Blockchain Platforms That Can Dominate The Decentralized Web

By Dj on ALTCOIN MAGAZINE

We live in a key moment of technological history with the arrival of cryptocurrencies and the blockchain that have meant a re-engineering of the Internet business to how it had stipulated its evolution a decade ago.

The use of decentralized technology has meant an acceleration of the environment focused on the user and focused on the privacy of their data, very different to the current web as we know it with its manipulation and monopoly of the hand of the centralized monetization of giants such as Facebook, Amazon, and Google.

Blockchain has undoubtedly put a stop to data centralization practices by allowing devices to be connected on a decentralized network that is not dependent on servers controlled by single entities.

From Web 1.0 To Web 3.0

Web 1.0, that internet of two decades ago invented by Tim Berners-Lee was basically a static internet without many applications and little interaction, with just mail servers and general chat rooms.

Then with the interactive interfaces and contents came the capacity of tags, sharing and streaming that we know today (Web 2.0), but focused on business models centralized by the large monopolies that we know today. The result is plain to see, accusations of private data manipulation, content leaks and the online theft capacity unimaginable at the end of the last century.

Now, with the semantic approach of the web and the advent of Blockchain technology, the experience goes a step further by focusing on the human aspect and more inclined towards privacy and against large traditional organizations that violate common user information for their own benefit (Web 3.0).

The ability of the blockchain technology to encrypt any information on the Internet before publication and where there are no centralized servers controlled by individuals or organizations, plus the ability to freely monetize new economic models through tokenization is undoubtedly totally exciting for any user who has lived the transformations that the web has undergone since its creation.

The blockchain technology has much to offer to the decentralized approach that now dominates the space of the so-called Web 3.0. In general, the fields of data storage in the cloud or Big Data, finance and insurance, gaming, social networks, streaming, exchange services, and working remotely, are some fields where blockchain technology can give a twist to applications in these high-volume sectors through the decentralized Internet.

Although the decentralized Web is not fully developed and it will take a few years to reach that level, the truth is that today the blockchain platforms are moving towards that concept through the support of decentralized applications (dApps) to exploit the benefits of this new concept, which will perhaps go unnoticed by the common user but is a challenge for traditional companies in the way they make themselves look on the interactive Internet that we have today.

Given the expected demand for this type of development, there is fierce competition in the blockchain world to embrace specific market segments by implementing technology that enables the development, hosting and interoperability of dApps on a decentralized Internet.

Characteristics Of A Decentralized Web

There are key features to say that the internet can be truly decentralized and that it differs from its interactive predecessors and classic HTML templates.

1.- Semantic Web

The decentralized web presents the theme called semantic web, which is nothing more than the method of understanding web content as human behavior. It’s internally related to automatic learning and artificial intelligence. Computers are basically expected to understand the data and learn how they behave.

2.- User-Centered

New Internet applications are designed to be more user-centric. They will focus on being the best P2P network, where knowledge will not be controlled by any entity All data will be distributed between the devices.

3.- Pro-Privacy

Very contrary to what we have in Web 2.0 today, the new Internet brings a complete change in the controversial issue of privacy that users have seen fall vertiginously with monopolies such as Google and Facebook. Applications will focus on decentralized services that focus on privacy and security, rather than monopoly and control.

4.- Data In The Hands Of Users

The ownership of data, another key difference that has driven the development of this type of modern Web, is undoubtedly a primary difference for the adoption of this technology. With the decentralized web, end-users will have full ownership of their data which will be transferred through the network fully encrypted. Large corporations such as Amazon, Google, Facebook must now try to persuade users to use their data for advertising purposes.

5.- Interoperability And Ubiquity

One of the great features of the new decentralized website will undoubtedly be interoperability. With a decentralized network, it will be easier for applications to work on different devices and platforms, such as smartphones, intelligent cities, intelligent roads, televisions, etc. Developers will benefit greatly from this interoperability, as it will greatly facilitate their work. No need to access information with a specific device, any dApp will basically run on any platform.

Blockchain And Web 3.0

Now as the blockchain can incorporate improvements and enhance the use of the new network of networks? Simple, think of just one thing: decentralized applications or dApps as they are commonly known. Unlike Apps, new developments on blockchain platforms do not depend on a single central entity nor will they be controlled by anything or anyone, on the contrary, a distributed consensus makes possible their operation, and therefore their service. Think of the ability to audit a medical record of any doctor who treats you from a distance and without the concern that you need permission to access it, or better yet that you suffer some interruption of service by a kind of DDoS attack or other forms of malfunction typical of the current web.

