If you are already familiar with the metaverse and blockchain technology, then surely you have also heard of Web3 or Web 3.0.

Although it is an especially popular concept within circles interested in cryptocurrencies and NFTs, Web3 goes much further.

If you want to know everything about this new website, what it consists of and why it could be a revolution for the Internet, don't stop reading.

What is Web3?

In short, this is a new evolution of the Internet .

The initial web was called Web 1.0 and was based on hyperlinks . During the Web 1.0 era, users were only consumers of content and the web was considered “read only.”

In web 2.0 , the current one, the focus is social networks . It is the era of interactivity and users are also beginning to generate their own content, although they continue to depend on the services provided by large companies such as Facebook, Amazon, Apple or Google. It is widely considered that users pay for their use of these services in private data that companies can exploit and they are the ones that monetize the content created.

Web 3.0 or Web3 would be the next step in web evolution and revolves around tokens . Tokens are digital units used to exchange blockchain technologies.

The goal of web3 is to achieve a decentralized internet in which programmers and users create, monetize and own tokens. It would be, in the opinion of those who are betting on this new evolution of the website, the best of both previous versions.

How Web3 can change the Internet

What Web3 offers compared to the current Web 2.0 can be summarized in three major changes :

Greater privacy and security

Cybersecurity is an area that is also talked about a lot . As we have already mentioned above, it is currently widely accepted that our private data stops being private the moment we click on a website or download a new application. Companies like Google and Facebook make copies of our personal data and, as users, we lose control over how it is used. What Web3 offers, being based on blockchain technology, is an increase in privacy and the possibility of keeping our personal data private and away from the prying eyes of companies and hackers.

Decentralized internet

Web3 would not depend on centralized servers , but would rely on blockchain technology to mobilize information through a large number of computers around the globe.

This feature has its advantages and disadvantages . On the one hand, a decentralized internet network is much more difficult to take down because it is practically impossible for all the nodes of the same network to go down at the same time. However, it also implies that the processing speed will be slower .

It is about finding the balance between obtaining a less vulnerable network but more difficult to coordinate and therefore slower.

Online Identity and Reputation

The use of blockchain results in a higher level of anonymity. That is not very different from what happens today. We create digital identities and all that data is uploaded to social networks and various websites.

In this sense, the difference between web3 and web 2.0 is, once again, who has control of this data analysis and, above all, of data visualization . In the case of web3, the user would be in possession and control of the data, something that does not happen with web 2.0.

Web 3.0 today

Although a fully decentralized internet is still a long way off on the horizon, some of the technologies capable of making Web3 a reality are already being developed.

For example, there is a decentralized version of Youtube . It's called DTube and it already contains videos that use blockchain for both its database and the payment system.

There is also Ethereum , a decentralized network on which all types of applications can be programmed.

The main challenge for Web3 right now is the infrastructure. Ethereum, with all its advantages, is still very slow. Therefore, a lot of research will be needed to improve the performance of this type of network.

Another challenge that Web3 faces is user experience. Nowadays, using decentralized applications requires some technical knowledge, extra software, and many additional steps.

As of today, Web3 is still in the early stages of research and development. It is an interesting concept but it still lacks what is necessary to carry it out.