Web 3.0

Web 3.0

Subject: Science & Tech

Section: Computer awareness

Context- Web 3.0 is an attempt to remove the centralisation of domain name registries and the hegemony of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Concept-

World Wide Web:

• World Wide Web, which is also known as a Web, is a collection of websites or web pages stored in web servers and connected to local computers through the internet.
• These websites contain text pages, digital images, audios, videos, etc.
• Users can access the content of these sites from any part of the world over the internet using their devices such as computers, laptops, cell phones, etc.

About Web 3.0:

• Web 3.0 is a decentralized internet to be run on blockchain technology, which would be different from the versions in use, Web 1.0 and Web 2.0.
• In Web3.0, users will have ownership stakes in platforms and applications unlike now where tech giants control the platforms.
• Gavin Wood, founder of Ethereum, a block chain technology company, used the term Web3 first in 2014 and in the past few years many others have added to the idea of Web3.

Previous Versions:

Web 1.0:

• Web 1.0 is the World Wide Web or the internet that was invented in 1989. It became popular from 1993. It lasted until 1999.
• The internet in the Web 1.0 days was mostly static web pages where users would go to a website and then read and interact with the static information.
• Even though there were e-commerce websites in the initial days it was still a closed environment and the users themselves could not create any content or post reviews on the internet.

Web 2.0:

• Web 2.0 started in some form in the late 1990s itself though 2004 was when most of its features were fully available. It is still the age of Web 2.0 now.
• The differentiating characteristic of Web 2.0 compared to Web 1.0 is that users can create content.
• They can interact and contribute in the form of comments, registering likes, sharing and uploading their photos or videos and perform other such activities.
• Primarily, a social media kind of interaction is the differentiating trait of Web 2.0.

Need of Web 3.0:

• In Web 2.0, most of the data in the internet and the internet traffic are owned or handled by very few companies ex. Google.
• This has created issues related to data privacy, data security and abuse of such data.
• Web 3.0 is an attempt to remove the centralisation of domain name registries and the hegemony of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Significance of Web 3.0:

• Decentralized and Fair Internet: Web3 will deliver a decentralized and fair internet where users control their own data.
• Eliminates Intermediaries: With block chain, the time and place of the transaction are recorded permanently.
• The spirit of Web3 is Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO).DAO is all about the business rules and governing rules in any transaction are transparently available for anyone to see and software will be written conforming to these rules. With DAO, there is no need for a central authority to authenticate or validate.

About ICANN:

• Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.
• ICANN is a non-profit body that administers domain names and Internet protocol addresses (IPs) globally.
• It was formed in 1988 by the US Department of Commerce. It has become independent of US control since October 1st, 2016.
• It also ensures that computers across the internet can find one another through defined unique pathways and identifiers.
• It is responsible for coordinating the maintenance and methodologies of several databases, with unique identifiers, related to the namespaces of the Internet – and thereby, ensuring the network’s stable and secure operation.
• ICANN is governed by an internationally diverse Board of Directors overseeing the policy development process. ICANN’s President directs an international staff, working from three continents, who ensure that ICANN meets its operational commitment to the Internet community.