Distributed systems are less prone to service disruption and the new decentralized web will basically be running on any dApp that is hosted in a particular blockchain that the developer decided to program. In addition, the idea behind the new decentralized web is to empower blockchain that does not need a central authority, allowing anyone to join the chain of blocks and participate by simply creating an address.

Developers will finally be able to deliver their decentralized applications taking into account the different devices so that they run smoothly, based on a simple rule: secure, distributed, and scalable.

Blockchains For Decentralized Web

As we have seen, the success of the blockchain platforms on the new website will depend on allowing the key features demanded by these new technologies through decentralized applications, with greater scalability, security, and decentralization that is not compromised to favor the above points.

The new Web should have decentralized applications that do not suffer problems of blockage due to a lack of scalability of the chain of blocks that generates congestion in their transactions as happened with the famous case of Cryptokitties, or even more, that the applications are compromised security as has recently happened with some dApps running on EOS, to name a few mishaps.

The decentralized Web must be able to allow the user an experience similar to that of today’s Internet users, without worrying about their data, about the filtering of contents and even more about the speed of their navigation. To do this, blockchain must be able to allow their decentralized applications are efficient enough so that the common user does not see the negative reason for comparison between previous versions to the one we know and what is to come on the web.

Interoperability, speed, and security will be key to absorbing the decentralized applications market and therefore, to allow for a place within the decentralized internet.

Ethereum (ETH)

Undoubtedly, Ethereum is the mother of decentralized applications, with the largest number in its credit according to experts, despite the fact that many accuse this platform of not scaling enough to meet the demand. However, the fact of having introduced the concept of smart contracts and dApps in the post-bitcoin scene is, therefore, enough weight to be considered as one of the platforms to be taken into account at all times for the development of applications for the new Internet.

In addition, Vitalik has announced that its scalability improvement will soon be released to the public, CASPER FFG, so it is expected that typical problems such as the GAS FEE and the speed in terms of TPS, will be overcome without inconvenience. For these reasons and its interoperability capability, Ethereum offers a place of honor for any decentralized application developer who wants to show up on the new internet.

As if that weren’t enough, Protocols labs are dedicated to building the decentralized Web that runs parallel to the TCP/IP stack. This will make the change from the existing web to web 3.0 very smooth, and the masses do not need to make a significant change to use web 3.0.

Polkadot

Self-designated the Decentralized Blockchain, Polkadot is a multi-string framework that supports interoperability between chains safely and with high performance. Its main objective is to remodel the structure of the existing Internet to what they call Web3, a completely decentralized network.

Polkadot uses GRANDPA, an original consensus mechanism to achieve its objective and its launch took place only in the third quarter of 2019. Polkadot assures to be able to achieve greater scalability when being able to separate the consensus and the transition of state, the vital functioning of all blockchain. With this separation, Polkadot aims to make it possible for developers to use Parachains, a group formed by parallelizable blockchain, to launch their decentralized applications under an independent and customizable architecture.

Tron

With the highest weekly volume in terms of millions of dollars in decentralized applications, according to dappreview, Justin Sun’s platform is to be considered not only for its current numbers but for what it can achieve with the launch of Sun Network and the improvements within its platform.

According to the company, Tron has released the v1.0 code for Sun Network, a scaling solution to improve its network and will allow dApps to consume less energy, as well as operate more safely and efficiently in Tron.

In addition, the platform has launched the deployment of side chains in mid-September to improve network performance. With Sun Network, its founder assures to improve the speed of the network in 100x to allow better scalability in the transactions of the network, with withdrawals and deposits between chains (interoperability).

The ability of a new decentralized economy for the Internet focused on Streaming both video and music and file sharing through the allied platform BitTorrent, makes Tron a good candidate to fight against traditional leaders such as YouTube, Netflix, and Twitch.

ICON

A blockchain project designed to become a type of decentralized gigantic ecosystem that connects all the blockchain. The main objective of ICON is to enable the tokens of different strings to communicate with each other through the ICON network. With ICON developers will be able to create decentralized applications that will be able to interact with ICON’s community networks.

It uses what is called Loopchain Fault Tolerance (LFT), a continuation of the BFT23 algorithm used by NEO. This Korean platform formed by specialists in artificial intelligence, design, and security aims to act as the internet of the blockchain and be completely secure through the implementation of IA for its administration.

