The possibilities are endless with technology that’s growing at such rapid pace as the internet. A few decades ago, you had to ‘dial-up’ the internet and there were a few internet services providers that would give you access to the information that you choose to surf through. In the future, the internet will be one of the main bridges between humans and what is yet to be the most invention of humankind since the wheel and fire, super intelligence. We’re here to bring you information not about the super intelligence science fiction, though. Our goal with this article is to explain something that’s unfolding right as we speak. Web 3.0!
The explosion of tech democratization
Data democracy has been in the discussion for a very long time. The only thing that was enabling digital monopolies in hoarding information about users was the lack of suitable technology that both helped people avail services and keep their data to themselves. Today, we’re at the brink of breaking through this veil of control and making it all available to everyone but no one at the same time. This is what is essentially what the web 3.0 revolution will be all about.
What is web 3.0 and how did it start?
Web 2.0, or internet as we use it now is powerful. However, there are flaws with the system too. For instance, web 2.0 and social media and other services like GPS, mobile internet and instant messaging made internet available for everyone. What was missing here was the control over data. Just like a select few had access to the webpages and the data that’s available as part of the internet, only a select few now have access to almost all user data on the internet and it’s slowly proving to be an inconvenience. And hence started the need for a technology that will democratize the way data is processed, used, and controlled. The blockchain. To understand what web 3.0 is, we will have to understand the blockchain technology and understand how the technology will be used in the different services that we avail off the internet today.
Blockchain – The big ledger book.
Say a hundred computers are connected to a service that offers to sell pancakes to people, online. The store owner and his customers and the delivery people and everybody that makes use of the data from the network are part of the network. Until the arrival of blockchain, data traffic was simply one way. The users had to provide the pancake shop their personal information if they wanted the pancakes. The power that the pancake shop owner had with respect to the customer data was concerning. So, the hundred computers in the network together make a ledger of data transactions that’s visible to all hundred people. No information shall be taken out of the chain, but any amount of information can be transferred within and among the nodes (the computers) connected to the ‘blockchain’. Now, all hundred people will be able to see if there’s a new participant in the blockchain, and if data is being received or transferred to them by the pancake shop. Also, people now need not give the pancake shop their address. That is a transaction exclusive to the customer and the delivery agent. The delivery agent if chooses to transfer this data to the shop, it’ll be recorded as a transaction and people can question the need for their data at the shop. This collective record keeping is now being used as the base tech for many new innovations like cryptos and NFTs.
Everybody’s data in nobody’s hands.
At the very center of web 3.0, there’s a need for public data records and an unbreakable chain that keeps all data owners on the same page as all the data handlers, making all the transactions publicly visible, without putting out the actual terms of transactions on the web. This will both protect the data and the data owner!
As a web development company, we’re closely watching the technology evolve and mature, and we’ll be able to help you in any way you want with respect to web 3.0. Did we mention that we’re coming up with a trading platform even? Keep watching this space for more, and until next time, happy surfing.