The Insane Future of Web 3.0 and the Metaverse
Much has been said about Web 3.0 and the metaverse , but they may remain vague terms since we still cannot see the concrete results of these ideas. It can be difficult to visualize these digital structures, but the specialists who are working on their development promise that it will be the future of the Internet .
Let’s start with a brief history of our internet. Web 3.0 is the consequence of an evolutionary process in the IT structure. Although more than an evolution, many speak of a revolution when Web 3.0 is mentioned .
The first generation web or Web 1.0 refers to the World Wide Web (the three W’s that we see at the beginning of any web page. This dates back to the 1990s when internet adoption was becoming increasingly popular and the focus was on delivering documents as HTML pages that can be accessed through a browser. At this stage the Internet user could only read when interacting with the web.
This changed with the advent of Web 2.0. Unlike the classic web, the development of the second generation was driven primarily by corporations. Here the first applications begin to appear, instead of using only the internet browser. The focus on web 2.0 is that the Internet user is already active. Now he not only reads, but also produces content (writes, uploads photos, interacts with other users, etc.) on the platforms provided by the big players in the technology industry. That is, the dynamics that we know today of social networks. Here we are currently standing.
What is Web 3.0?
As we said earlier, this may sound like a vague term because, like everything in Blockchain development services , there is no clear definition of Web 3.0 yet. But let’s define some characteristics that this great leap of the Internet will incorporate .
We can understand Web 3.0 as a network upgrade, a meta-technology for enterprise software, an open data social movement, and a new generation of artificial intelligence. All in one.
Web 3.0 will allow machines to interpret a much larger volume of data. That will allow us to interact much more deeply with other users from any platform.
In the third-generation web, centralized entities like Facebook, Twitter, and Google will be replaced by social media platforms and search engines with no company behind them. In other words, when we talk about web 3.0 we talk about a decentralized internet .
When talking about decentralization we can already name terms that for some may be more familiar. Well, the entire economy around cryptocurrencies is decentralized and is based on blockchain technology.Therefore, cryptocurrencies are also part of web 3.0 .
The exchange of cryptocurrencies is given directly from one user to another, without intermediaries such as banks. All transactions are recorded in the blockchain, or block chain by its translation into Spanish.
We could say that decentralization is the great feature of web 3.0 . Today much of the web is in the hands of a few entrepreneurs, such as Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates to name a few.
Most web 2.0 operations are controlled by tech giants like Meta, Microsoft and Amazon, but in web 3.0 data is distributed across networks and no one entity owns the information.
In this evolution of the Internet , we will no longer need complex operating systems or large hard drives to store information because absolutely everything will be in the cloud. And everything will be much faster and customizable.
Web 3.0 tries to recover part of the power that the world ‘s best-known large platforms have accumulated. New social networks, search engines and markets will emerge that do not have overlords in the corporate world. Instead, it is decentralized under the blockchain technology system. Thus, we could say that the blockchain built the foundations of the future of the internet.
In addition to decentralization, other key topics related to web 3.0 include Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) , Non -Fungible Tokens (NFTs), and Decentralized Finance (DeFi).
Thus, the advanced technologies that will contribute to the evolution of the internet in addition to blockchain are virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). Let’s see how this relates to the metaverse .
What is the metaverse?
When Mark Zuckerberg announced Facebook’s name change to Meta, ushering in the metaverse , he also spoke of this as the future of the internet : “We are at the beginning of the next chapter for the internet and it is also the next chapter for our company,” Zuckerberg wrote in Meta’s cover letter and continued: “The next platform will be even more immersive: an embedded internet where you are in the experience, not just looking at it. We call this the metaverse and it will affect every product we build.”
To better understand this let’s go to the etymology of the word. The prefix “meta” means “beyond”, “after” or “transcending”. Just as metaphysics studies problems that are beyond physics or nature, the metaverse alludes to a fictional virtual world “beyond the universe.”
Therefore, in the metaverse , our physical reality merges with virtual reality. It is a digital world that seeks to be as real as possible and encompasses all spheres of life: from leisure to work.
In addition, to access the metaverse , virtual reality and augmented reality devices will be needed. Although much remains to be polished in this fictional world, we can already get an idea of what commerce will be like in the metaverse since Walmart and Samsung have put stores there where they are testing buying items through cryptocurrencies or NFTs. Here we already see a point of connection with web 3.0 .
Contradictions between Web 3.0 and the metaverse
If we said that the main feature of web 3.0 is decentralization but the metaverse is being developed by major technology companies like Meta and Microsoft, there is a contradiction among those who speak of the “future of the internet “.
Let us remember that both concepts are still in the cryptocurrency development company. As I described earlier, web 3.0 is about the power of data in people and not in big companies.
In the vagueness of these concepts in which we currently find ourselves, web 3.0 and the metaverse seem, at the moment, two different paths that the development of the internet can take.
The main developer of web 3.0 could be said to be Gavin Wood, founder of Polkadot and co-founder of Ethereum. His internet vision of him moves in blockchain technology , cryptocurrencies and Decentralized Autonomous Organizations.
On the other hand, the main developers of the metaverse are Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, two people who continue to have the power of the largest amount of data that circulates on the internet , so they will also have power of our data in the metaverse . Today the metaverse seems more like a science fiction story, an empty virtual world where I find it difficult for people to take it as the future of the internet .
It will surely exist as an attraction, maybe it’s just a fad. However, it will take many years to see a mass of people adopt the metaverse as an everyday thing.
Web 3.0 is more likely to be seen before the metaverse but lays some groundwork for its structure as both terms continue to be polished.
