Web3 (or Web 3.0) will revolutionize the way we use the Internet by incorporating decentralization through blockchain technology. Some believe it will change the internet in the same way that Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies have altered the financial paradigm. To understand Web3, it helps to understand Web1 and Web2:

Web1 (or Web 1.0) it is what we now call the early days of the Internet. Web1 allowed you to consume Internet content, but little else. Internet websites were static and not interactive; you can just send simple one-way messages or emails. Companies were starting to build their own websites, but very much as a glorified press release; it was not a way to interact with the public.

In this way, you could compare Web1 with a physical newspaper. Composed of paper and ink, you are nothing more than a consumer of content. There’s no way to transparently see how popular an article is or who’s reading it, and you can’t interact with other readers.

Web2 (or Web 2.0) it’s what most people just think the current Internet is. Web2 is interactive and allows you to create your own content, comment and react to content, and interact with other users. This allowed the creation of social networks and other interactive sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, etc. Using our comparison above, you could think of Web2 as our newspaper migrating to a website that allows you to interact in ways that weren’t possible before.

Web3 is a response to concerns about the use of personal data and privacy on the Internet. On Web2, user data is largely controlled by major social media platforms, web browsers, and websites. Web3, by contrast, is designed to be a more transparent and censorship-resistant version of the Internet. More democratic than its predecessor Web2, it puts people in control of both the Internet’s architecture and user data.

Using blockchain-based protocols in concert with AI,

Beyond that, Web3 embraces the cryptographic spirit and is designed to be permissionless (no centralized gatekeepers), trustless (no need to trust a third party), and open to all (with little to no censorship from individuals/ideas).

NFTs and Web3

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have many blockchain features that make them useful and integrable with Web3. As unique blockchain tokens, NFTs allow you to transparently provide proof of ownership for things like digital art, music, data, in-game assets, personal records, and more.

Some social media platforms now have NFT verification systems that allow you to use a crypto wallet to prove NFT ownership and use it as your profile picture (PFP). Beyond that, NFTs allow you to control your digital identity and can also give you membership and voting rights. For example, a voting NFT could allow you to vote on where charity funds go, how a blockchain works, or even change the features of an NFT platform itself (like which artists are featured and what fees are charged). .

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By registering or selling a Web2 address such as “examplezyx.com”, you typically pay a third party to provide these services. Web2 uses a centralized database called Domain Name Service (DNS). Web3’s decentralized domain options, such as Cryptographic Name Service (CNS) and Ethereum Name Service (ENS), allow you to link your domain to a crypto wallet to accept cryptocurrencies. You can even trade your Web3 domain on an NFT marketplace, just like any other NFT.

The ever deeper entanglement between NFT and Web3 is expanding what is possible on the Internet through the promises of decentralization. The use of NFTs and cryptography on the Internet is likely to become ubiquitous to take advantage of the aforementioned possibilities, and yet to be developed solutions that will make the transition from Web2 to Web3 even more dramatic than the migration from Web1 to Web2.