What is Web3?

Web3 is the term used to describe the next era of the internet, or for some the next stage to an organized society. The term refers to a decentralized online ecosystem based on the blockchain, essentially the antithesis of centrally owned platforms like Apple and Google. Platforms and apps built on Web3 will be owned by users who will help to develop and maintain these services.

Coined by Gavin Wood, co-founder of Ethereum blockchain, in 2014, the platform allows users to own their data and online presences. The information is shared with platforms and websites users visit, using interoperability, and allows users to monetize their data as well.

The current Web 2.0 is centralized where a huge share of communication and commerce takes place on closed platforms by selected powerful corporations, with a nominal governmental control. In an interview with The Wired, Gavin Wood, stated that society has expanded and the older model of the web no longer fulfills the requirements of today.

Erick Calderon, founder and CEO of NFT marketplace, Art Blocks, says, according to DigiDay, that on Web3 "your access credentials are not based on a username or password, but is based on cryptographic proof of you are who you are."

Web3 can be accessed by users just like Web 2.0, using the same browsers, even though Web3 sites are created using blockchain software. It can also be accessed through metaverse platforms like Facebook's meta.

Co-founder and former Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey however is not yet convinced of how democratic Web3.0 is.

 While there are arguments to the contrary, Amanda Cassatt, co-founder, and CEO of Serotonin, distinguishes the different Web eras saying that Web 1.0 helped democratize information and made it accessible to everyone equally, while Web 2.0 was when businesses turned the open-access information into an advertising-based model. Web 2 began monetizing people's data in every way possible and manipulating their behavior.

Web3 however, is a return to Web 1.0, but in a broader sense of the internet expanding to various devices like the phone and TV. Cassat believes that, "A user in Web3 expects to be rewarded and aligned with a product that they’re using. They aren’t at arm’s length anymore. They want to be part of it." Users will be determined to have a say in the product, be rewarded for interactions with the product, and make decisions about the company's growth. Cassat says “Individual users will have more control and the idea of psychological behavior modification by distribution platforms is going to be rejected.”

Web3 is expected to serve as the foundation of the Metaverse, on which platforms will be built.