How Web 3.0 compares to Web 2.0

The main idea around Web 3.0 is a user-centric network, where the user is in charge of all their interactions with the network. It uses the latest technologies to push the internet into evolving, as Web 2.0 evolved from Web 1.0. The first evolution brought all kinds of internet services such as dynamic HTML pages, social networking sites, communication tools, data streaming, high speed connections and more, that were sorely needed. The large amounts of data we transfer daily through the apps and programs we use have introduced new restrictions, and the need to meet them head on.

All apps on our phones require access to data, which can then be shared with other entities. A great example of this are the apps that use the facebook API to take user data and process it, when someone uses facebook to sign in to an app. A lot of these apps will keep using your data, even if you remove the app from your facebook page. Facebook doesn’t actually send a request to the app, to stop using your data. In most occasions you will have to contact the app admins yourself to get them to stop using your data. Even your friends can share your data through their facebook profiles. While this can be controlled by a setting, by the time you find out about the setting, you have no idea what apps your friends have used and shared your data with. You would have to contact every app individually to ask them to stop using your data, and then hope that they would conform to data sharing laws. We can see why this is a sub-optimal, painful process. There is a need for the user to have more authority over their data.

How Blockchain powers Web 3.0

Blockchains are decentralized systems that have shared memory. To help us understand this, let’s consider the cryptocurrency transactions as an example. Anyone can have a wallet and get onto the blockchain to make a transaction. All transactions are saved in a secure and immutable way, and are accessible through a public ledger found on the blockchain. Ethereum, a digital blockchain platform that can build and run other applications, has made it possible to scale these transactions and accommodate applications that can do much more. For example if you want to order a ride share car, there would be a smart contract on the Ethereum platform that performs the transaction, thus eliminating the need for a ride share company to provide the app, taking a cut from your payment, and then paying the ride share driver.

To understand smart contracts let us look at a simple transaction facilitated by a machine: buying a chocolate bar from a vending machine. If you wish to purchase a chocolate bar, you select the product, put the money in the machine, make your selection, and the machine pops out the chocolate bar. This is essentially what smart contracts do, with the blockchain facilitating and keeping a record of these transactions. Smart contracts provide autonomy by eliminating the middle man and saving you money. There is no need for brokers or lawyers. You are making and executing your own agreements. This is reinforced by the fact that all documents are securely encrypted on a shared ledger and backed up across the network. Accuracy is guaranteed by secure computer algorithms executing the contracts, so there is no space for human error.