What is Web3?
"Web3 is the third generation of the internet where websites and webapps will interact with humans in a semantic manner through technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Big Data all within a decentralized blockchain"
Before we can truly understand what's next in the development of the internet, and yes Web3 is alive and kicking and in the early stages of development, we need to understand Web 1.0 and Web 2.0.
Web 1.0 (1990-2005)
This was the start of the World Wide Web. The WWW was invented by Tim Berners-Lee, a scientist at CERN university in Geneva. You can read more about why he did this on the Web Foundation website currently on Web 2.0. By October 1990 he had formed the elements required to create such a phenomena. They were as follows:
- HTML - Hyper Text Markup Language
- URI - Uniform Resource Identifier - An address to find the content
- HTTP - Hypertext Transfer Protocol - Enabling linking between different addresses
Web 1.0 was static with very little interaction from the viewer and was essentially a static library of content searchable by keywords.
Web 2.0 (2005-Present Day)
Web 2.0 describes the current status of the internet and is a shift in how the WWW is used. Web 1.0 was used to view content and Web 2.0 is used to engage and provide content. Users are now connected to each through social apps such as Facebook and Twitter producing vast amounts of content. Technologies such as WordPress and Social Media are big influences on Web 2.0.
Web3 The Next Generation
The Next Generation of the web is currently being built on multiple blockchains. This is the same technology that powers Cryptocurrencies, NFT's, smart contracts, DeFi to name a few.
The web will no longer be hosted on servers it will be hosted on a blockchain. IPFS (Inter Planetary Filing System) for example is a decentralized database of websites, amongst other things. It operates on the Ethereum blockchain.
Websites and WebApps on Web3 dont have a location like a server (ie an ip address like in Web 2.0). The content is distributed over a Peer-To-Peer network.
So how does it work?
To access content on Web 2.0 you would enter a URL like internetmonkeez.com into your browser. The Domain Name Server that indexes that domain name then matches the IP Address, the address of where the website is located and then serves up the content to the browser you are using.
To access content on Web3, specifically IPFS, you dont add a URL you add a CID or a Content Identifier. This CID pulls all the distributed content together from around the blockchain. The CID is what tags all your content together.
There are currently two web browsers that support Web 3.0 and they are Opera and the amazing Brave browser. All the other major browsers have plugins at this stage that enable Web 3.0 viewing.