Web 3.0 represents the next generation of the internet, which focuses on empowering individual users of the internet than focusing on a few big tech companies.

To have a good understanding of web 3 is important to what existed already. The first version of the internet known as web 1 arrived in the late 1990s and comprised a collection of links and home pages. The website was not particularly interactive as you couldn’t do much apart from reading things and publishing basic content for others to read.

Web 2 came next.

Some people call the web 2 the read/write version of the internet in reference to a computer code that lets you both open and edit files rather than just view them. This version of the internet allowed people to not only consume content but create their own and publish it on blogs.

After a while, the general public became cognizant about the way their personal data was being harvested by tech giants and used to create tailored advertisement and marketing campaigns. Though Web 2 had brought the world amazing free services, a lot of people grew tired of the new “walled garden” these huge tech companies have created, now users want to have control over their data and content. This is where Web 3 comes in.

Generally, web 3 can be properly understood as a phase of the internet where internet monopoly is given to individual users. Rather than depending on major internet service providers in exchange for our data, users are given the opportunity to participate in the governance and operation of the protocols themselves. This means people can participate and become shareholders and not just product consumers.

WHAT THEN IS WEB 3

Web 3 can also be known as web 3.0. It was originally called the semantic web by World Web inventor Tim Berners -Lee and aims to be a more autonomous, intelligent, and open internet. It is an idea for a new version of the World Wide Web which is based on blockchain technology and incorporates the concepts of decentralization and token-based economics. These tokens represent ownership of decentralized networks known as blockchains. If you hold enough of these tokens, you have a say over the network. Holders of governance tokens can spend their assets to vote on the future of a decentralized lending protocol. The point to note here is this, what happens on the decentralized internet is decided by the investors versus what happens on the main internet as decided by Twitter, Facebook, Google, and a small number of other companies.

The term web 3 was coined in 2014 by Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood and the idea gained interest in 2021 from cryptocurrency enthusiasts, large technology companies, and venture capital firms. Web 3 is believed to be the upcoming third generation of the internet where websites and apps will be able to process information in a smart human-like way through technologies like machine learning (ML), Big Data decentralizes Ledger Technology (DLT), etc.

It is argued that web 3 will provide increased data security, scalability, and privacy for users and combat the influence of large technology companies.

POSSIBILITIES OF WEB 3
Web 3 makes possible the multiplication of cooperative governance structures for once-centralized products. Anything at all can be tokenized, whether it is a meme, a piece of art, or a person`s social media output. With web 3 even gamers can invest in their favorite games themselves and vote on how things should be done.

CONCEPTS
The idea for Web 3 differs and has been described as “vague” by some but it is accepted that it revolves around the idea of decentralization and often includes blockchain technologies such as various cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFT). Web 3 is seen widely as an idea that would build financial assets in the form of tokens into the inner workings of almost anything you do online.

CRITICISMS OF WEB 3
The major criticism of web 3 technology is that it falls short of its ideals. Ownership over blockchain networks is not equally distributed but concentrated in the hands of early adopters and capitalists. At the heart of the critiques of web 3 is “decentralization” where blockchain projects are decentralized in name but not in substance.

Web 3 or 3.0 is a perfect model for providing a clear solution to the shortcomings of the web 2 internet.