Web 3.0's Role for Digital Society, and Reasons to Invest in Web 3.0 Infrastructure

We all use the internet for different purposes: we study, communicate, work, make payments, arrange trips, and more. All of these actions are performed on the web and over time, the use of the internet will increase exponentially, but how much will you pay for it, how often does it fail, and for how long? 

The main problem with the current state of the internet is its centralization. In other words, it is managed by and belongs to a few major internet service providers, and they are the ones who dictate how much users will pay, what can be accessed on the web, what will be blocked, etc. Even though we have an illusion of freedom, all of our actions online are controlled in some way by these few providers.

Web 3.0 is supposed to change that. It is comparable to Web 2.0 in the same way that cryptocurrency can be compared to fiat money. Web 3.0 will fix current issues faced by users of the modern internet, with centralization as the main issue to be solved.

What Is Web 3.0?

For now, this term is used to bring separate ideas under one umbrella that point towards eliminating the middleman between the internet and its users, by eliminating the centralization of the service provision. 

While for now it doesn’t sound entirely realistic, Web 3.0 is all about the complete decentralization process and a community-managed internet.

Is Web 3.0 on the Way?

While some projects are already working on it, Web 3.0 is far from being adopted widely. Rather, it is taking the first steps on its way to becoming a developed power. For now, it is still unclear what shape the new technology is going to take, but I believe that it might develop in several directions.

How Can Web 3.0 Influence the World We Live in?

Normal activities that we perform on social networks such as sharing photos, communicating with friends, making posts, shopping, etc., will not be performed on the network provided by major service providers, but on multiple small services on the distributed ledger. A provider’s value will be determined by the number of users willing to support the service by lending their computing power, spare storage space, and the number of users willing to use the service.

Ownership Rights and Information Protection

These services will compete to attract users so every action will be rewarded with, say, a few tokens. This approach will give users a stake in the service and an opportunity to earn by cashing the tokens out, or selling them on secondary markets. Therefore, Web 3.0 is expected to be decentralized and users will have ownership over it, not big providers.

Decentralization and ownership of users also means user data protection. Currently, centralized platforms are highly vulnerable to government intervention. Technically, any platform that accesses and stores user information and can limit or even block access to the content if a governmental body requests to do so. 

With the arrival of Web 3.0, such practices will become impossible since users will manage their data themselves and store them on a distributed ledger. Content, once published, will also be stored on a public distributed ledger, therefore nobody will be able to eliminate or modify it. Data leaks will also be eliminated because a public ledger will be visible to any network participant. 

In my opinion, the adoption of Web 3.0 will lead to reinvigorating democratic values such as freedom of speech and freedom of publication at both the virtual and the social level. With such immense potential, investing in Web 3.0 seems to be very promising but the main challenge is to choose a project that is going to explode in the future. Many companies are trying out Web 3.0, but since the technology is just emerging and there is still no clear idea of where it is going to move.

Metaverse and the Web 3.0 Expansion

Metaverse is another trend that contributes to the concept of Web 3.0. In Web 3.0, the main principle of all metaverses, interoperability, will also be incorporated. Users will create avatars and move them from one metaverse to another, without any need to register separate accounts and pay subscription or membership fees. 

Over time, the metaverse technology may become one of the main driving forces for Web 3.0 adoption. Therefore, investing in a promising metaverse project or buying a few NFTs is a prudent decision.

DAO and Web 3.0

Web 3.0 could influence not only the way we interact online, but also our lives offline. The “one person, one vote” principle would be built into the Web 3.0 design to enable the equality of representation.

Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) have created an online sample of how it might work. DAOs are democratic, member-owned organizations online without centralized leadership. When any organizational decision has to be made, each member can submit their proposal and vote using governance tokens. Members can also delegate their decision-making rights to other members. Once the majority agrees on the decision to be made, it is executed. No stage of the process requires an intermediary or a hierarchical structure. 

The DAO structure creates something called liquid democracy - a blend of delegated and direct democracy. The participants of a DAO do not have to rely on politicians to represent their interests. 

DAO allows us to create systems that are more stable, better meet the needs of their participants, and are less prone to erratic behavior. For now, DAO can serve as a perfect example of how Web 3.0 might work in the future. 

Is Decentralization Going to Work?

Even though centralized platforms such as Facebook and Twitter receive a lot of criticism for their censorship activities, try to imagine what could happen if these platforms didn’t make an effort to clean their communities from spam, fraudsters, and harmful messages. The question arises of how Web 3.0 is going to address abuse and misuse challenges while also being a decentralized service. 

Even though some Web 3.0 proponents claim that the content will be not censorable due to Web 3.0 immutability, using decentralized platforms such as MeWe or Rumble as a reference point helps us to understand that Web 3.0 will have to apply at least some mechanisms for user safety and preventing network abuse.

Bottom Line

Even though it is early to speak about full Web 3.0 adoption, the development of this new technology cannot be stopped. There are many platforms that already offer services heading in this direction with many more on the way. It is evident that the introduction and adoption of Web 3.0 on a large-scale basis is connected with many challenges, some of which cannot be forecasted yet, but the move towards Web 3.0 is inevitable and investing in it now might turn out significant returns in a few years.