To understand the revolution that web3 or web 3.0 intends to orchestrate, it is necessary to make a quick review of what has been the evolution of the Internet since its origins. The first web, web 1.0 , was launched by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 and revolved around hyperlinks. It was only for reading and its users, exclusively content consumers. The protocols were open, decentralized and under the governance of the community. Those historical web pages were static, with rudimentary designs by today’s standards, and provided a lot of information but little interactivity.
Around 2004 a second step began with web 2.0. This was already more like the Internet we know today, allowing a certain interaction between users and platforms. The development of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter also began, as well as that of Google, large companies that began to organize information and centralize it under their control.
Web 2.0 allowed the development of easy-to-use tools so that any citizen could create content online, under the domain of the aforementioned technological giants. The explosion of web 2.0, in short, caused the paroxysm of social networks and interactivity with the user, who became the creator of a large part of its content… but without receiving remuneration for it and without having control over it. information.
At that moment the paradox arises: people generate the content but it is the technology companies that dominate it and profits are made at their expense. Circumstances that, at least in its philosophy, want to change the next step in evolution: web 3.0.
But, how to overcome this model of domain, centralization and appropriation of web 2.0 content? Well, from the confluence of several technologies. First of all, that of blockchain technology. Its most accurate definition is that of Don & Alex Tapscott in their book Blockchain Revolution : ” Blockchain is an incorruptible digital ledger of economic transactions that you can program to record not just financial transactions, but virtually anything that has value.”
Each of the data blocks involved in a transaction is protected and linked to each other, allowing the participation of certain users (each associated with a block). Thus, the transaction is not verified by a third party , but by the network of nodes (computers connected to the network), which is also the one that authorizes any update in the blockchain by consensus.
And, within the blockchain environment, there are tokens . William Mougayar, author of the book The Business Blockchain , describes them as “units of value that an organization creates to govern its business model and empower its users to interact with its products, while facilitating the distribution and sharing of benefits.” among all its shareholders.
In other words, the tokens are a kind of new “currencies” , leveraged in cryptography, with a merely exchange value, which must be issued by a blockchain entity, such as Bitcoin or Ethereum.
In web 3.0, ownership and control of information and services will be distributed among the owners of the tokens, who at the same time may be users and creators of content, who place the value they want on the information in these units of measure and those who exchange content and cryptocurrencies .
«Users defend that web 3.0 is a place where they own all their data and that they have an alter ego with which they relate to the world. It is also understood in the community as a way of having decentralized finances (cryptocurrencies) and that allows users to earn money with their data management or collaborating on the network”, explains Juan Ignacio Navas, managing partner of the law firm Navas & Cusí, specialized in the legal part of these emerging technologies.
On the other hand, web 3.0 seeks to transform itself into a macro database in which each user has a unique profile on the network, based on the history of their searches. That profile would be the one used to personalize each individual’s browsing experience. That is to say: if two different people have done an Internet search with the same words and with the same service, they will receive different results, determined by their different personal profiles. This is due to the fact that web 3.0 and its services are largely based on the so-called semantic web. In this model, search engines understand, through artificial intelligence, the meaning of the information contained on the web, and this allows for more efficient data processing and automatic and accurate filtering of information. What’s more: the programs of this new web can reason, based on logical descriptions and intelligent agents, and use rules that express rational relationships between concepts and data on the network.
Artificial intelligence manages to create the so-called semantic map that teaches computers the “real” meaning of words. For this reason, this evolution is associated with the concept of personalization and offers a flow of content adapted to our tastes , based on our online profiles, searches, opinions and activity.
On the other hand, this type of evolution is also supported by web data that makes data accessible and linkable like web pages and would allow a standardized language and a new level of data integration.
As this personal data is stored and tracked in the cloud, our searches will have more personalized and close responses , as well as allowing us to connect from more devices such as watches, tablets or voice assistants.
The blockchain could facilitate a more equitable ownership of the network , with millions of content owners, and with secure content, less exposed to distortions. The user, in short, would be at the center again, as a creator, but above all as the holder of the information by being the owner of those tokens.
Obviously, identity and privacy on this website will be different too. Why? Because both will be linked to the digital wallet of the user who participates in it. While in web 2.0 authentication methods almost always require the user to provide private and personal data, in web3 digital wallets are completely anonymous unless their owner decides to link them publicly to their identity.
“For the user, it is a completely secure environment, since he communicates the data that interests him. For example, if I make a transaction with my wallet (account with money) no one in the chain will be able to know who I am or where I live. With a bank account you see the entity, office and who I am. But the network scanners do allow any visitor to know what transactions have been made with a wallet, which allows traceability to be established, ”explains Juan Ignacio Navas.
In relation to information security, « blockchain technology is safe to store information and make sure that what we read was there before and that it has followed a flow, and therefore has not been corrupted. The risk lies in the user and in the use he gives it. Likewise, no system will be as unsafe as the current Internet system, in which anyone with sufficient knowledge can misinform a large part of the population, ”explains the lawyer.
Despite all the advantages that this proposal presents, web 3.0 is no stranger to criticism. Starting with decentralization : some theorists on the subject are skeptical about its potential in this area, considering that decentralizing the web architecture does not cause the same thing to happen with the underlying digital infrastructure.
The lawyer Juan Ignacio Navas explains it: «The technology is designed so that different users can be owners of the chain, but, for this, teams must be made available to the chain and maintain it, something that it is not willing to do the majority. There is a possibility that, with enough resources, a user or a large corporation could own 51% of the chain and, therefore, do what they want with it.
As far as the quality of the information is concerned, there are also voices that do not believe that it is related to the decentralization of property: «I do not think that quality depends on whether property is decentralized or not. The fact that they stopped depending on an editorial line does not mean that the freelance writer does not have their inclinations and approach each topic from one prism or another. What is certain is that the content creation economy is allowing free and high-quality information to be available from people who act for free and get paid from social networks, but there are also individuals who are dedicated to disinforming”, concludes Juan Ignatius Navas.
There are, therefore, still some angles to outline of this new technology that, without a doubt, in a shorter period of time than long we will see installed among us.
