What Is Web3 & Why Is It Important For Crypto?

You may have heard the term Web3 being thrown about lately and wondered ‘what is it?’

And even more importantly, ‘Why do I need to know?’

Well, in the most basic of basic terms, Web3 stands for decentralisation. It’s the next evolution of the internet and aims to redistribute power by moving it away from big tech companies and giving it back to the people.

And as you can probably guess, this aligns very well with blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

You see, the internet we have today is quite different to the earliest versions. It’s had a few iterations to get to where we are, and to understand Web3, we need to take a little walk down memory lane.

Web1: 1990 to 2004
This is referred to as the read-only stage of the internet. Web1 was a complete gamechanger, but it wasn’t interactive at all. It allowed us to have a world of knowledge at our fingertips. We could read about it, but we couldn’t participate.

Web2: 2004 to now
This is where we’ve been for the last little while and it’s referred to as the read/write stage of the internet. It’s been wonderful to communicate with people on the other side of the world and create, share and publish our own content and opinions.

But there’s a problem with the current version of the internet. Can you guess what it is?

Yep, it’s our old friend, trust.

Web2 requires us to place our trust (and our data) in the hands of big tech companies who may not have our best interests at heart. In fact, it’s been proven now that they use it to manipulate and control what we see.

Not exactly ideal!

So, we need our internet to evolve and give power back to us. Which is where Web3 comes in.

Web3: Anytime from now
In the internet of the future, we’ll be able to not just interact, but own and control our content and data. We’ll no longer be at risk of losing our online identity because a platform decides we should. Our data will live on a blockchain and we can access it whenever we like.

So, where DeFi frees our finances from banks and institutions, Web3 frees our data from big tech gatekeepers.

 

It’ll be interesting to see how this all evolves, and I imagine there will be a few speed bumps along the way. But in my opinion, anything that shifts the power back to the people is a good thing.