Web3 is hot.
Really hot.
Seems like everybody is talking about it. But the thing is: Most people donât understand what it means.
Including me.
That was why I wanted to write this article. This is my chance to do research and try to answer the questions I had about Web3.
So letâs get started.
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People seem to have different ways of defining Web3.
99% of them are very confusing.
I like to think of Web3 as a new way of thinking about the internet.
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Thereâs nothing inherently âwrong.â
The current internet era, apparently called Web 2.0, is revolutionary.
You see, before Web 2.0, thereâs Web 1.0.
During that era, most people on the web just consume content. Most of the creators are developers who knew how to build websites.
In short, Web 1.0 was the read-only web.
Then came Web 2.0. This is when things get more interactive.
People no longer just consume content. They can create content themselves.
Everyone can be a creator. If you want to craft a thought and share it with the world, you can. If you want to upload a video to share your life, you can do that too.
People are creating more than ever, and Web 2.0 is exactly why I get to write on this blog.
But, there are some underlying downsides too.
People are starting to realize that:
Donât believe me?
Imagine this: Tomorrow, without any warning, your entire Instagram account gets deleted. Or, if youâre a YouTuber, all of your videos get deleted in an instance.
These big tech companies can do this. They have the power. And we canât do anything about it.
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The common consensus is: With Web3, people can finally own what they have on the Internet.
Because in Web 3, ownership and control are decentralized.
On a high-level overview, this means that the internet will no longer be controlled by centralized, big tech companies. Instead, the users of the internet will control and manage it.
Also, users and builders can own pieces of internet services, like owning a piece of land, by owning tokens.
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Donât worry. Tokens are easier to understand.
Think of tokens as a record that you own something in the digital world.
More jargons extend from a token, but letâs not get into them for now.
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Because of another hot phrase: blockchain technology.
To understand how blockchain works, we need to understand how the internet in Web 2.0 (the present era) works.
Currently, we follow a âclient-serverâ, or centralized, network.
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A network is a group of interconnected devices that exchange information. Remember how you can send images easily to your Mac from your iPhone using Airdrop?
These devices can be connected in three ways:
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Check out this graphic below.
Throw away your definition of a âclientâ first. It means something different in computer science.
A âclient-serverâ is a computer system.
In this system, a central server (the dark blue building) provides data to a lot of networked stations (all the devices). It does a few important things:
In the real world, the dark blue building is any of the big tech companies (Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, etc).
With a âclient-serverâ network, users can get all the benefits from the platform. However, there are some serious issues such as:
People like to be in control. As a result, a new type of network has slowly emerged.
People call it the âdecentralizedâ, or âpeer-to-peerâ network.
As you can see from the graphic, thereâs no more dark blue building. Thereâs no centralized âserverâ anymore.
Instead, every device is connected to another, and it goes on and on. All information on the network is constantly recorded and transferred between individual users.
Now, see those tiny human beings?
Letâs call them nodes or peers.
Hence, the name âpeer-to-peerâ, or P2P, network is formed. Itâs a distributed network that stores and transfers data without a centralized dark blue building.
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Well, blockchain is built on top of the peer-to-peer network!
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We went over a lot. So letâs ground you a bit.
This article is about Web3.
And Web3 is a decentralized platform. On it, people can own and control what they have on the internet.
So, no more big tech using our data.
And this is possible because of blockchain technology that is built on top of a âpeer-to-peer network.â No more dark blue building controlling everything. Only people transferring data directly to each other.
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Phew.
This was probably the most frustrating article to write so far.
Because a lot of Web3 resources are not beginner-friendly at all.
I had a hard time trying to understand exactly what Web3 means.
In the four stages of competence, Iâm probably still at Stage 1 (I donât know what I donât know). Itâs very difficult to understand Web3 technology as a non-technical person.
And honestly, as a college student, I donât quite see the point of âowning my data.â I mean, my life still goes on whether I enter Web3 or not.
But, it never hurts to try to learn about it.
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Thank you for being awesome and reading this far! :) If you have any questions, feel free to reach out on LinkedIn or by email. Will love to set up a casual call and chat!
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