ICON stands out for its intention to be the first blockchain platform to attempt to create an ecosystem that allows government departments, universities, hospitals, securities, banks and any private company to interact without third-party networks that charge transaction fees or delays the process. By eliminating the middleman, you could perfectly fit a country like South Korea that has a heavily invested Internet structure with a big push for smart cities.

Filecoin

Data storage will be fundamental in this new stage of the Web. The basic idea behind decentralized storage consists of sharing files and data through blockchain connection between peers and fully decentralized, breaking with current schemes such as Amazon, Microsoft and Google with their services in the cloud.

The ability to encrypt the files, fragment them and host them from the decentralized point of view has already been the reason for previous storage examples in Storj and Sia. But now Filecoin proposes a dual approach and uses two types of network nodes that suggest that decentralized web storage can be truly competitive and economically viable.

The Labs Protocol project allows users to rent storage on available devices using their network’s native cryptocurrency, and allows consensus through its Space-Time Test (PoST) which allows any network member to validate whether a storage provider meets its responsibilities: to store outsourced data for an agreed period of time.

The fundamental difference with its predecessors Sia and Storj is that Filecoin is based on IPFS and acts as an incentive layer for people to get paid for their storage rather than participate in the existing voluntary storage system.

The project covers a fundamental segment of the market of the new proposed website, such as decentralized storage.

Basic Attention Token (BAT)

This product by JavaScript creator Brendan Eich and co-founder of Mozilla and Firefox has improved the efficiency of digital advertising by creating this token that can be exchanged between publishers, advertisers, and users that has revolutionized the traditional form of one of the pillars of Web 2.0 as advertising is.

The ultimate goal of this project is to present the Brave browser as the first decentralized web browser with the benefits of being private and not allowing the use of personal data without the user’s consent in exchange for the BAT token.

The Brave search engine is a third-generation web browser based on P2P exchange so that any user can join, share and overload their applications, while you can monetize their use and browse if you want privately on the Internet, very different from what allows, for example, Google today.

Without a doubt, for a decentralized web, the use of a similar browser is fundamental and the team behind BAT has understood it so its final product, the Brave Browser is undoubtedly a milestone in the adoption of the new network of networks.

FLETA

The South Korean platform has to its credit the most scalable network in practice for the development of decentralized applications, according to the results of its mainnet recently launched last July 2019.

With sharding technology, a simplified algorithm for block production and an antifork system, FLETA boasts of being able to provide up to 15,000 transactions per second in practice, something that no other platform has achieved to date at the real level and not on paper.

Its multichain capacity to avoid fragments overload and the redesign of the block size have been vital for FLETA to reach even numbers of up to 20k TPS under specific conditions, solving a fundamental and key problem for the development of highly scalable dApps in the new decentralized Web.

In addition, the South Korean platform has made important alliances with the government to test its capabilities in the field of medical records, through a highly decentralized and scalable system.

In addition, the platform has focused its development on the field of gaming, hiring important industry leaders to help you enter one of the most lucrative market segments for technology blockchain and decentralized web as is the field of online gaming. A multimillion-dollar industry that has sustained double-digit growth over the next few years.

As if that were not enough, FLETA has indicated that it has the capacity to solve specific problems such as the GAS fee for the decentralized applications that run in Ethereum, through the interoperability of chains, adapting to the different development cases that may exist in the market in the field of dApps.

MATIC

It is a Layer 2 solution platform on Ethereum that has had significant development and attention in recent months, thanks to its successful business approach: dApps for gaming. Very similar to FLETA and Harmony, third-generation blockchain platforms, whose focus is the field of decentralized applications, with similar technologies, Matic intends to try to capture this novel market that promises billions of dollars in the next five years.

Similarly, Matic employs sharding under the PoS protocol that proposes to scale the transactions of the main Ethereum network through an independent network of lateral chains.

Under the principle of systems similar to LN payment channels but without the need to have an open channel, Matic’s objective is to be able to carry out faster and completely scalable operations, without limitations to the total volume of operations by blocking funds.

Matic joins a new breed of platforms that have seen light on their mainnet this year to try to compete with EOS in the field of gaming in general, which dominates widely in terms of users and daily transactions, but with many security flaws that these new third-generation blockchains may well take advantage of to be the default option in decentralized web search engines, thanks to their technological improvement they project.