After the pandemic and a take on the work from home jobs, interests in crypto have been surging. With the introduction of NFT (no fungible token), Defi (decentralized finance) in the mainstream market, Web3 is not too far from reach.
What is Web3?
Web3 represents the next phase of the internet and, perhaps, of organizing society. Web3 refers to a decentralized online ecosystem based on the blockchain. Platforms and apps built on Web3 won’t be owned by a central gatekeeper, but rather by users, who will earn their ownership stake by helping to develop and maintain those services.
Web3 will improve the shortcomings of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. This will be mostly related to centralized entities and issues of privacy. 2021 has been a monumental year for the Web3 community: The pandemic; decreasing trust in traditional institutions; ever-expanding applications; and a desire — as our identities become increasingly virtual — for true digital ownership, has driven rapid adoption & growth.
How Will Web3 Happen in The Mainstream Market?
When the blockchain was initially envisioned, one of its key attractions was costless transactions. Just a few years in, blockchain tech is turning out to be extremely expensive and energy-intensive to run. In a decentralized network, transactions become slower because every transaction or change in state that has to be processed needs to be pushed through the entire peer-to-peer network.
The computing power this takes is phenomenal. From a computational perspective, even though we’ll be at 5-10 times our current computing power over the next five years, we need to be at 1000 times to make Web3, and eventually the metaverse, a reality.
It needs a MetaMask wallet for Ethereum, a Phantom wallet for Solana. It needs us to go through the process of adding a whole bunch of browser extensions or plug-ins just for the most basic benefits, and it’s all very tiresome when compared to the straightforward web browsers we’re used to. For mass adoption to occur, we’re going to need Web3 to become substantially easier to access and navigate. And the masses will require educational content and training around how to get started.
The major hurdle in the realization of Web 3.0 is accessibility. Elon Musk’s Starlink is still figuring out how to bring internet connectivity, i.e., Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 to many parts of the developing world. In addition, to reach, we’re going to need mass-scale hardware upgrades to both servers and end-user devices as current mobile and IoT devices are not prepared for the Web3 revolution.
Crypto is already in the mainstream market with some protocols in Singapore, where governments strongly support cryptocurrencies. Web3 could bring crypto into the mainstream, and it has the potential to decide the future of crypto and DeFi.
So, while it won’t take us as long to achieve an open and entitled web, we still have a long way to go.
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