Pay any attention to the latest digital products and changes to the Internet, and the buzzword, “Web 3.0” will quickly become part of your lexicon, whether you like it or not. The darn label is all over the place. Alex Kipman knows more than most, being a resident metaverse expert and builder. However, trying to figure out what Web 3.0 is, exactly, might be a bit more of a challenge.
Web 1.0 was, clearly, the original Internet of websites that came along and started providing content. Web 2.0 could then arguably be the explosion of social media as well as the ability to utilize and consume multimedia on the Web. So, what in the world is the difference between the next evolution? Fundamentally, Alex Kipman notes, it will be a place where no permission is needed from a central authority to post anything, with no central controlling node, and thus no single point of failure. Ultimately an internet with no “kill switch”.
Kipman believes this way of interacting with the Internet will move us away from centralized platforms like Facebook, Google, or Twitter and towards a decentralized platform backed by blockchain.
Over the last decade, the Web has become a near monopoly playground for a few big tech companies that command the vast majority of traffic. Unlike the big company portals, which many people would agree with Alex Kipman are very centralized, blockchain gained its strength from confirmation and management by thousands of decentralized computers working together. At first, much of this technology was focused on cryptocurrency. However, in the last two years, Alex Kipman reflects, blockchain technology has exploded onto the scene with the ability to manage and support vast amounts of data in a decentralized fashion.
Kipman believes this will get us closer to the Semantic Web first envisioned by Tim Barners-Lee. An internet that is intelligent, autonomous, and open. An internet that will use Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to act as a “global brain” and process content conceptually and contextually instead of processing content through numbers and keywords.
Blockchain is creating the foundation for this new environment. It facilitates participation without needing authorization from a governing body. It offers people the freedom to interact publicly or privately without having an intermediary expose them to risks, therefore offering people “trustless” data. Kipman believes Web 3.0 will also incorporate 3D graphics in a fundamental way, moving us away from pixels and 2D screens, and instead either “teleporting us into virtual content, or putting digital content contextually over the real world through holograms and Augmented Reality”
Alex Kipman posits that this is the true nature of Web 3.0. Further, it’s like the Internet was suddenly put back to its original, creative landscape again. People are generating entirely new content on Web 3.0 that hasn’t existed for years as a free-flowing form. No surprise, Web 3.0 is generating an immense amount of interest and traffic towards it.
