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Ask CryptoVantage: What is Web 3.0, How Does Crypto Play Into It?
Right from the start, the internet was always meant to be a decentralized autonomous and intelligent system that granted open access to anyone around the world.
However, the current state of the internet is highly centralized with 90% of the internet’s traffic flowing through a few large companies rather than a multitude of small transit content providers. What’s more, the internet’s core infrastructure is being re-designed to fit a framework where a few providers host all the content on the internet.
This highly centralized structure gives control over the internet to a few companies that can censor the flow and access of information or even shut down the entire internet. As the internet increasingly becomes an integral part of daily life, these few companies that control the internet will increasingly have the power to also deny access to certain services.
What is Web 3.0?
Web 3.0 is the next generation of the internet that has been a long-term dream yet to come to fruition.
At its core, Web 3.0 is the third age of the internet where automation and decentralization intersect in a fury of apps and websites that are capable of processing information autonomously using AI, smart contracts, and machine learning.
This is a censorship-resistant internet where data is interconnected in a decentralized way enabling a huge leap in the flow of information and enabling freedom from the control of or need of centralized repositories. This new type of internet will be able to accurately interpret the input of the user, understand the user’s queries according to context and be capable of producing voice, text, or media content that is tailored to the user. Websites will be hosted and updated on a decentralized framework by AI and machine learning and apps will run without human intervention.
What Does Crypto Have To Do With Web 3.0?
To begin with, the blockchain is instrumental in the creation of a Web 3.0 internet. Given that Web 3.0 applications will operate on a decentralized framework, the blockchain will provide foundational building blocks that will make this dream a reality.
To some extent, we are already seeing the first iteration of Web 3.0 with the advent of decentralized applications built on the internet. Cryptocurrencies play an important role in this new generation of the internet as they enable the emergence of a completely decentralized economy.
Cryptocurrencies are a decentralized payment option. This is crucial towards the development of an economy to sustain the organic growth of a Web 3.0 ecosystem where autonomous smart contracts can interact with the smart contracts of other protocols in a thriving frenzy of economic activity.
Once interoperability is achieved between blockchains and permission-less scalable networks are established, smart contracts, AI, and machine learning will run the show.
Theoretically this will be the type of internet where your fridge will be able to order vegetables from an online store and have them delivered in time without your involvement. As an autonomous machine, the fridge will be able to communicate with the smart contract of the online store and make payments in an instant without reliance on intermediaries.
Simply put, the Internet of Things will be a world where machines cannot only communicate with other machines but also transact and exchange value using cryptocurrencies.
Conclusion: The Need for A Decentralized Internet
From the emergence of the static web 1.0 that only offered limited access to information with minimal user interactions to the present Web 2.0 that is home to a social and interactive web experience, it is clear that humans tend towards centralization.
While centralization offers a sense of reliability and security, it gives control and power to the few. Examples of abuse of this level of control are seen worldwide in cases where governments or corporations can shut down access to the internet or restrict the visibility of certain information online.
However, Web 3.0 promises freedom from censorship while expanding the capabilities of the internet. Cryptocurrencies facilitate a thriving decentralized Web 3.0 economy and technologies such as blockchain, AI, machine learning and smart contracts are building the foundation towards this futuristic outlook.
