Web3: the decentralised web and why it matters
Blockchain, the Metaverse, origins and the future
When did the mobile web begin? The Blackberry Blackberry unshackled email and made it portable, but with limited use cases and operability. The first iPhone in 2006 made the web far more usable, but we had to wait until the iPhone 2 in 2007 for the app store and 3G capability. It took well into late 2000s for network infrastructure to catch up. Somewhere in there, the world changed.
Not quickly.
Not overnight.
But we sensed something was different on the other side.
The mobile web had begun.
Web1 was one client, one server
Web2 was many clients, one server
Web3 is many clients, many servers.
We are now in the early phases of the next evolution of the internet. Though few are fluent in what this means, what is clear is another step change is incoming. An inflection point, or phase to be more correct. The seeds are sprouting though it will likely be closer to the end of the decade before the impact is broadly distributed.
To understand where we’re going, we must first understand where we’ve been.
Web 1
The very first iteration of the web was fairly static. Content was served to individuals who consumed. With the exception of early forums such as Geocities, interaction was predominantly one-way and the line between consumers and creators was clear.
Value accrued to the builders — the organisations who owned the static pages, and the developers and programers who built them. Consumers of content were aggregated and monetised, and often channeled offline.
Functionality was basic. Most pages were created using tables and frames, and displayed images and text from the server’s own file system. I still remember waiting 10 minutes for a Spice Girls website to load and the header image coming in one line of pixels at a time.
Predominant features of Web 1: Static, ready-only, frames and tables, server file systems, Common Gateway Interface (CGI).
Web 2
Often dubbed the ‘mobile web,’ ‘participatory web’ or ‘social web,’ Web 2.0 as it was commonly called at the time was more dynamic. It hinged on two-way interactions and was predicated on commenting, user generated content, and APIs. For the first time users could engage with one another in unprecedented ways.
Web 1.0 was making the Internet for people, Web 2.0 is making the Internet better for companies. — Jeff Bezos
The technology that underpinned this evolution allowed for responsive interfaces that adapted to user inputs. AJAX and JavaScript were the foundation that enabled the complex interfaces and sorting of information to allow this to happen.
The social web allowed individuals to share their experiences, opinions, and day to day lives. Uses became more complex such as blogging, podcasting, social and professional networking, photo and video sharing, tagging and bookmarking. Distances that used to be huge rapidly became smaller and the challenges of geography diluted. It was the read & write web.
Web 2.0 turned users into producers. The adoption and scale of Web 2.0 was driven by unique user contributions, but value accrued to the orchestrators of these interactions and activities. A handful of entities that owned the platforms and infrastructure aggregated creators and users and monetised their efforts and attention. The winners were centralised businesses that created models to monetise users and their engagement.
Predominant features of Web 2: read and write, Dynamic, AJAX and JavaScript, user generated content, APIs, social networks, participation.
Web 3
While Web 1 enabled consumption and Web 2 enabled engagement, both iterations maintained a clear line between users and owners. Ownership and monetisation remained centralised in the hands of platforms.
Also known as the Decentralized Web, Web 3.0 represents the latest generation of internet applications and services powered by distributed ledger technology, the most common being blockchain. — International Banker
It is Web 3 that is changing that. Decentralised networks and blockchain are making it easy and simple for large groups of people to come together, organise themselves, and take a fair share of value that is created with their efforts. Creation in all forms is becoming easier to own, control and monetise in un-reproachable (dare I say, non-fungible) ways. The differentiating feature is control and self-governance.
The primary enabler of Web 3 is the decentralised approach to storing data. Rather than centralised repositories, the data exists in the universal ledger managed by computers, or AI, which have the ability to interpret and manage it in much the same way people do. Built on the back of AI and natural language processing, Web 3 is going to be far more intelligent, personalised, and responsive than any other iteration of the web we’ve seen. We appear to moving closer to the version of the web Sir Berners-Lee imagined as the semantic web, “a version that would be autonomous, intelligent, and open.”
Co-creation, the Metaverse, 3D, AR, VR are the experiential aspects of Web 3. While these are not exclusively predicated Web 3, the ownership and co-creation features of the decentralised web will accelerate the pace and adoption in this domain. Rather than experiences, use cases, products and services remaining in the domain of the few with capital and resources, creation and development becomes the domain of everyone. You can see how something like blockchain becomes an accelerator of change in increasinly complex experiences.
A fundamental feature of Web 3 is ubiquitous and interpretaive capabilities. Universal accessibility and comprehension beyond keywords is fundementally changing how content is discovered, served and used.
Web 3 is the internet owned by the builders and users, orchestrated with tokens. — Chris Dixon
When did things change?
It’s difficult to identifiy the precise moment of change. Some say Web 1 begun with basic networking in the 1980s, others tie it to the launch of Netscape in the 1990s. The precise year is less important than the understanding that there was a space of time when the world came online for the first time. That space of time was the beginning of Web 1.
The end of Web 1 and beginning of Web 2 can best be described as a transition. Did it start with the black berry and very first mobile web? The first iPhone? Or was that too basic , was it the second iPhone with the app store and 3G capability? Or was it broad 3G availability that begun the transition? Picking a moment is hard, but it’s clear devices, network and adoption all played a role in driving inter-sectional change.
We’re now in the transition from Web 2 to Web 3. We’re in the early stages, still confusing to some with a lot more to be defined, built and understood. What is clear is that it’s begun, and the seedlings are beginning to sprout. The amount of developer attention, capital, and time being dedicated to building Web 3 capabilities makes it very clear this trajectory is not a fad or blip, but something here to stay that will radically change how we connect, create and consume.
Hi, I’m Jo. I write about strategy, media and tech, having spent 15 years in senior roles in the industry. Follow me on Medium for more on how technology is changing our lives and the evolution of consumer media. 👇 Let me know what you think below.
