The concept of Web3 and its existing ecosystem is almost always seen in association
with the digital asset space. As a way to better understand Web3, it’s important to
discuss the evolutionary development of the internet through stages of Web1 and
Web2 respectively.
Web1 represents the inception of the internet in the early 1990s, where users
interacted with hyperlinked websites in a search and read-only capacity. Companies
like AOL and Yahoo rose to prominence building their sites on open standard
protocols to transfer information. At this point in time, users were the sole
consumers, placing the responsibility of generating content on the shoulders of the
website server. Without a constant stream of content, these websites remained
stagnant and the internet experienced limited utility.
Around 2004, came the shift to Web2. In this era, the increased engagement
between users and centralized companies allowed data to be compiled on how to
create an optimal user experience. True, Web2 championed opportunities for user
interaction and creation but it did so at the cost of privacy, ownership, control, and
the shift away from open standard protocols. Today, Web2 is the primary space of
internet engagement for a majority of the population and while it has come a long
way, it remains dominated by the rules of centralized companies like Google,
Facebook, Apple, and X. Some would argue that the era of Web3 has yet to begin,
but the emergence of blockchain, DAOs, NFTs, and digital assets has made the
ecosystem for Web3 possible.
The promise of Web3 is to serve as the decentralized counterpart to Web2 built on
blockchain technology whereby all the creative freedoms and open engagement exist
without the control of big tech companies or government. In Web3, creators could
produce and own their content without the concern that any one branch of authority
could remove or censor it. Additionally, the need to engage within the space with
your real world identity would also become optional, as the blockchain network is
both trustless and encrypted.