The Future of The Web and The Rise of Web3
The web is a term that was introduced to the world in the 1990s and ever since it has dominated the world. It continued to evolve until eventually, our entire lives became reliant on the web, internet and technology. So what is the web? Moreover, why are people numbering web as web1, web2 and web3? What does this even mean?
Welcome to the first article in our series about Web3 education by Qurious Labs. We aim to deliver engaging examples of web3 analogies and stories that you can relate to.
So What Are Web1, Web2 and Web3? And What Are The Differences Between Them?
Imagine that you’re walking in a bazaar in three different scenarios.
In the first scenario, you are just passing by and
You can only watch the goods they’re offering.
You can’t buy it, interact with it or get your own goods to sell.
The bazaar in this case is more like a museum and is not concerned with your needs and wants. It just displays some goods that you can watch.
You cannot interact with the sellers or talk to them.
All you can really do is search for items and watch them.
Everyone who walks into the bazaar goes through the same experience and sees the same goods.
In Web1
All pages were fixed and unchanged.
Users cannot interact with them or change anything about them.
You cannot remove or add something from the web page.
Later on, with the addition of programs like Java and Flash many features were added but still, the majority of people on the internet were consumers of information.
This area lasted around 14 years from 1990 all the way until 2004.
In the second scenario, you are passing by but you realize that you can buy some of the goods offered and interact with them. You also learned that store owners use machine learning and AI to
Analyze your spending habits to better understand what to stock up on.
Figure out your favorite gifts so they can put them in the first row.
Track your most visited areas to better understand your needs and when to open their bazaars.
Every consumer in this scenario enters the bazaar and finds different goods sorted out in a way that is most appealing to them.
In essence, machine learning is constantly “spying” on you so that store owners can leverage your consumer habits to make more money.
However, you come to realize this and now you also want to leverage other people’s consuming habits to cash out. So you approach the store owners and ask if you can build your own Bazar and that’s where it gets complicated.
Some owners agree to employ you as a seller and take 40% of your profit.
Some owners agree to hire you as an unpaid intern taking 100% of your profit. In return, you get to learn how to sell in the bazaar.
Some mega-owners rent their bazaars to people like you. Should you want to leave the bazaar and rent a new one, you risk losing your goods.
Laws and regulations regarding buying new bazaars are confusing and unfair.
Random police officers constantly search your bazaar without consent because they’re looking for illegal goods.
In Web2
You are the product.
The interaction between the user and the web page increases.
More users could create content for even more users.
the web page starts interacting with the users to better understand them and learn about their habits.
The main purpose of this is to make the users spend the largest amount of time on the platform and become dedicated consumers. This requires leveraging AI and machine learning to track users' data. Further, it invades the privacy of users when the platforms decide to sell such data to advertisement companies to promote “targeted advertisements”
When users try to earn money on Web2 they are usually faced with many obstacles just like in the above scenario when you wanted a piece of the cake.
Some websites would take as much as 40% of your profit.
Others would take all of your profit on the basis that the followers you gained should be generating enough revenue for you from the direct sales.
In addition to that, some social media platforms and blogging platforms own the content you post on them and while they give you copyrights and full ownership, many users argue that their content is taken down without a reasonable explanation.
Many users rely on a platform as a main source of income and when it closes or they migrate to another platform, they lose all of their customers and ultimately their income.
Censorship and invasion of privacy mark Web2 especially when it comes to the national security of any country.
In the third scenario, you own the goods that you are selling.
You are no longer just a product.
Should you decide to close up shop and move elsewhere, you can take your goods with you.
Your privacy is preserved and nobody is spying on you anymore.
When you buy a bazaar or land, no police can invade your bazaar at any time to search for illegal goods.
However, you are now in a “decentralized” alley that is full of bazaars.
These bazaars share a distributed ledger on which all ownership in addition to sold goods are stored.
All of your sales are publicly displayed and are constantly verified by every other seller and buyer.
This largely decreases the probability of any buyer cheating and makes it pointless for police to harass you whenever they want.
It also makes it harder for you to try and fix something on that public ledger.
Here are some points to contemplate
At some point, bazaars start to automatically sell goods to customers through automated processes without you interfering.
They even run themselves and provide all the necessary upkeep required to maintain the bazaars.
However, decision-making is limited to those holding the biggest amount of goods.
What’s more, is that anybody who enters the alley to buy from the bazaars is only required to connect to the internet without revealing their true identity; a digital identity with a publicly displayed address will suffice.
Web3 is the phase of the internet where
Creators are owners and are incentivized to create.
You have full control over your content and should you choose to take it, you can.
All their created material is shared via the nodes using the blockchain.
Smart contracts and DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) play a big part.
Personal identity is preserved without risking the safety of the public.
Users can interact with the internet via digital identities using wallets like Metamask.
In essence, Web3 is an idea and isn’t a product. It’s not owned or represented by a single entity, organization or company.
The article introduced the concepts of blockchain, smart contracts, Metamask and DAOs which are going to be explained in detail in future articles in the same manner. Stay tuned to know what these concepts mean and why they are important for Web3!
About Qurious Labs:
Qurious lab is a venture studio seeking to…. Hold on.
What’s a venture studio?
A group of professionals who are backed by
Funding
Expertise
Skills
What do they do?
Educate the masses about a certain topic
Raise awareness about the importance of such topic
Leverage creativity and innovation to brainstorm new ways through which the public can benefit from said topics
Help founders and creative entrepreneurs hop on to lead the creation of business models that leverage the topic to solve problems for the public.
Provide all the assistance required by the founders to ensure growth and success
Now that you know what a venture studio is
Qurious Labs is a venture studio seeking to raise awareness about Web3 and spread Web3 educational content in the MENA region.
Our ultimate goal is to support founders in creating startups that seek to provide value and solve problems facing the public by leveraging Web3 technology.