The term Web3 was proposed in 2014 by Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood as a more effective alternative to Tim Berners-Lee’s vision of Internet evolution, one of the creators of the “World Wide Web.”
Gavin and his colleagues raised numerous critical questions about the present structure of the global network — questions that current leaders have yet to address. Their concerns revolve around the over-centralization and censorship present in the current structure of the Internet.
Gavin and the Web3 Foundation he founded have outlined three key characteristics of the new technological order and the future web3:
- Users have full ownership of their data.
- All transactions must be uncensorable and secure.
- The exchange of data and values must be decentralized.
Blockchain technology is expected to underpin the technical operation of this new Internet.
The continued buzz around web3 only gained momentum after the crypto community agreed that an Internet built on the above principles could challenge the FAANG companies and potentially absorb their capitalization.
However, the technical infrastructure required for this transformation is not yet fully developed.
While Bitcoin has been functioning consistently for more than eight years, its functionality remains quite limited. Satoshi Nakamoto employed cryptography to solve a basic issue—establishing and securing the order of events in a reliable and censor-proof manner. For a long time, this concept was synonymous with “blockchain.”
It wasn’t until 2015 that Ethereum introduced the concept that the blockchain could also function as a decentralized consensus computer, capable of performing complex computational tasks.
Ever since, there has been a debate about what the architecture of a new Internet, built on such distributed computers, would look like.
For now, the community has reached consensus. The technology stack should be divided into several layers, each offering different functionality:
- Layer 0 (L0): Fundamental protocols for interaction through peer-to-peer networks and operation between such networks (Polkadot, Cosmos).
- Layer 1 (L1): Transaction protocols (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin).
- Layer 2 (L2): Support, maintenance, and scaling of L1 protocols (high-speed transaction processing, heavy computing, oracles, etc.).
- Layer 3 (L3): APIs and libraries to simplify developer interaction with preceding layers.
- Layer 4 (L4): A browser for web3 users.
We are witnessing the development of numerous projects, each creating new protocols at each of these layers. Their collective goal is to secure their technological niche in the future of the Internet. Eventually, products for mainstream users will emerge, and collectively, they will undoubtedly challenge and potentially overthrow the current corporations.
Amen.