Cryptocurrency and Web3: The future of the internet?

For something that isn’t even in existence yet, web3 is sure making waves on the internet space. Tech icons are arguing and putting forth idealistic theories on social media.

Investors are shoving a lot of money into businesses built on the premise of the Web3 and big time engineers are quitting their jobs in order to focus on web3 and get in early.

Unfortunately, web3 has been designed like a buzzword that confuses the public instead of bringing enlightenment to them. This confusion has caused a crisis in the tech industry, invariably affecting the crypto world. It is then important to know what Web3 truly is.

What exactly is Web3?

Web3 can simply be described as the third version of the World Wide Web. The first version of the web known as web 1.0, was considered to be the kind that the internet took off with in the 1990s. Web2.0 followed ten years later with big internet sensations like Google and facebook.

The introduction of web3 focuses on the future where internet ownership and power are more widely distributed amongst its users. This futuristic web is based on the transparency provided by blockchain technology.

Web3 will provide the ability for the user the right to be involved in big decisions made by tech platforms. It will offer users Democratic power to decide what goes on in big tech companies around the world. 

The problem with our current web

Honestly, if we neglect the thirst for individual control otherwise put as decentralization, there is absolutely nothing wrong with our current web. Tech builders have seen how cryptocurrency thrived over the years without having to be controlled by any given enterprise. This has now propelled them to see a problem with the entire web.

Indeed, the lack of decentralization on major platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and the rest, has presented a situation of “only stakeholders decide” leaving the users in the dark. 

John Perry Barlow, an activist, wrote in his book “Declaration of independence of cyberspace” that the internet should be a cyberspace where anyone can express their beliefs without fear of being cornered into silence or conformity, no matter how singular these beliefs are.

We see on social platforms the cases of Banning and blocking of users, due to violation. Many of which are unnecessary. Indeed the wave of the crypto world has started a revolution.

Why Web3 is inspired by Cryptocurrency

As the perceived value of all digital currencies took off last year, with the total value of the crypto market exceeding $3 trillion in early November, so has the expectation that the decentralized model of these tokens can be applied to all areas of the internet.

The line of thought goes: ‘if bitcoin can work so well that it is traded on platforms like eToro, why not other blockchain-based financial products like loans and insurance?’

Well, Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm that’s enthusiastic about web3, says that crypto is not only the future of finance but is also poised towards transforming all aspects of our lives. 

The firm defines web3 as the internet owned by the builders and users, developed and invented with tokens. A token in this case means a deed of ownership of a small piece of the internet.

We have seen how fast NFTs are growing, are we right to believe in the new web?