Web2 vs. Web3 : Advantage & Disadvantage
While millions of people utilise the latest version of the Internet, Web2, it is not without problems. Data ownership, censorship, and security issues continue to plague the Internet, prompting the creation of Web3, a new and improved version.
Blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), and augmented reality are examples of future Internet technology (AR). An ideal Web3 should, at its heart, provide benefits such as data ownership and confidentiality. Web3 is marketed as a superior version of Web2, but what exactly is it, and is it better?
Introduction
Since it was first introduced to the public as Web1, the World Wide Web, usually known simply as the Internet or the web, has evolved dramatically. It’s no wonder that the web has changed as technology advances and consumer demands change.
Web1 enabled content consumption as well as basic interactivity. Web2, influenced in part by the proliferation of smartphones and mobile internet connectivity, allowed people to consume and produce their own content.
Web3 is a new notion for the future web that has arisen. This latest version of the Internet is supposed to allow users to not only consume but also generate information and data.
History of the Web
While the web has evolved significantly over the years, its two key phases can be identified as Web1 and Web2.
Web1
Web1, often known as Web 1.0, is the first version of the Internet. It was made up of static HTML pages displaying information online – the web’s formatting language at the time.
Web1 functioned on a completely decentralised architecture, which meant that anybody could host a server, construct applications, and publish material on the Internet without being censored by gatekeepers. Web1 users could use web browsers to search the internet for information.
Web1’s disadvantages
Unfortunately, there was no mechanism for people to exchange knowledge, and there were few possibilities for social connection.
Users could only contact one another through rudimentary chat messengers and forums. As a result, consumers interacted with Web1 mostly as observers rather than participants.
Web2
Unlike Web1, the present Internet is centralised, content-focused, and mainly monopolised by large, successful IT businesses.
Databases, server-side processing, forms, and social media collectively developed a more interactive Internet known as Web2, or Web2.0, in the late 1990s. This is the present Internet, which serves as a platform for content generation. If you’re a budding writer, photographer, or influencer, you can quickly create and share your work with the Web2 community.
Service providers such as WordPress and Tumblr provide a platform for people to create content, and social media firms such as Facebook and Twitter enable people to interact and communicate with anyone in the world. Furthermore, mobile internet connectivity and the widespread adoption of smartphones allow anyone to easily consume material.
Web2-centric businesses have received the rewards of the Internet revolution. Aside from earnings, businesses have amassed a vast user database. Larger corporations, such as Google and Facebook, have acquired smaller ones, creating a centralised global network of consumers and their data.
Web2’s disadvantages
Since the introduction of Web2, large Internet corporations have discovered that they may exploit user data to keep users within their different ecosystems. Users are typically motivated to continue using their services if they produce tailored advertisements for consumers or prohibit connections between multiple platforms.
Many Internet users have become concerned about ethical issues such as censorship, data tracking, and data ownership in recent years. In Web2, user data appears to belong to companies rather than to individuals.
We’ve witnessed situations of unjust data control, in which consumers’ accounts were closed after they unwittingly violated platform-internal community norms. In the 2010s, revelations of Facebook’s failure to protect its users’ data sparked widespread concern over collecting personal information without their knowledge.
What exactly is Web3?
Looking at the present issues with Web2, Web3 is the next obvious step toward enhancing the Internet for users. Web3 aspires to diminish the power held by large Web2 corporations by exploiting peer-to-peer (P2P) technologies such as blockchain, virtual reality (VR), the Internet of Things (IoT), and open-source software. Users should be able to regain control of their content and data through decentralisation.
Web3’s Key Features
Decentralized: Because Web3 is intended to address the basis of the Web2 problem, namely centralization, decentralisation is an essential component of its success. Companies would have to pay to access their data, in addition to regaining data control. Decentralization would make native crypto payments available to everyone, eliminating the need for the costly intermediaries seen in traditional Web2 payment infrastructure.
Trustless: The network on which Web3 is based would allow users to engage without relying on anything other than the network itself.
Permissionless: Rather than a few huge corporations regulating participation or preventing the inter-platform connection, anyone in Web3 can freely engage with others.
Blockchain and cryptocurrency will substantially support these principles.
Web3’s Potential Benefits
improved data security
Data stored in centralised databases by IT firms are susceptible because hackers only need to access one system to compromise customer data. Private information can be maintained more securely using decentralised data storage and management options.
Command of the truth
Users will not face unfair censorship if there is no central power. Without the ability to filter or delete specific content, huge corporations will find it much more difficult to dominate the narrative of any dialogue.
Actual data ownership
Users will be able to retake control of their data and potentially monetise it, as one of the focuses of Web3 is data ownership.
Financial independence
Web3 will enable users to consume, create, and own their content and data. Because Web3 is built on blockchain technology, users will have easy access to ecosystems promoting decentralised finance (DeFi) and other financial freedom tools.
Web3, like its predecessors, will integrate innovations that arise after blockchain technology. For example, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and artificial intelligence (AI) could be used to enhance online social interactions by incorporating digital aspects into Web3 apps.
One such example already exists in the shape of the Metaverse, a virtual 3D cosmos that users can explore via avatars. Users can communicate online, buy virtual land, play games, and even work remotely through immersive places like the metaverse.
Final thoughts
Web2 versus Web3 is a variant of the age-old centralised versus decentralised debate. Because Web3 has yet to appear, its supposed superiority to Web2 is debatable. However, with its decentralised infrastructure, Web3 has the opportunity to address the data-related problems that have plagued Web2 and return control to users.
Reminder
Thank you for taking the time to read this. I hope you enjoyed our blog and found knowledge that you will find useful in the future. Behindyourgoals has more articles related to finance, banking, crypto and much more.
Anchal