

“People keep asking what Web 3.0 is. Maybe when you’ve got an overlay of scalable vector graphics — everything rippling and folding and looking misty — on Web 2.0 and access to a Semantic Web integrated across a huge data space, you’ll have access to an unbelievable data resource”.

In order to have a grasp of the amount of data generated on the web, consider these metrics by Cisco.com where IP traffic will have a three-fold growth from 2017 to 2022 at a compound annual growth rate of 27%. In 2020 alone, 2.5 quintillion bytes of data were generated daily, and 40% of that was machine-generated. Going forward, a spike of over 152,200 IoT devices connecting to the internet per minute is expected as well. These go on to show the quantum amount of data that creators can benefit from and ultimately milk out their wealth from as well.

Web3 Platforms

Being open with the future in mind, anyone can learn about Web3. Although it sounds complex, a few platforms have simplified the learning process. These platforms offer materials to aid prospective readers through the learning stages. Here are some platforms that provide resources to learn about Web3. They include Web3. University, Buildspace. so, Odysseydao.com, Moralis.io, Learnweb3.io, Useweb3.xyz, Learnweb3.info, and Developerdao.com

Web3 University

Web3 higher institute is an awesome destination to learn about blockchain and Web3. The platform is a blockchain training portal that connects students to the best Web3 resources and guides. It’s billed as the best choice for developers who want to discover ways to design smart contracts, mint NFTs, and construct fully functional end-to-end decentralized applications.

Web3 University struck partnerships with leading crypto and blockchain projects to ensure credibility. This built-to-learn platform covers diverse topics, which include Blockchain, NFT, dApps, Flow, Solidity, etc. Web3 University additionally teaches students the economic and regulatory ramifications of blockchain.

Buildspace

Buildspace has a few notable videos for gaining knowledge about Web3. It serves as a bridge for those who are interested in web3 but have little knowledge on how to navigate the space properly. In a bid to make it’s economy a user-friendly one, the platform is built to enable users to earn from the project while partaking in some activities, mostly on its discord server where rewards are given for completing a course too. After practicing what is learned, users can earn NFTs and access work opportunities in the crypto space with the aid of Buildspace.

Odyssey

Another great web3 project In this hall of fame is Odyssey. Odyssey offers a deep dive into areas like Blockchain, NFTs, Web3, Defi, and DAO. For those with a particular interest in NFTs, Odyssey teaches easy guides on how to mint, buy, and sell NFTs. Being a fantastic resource for gaining knowledge about Web3 concepts and other web-related topics, the platform teaches everything from the basics until a good grip is gotten.

For example, one of the courses which Odyssey offers is titled “Breaking into Web3.” This particular course provides practical steps and guides to newbies who want to transition from the novice level to building their first Web3 project. The platform also incorporates an “explain like I’m five” concept into its teaching schedule where the burden of being a newbie gets taken off with ease. Basically, it explains everything in the most basic way, ensuring that learners understand all that is taught adequately.

Moralis

Moralis gives newbies the perfect environment to learn about Web3. In addition, it provides resources that allow users to head from fundamental to more enhanced performance. Here, learners can construct by making use of single lines of code, leveraging Moralis’ infrastructure. On its website, Moralis proudly describes itself as “the quickest path from concept to mass-scale dApp.” It claims to permit newbies to focus on “high-quality experiences rather than heavy lifting.”

Another good feature is that Moralis offers several learning packages. The earning platform offers its “Starter” course for those who are new to the blockchain space at no cost. Furthermore, its “Pro” package is offered for $49. Learners might discover ways to build a wide range of Defi products and navigate the NFT space.

LearnWeb3.io

Just like Moralis and other platforms listed in this section, Learnweb3.io aids its users to have a grasp of blockchain-related terms by providing free education. It also emphasizes learning by practicing. Learnweb3.io has a few notable tutorials that enhance learners’ understanding of the blockchain. Furthermore, it offers 4 classes of tutorials. They include:

• Freshman
• Sophomore
• Junior
• Senior

UseWeb3

UseWeb3 is a high-quality instructional site that offers access to many materials for understanding Web3 and Blockchain. In this space, one can locate a variety of content such as books, lessons, and code challenges. One of the key sources offered to newbies provides exposure to the Ethereum blockchain. Furthermore, useWeb3 explains the position of Web3 in the revolution of the internet. Also, its starter package teaches how to create Ethereum-powered apps with a single command. For every person inquisitive about gaining technical Web3 skills, the useweb3 platform will be worth a glance.

LearnWeb3.info

As a different entity from learnweb3.io, this platform gives exposure to the developing market in the blockchain world. It also offers newbies a perception of the fundamental knowledge existing in web3. To fit a square peg in a square hole, leranweb3.info prepares learners to participate in an active market. For blockchain enthusiasts who will like to build their blockchain development skills, this platform offers a good guide.

Developer DAO

With a laser-beam focus on developing a community-driven with learning as a priority, the goals of Developer DAO include the options below:

• To onboard, educate, and support Web3 Developers
• To aid in building Web3 tools & public goods.

Beyond these platforms listed here, the web3 space is still burgeoning and many prospects will abound shortly. With adequate research, more web3 platforms can be discovered with more promising opportunities which will yield great value if they are effectively utilized.

How to get ready for the Web 3.0 revolution?

Early-stage uses of the Spatial Web or Web 3.0 is playing out gradually and this has been completely adopted by individuals and corporation with a foresight into the future which web3 is promising about. The earliest start time for individuals and corporations or industries to hop in on the web3.0 bandwagon should be now. On the premise that life offers potential risk daily, the danger of not giving a trial on new and emerging technologies as web3 can however leave anyone in complete regret. On the contrary, the need to do one’s research before venturing into an enterprise or another thing can’t be over-emphasized.