Making Sense Of Blockchain Technology (WEB3)
As you already know we live in a fast-changing world. The web3 concept is currently the heart of the next-generation internet which many refer to as blockchain or cryptocurrency. It requires the functionality of blockchain technology to run. It is the internet era of freedom from centralization and privacy issues; where all forms of control ranging from internet interactions, i.e. content put out and consumed, ads and personal data are under the control of the user (you!), there is no need for a middleman entity requiring login or sign in details to use the blockchain.
Blockchain helps in the verification and traceability of multistep transactions needing verification and traceability. It can provide secure transactions, reduce compliance costs, and speed up data transfer processing.
Blockchain, however, is a database that stores information electronically in a digital format. It is critical to note that blockchain is different from a traditional database in that while traditional data is collected in tables, blockchain collects its information in groups (blocks).
Data on the blockchain is stored in blocks, when information is entered, it is recorded, validated and then encrypted. Once stored, it is final and permanent meaning that this information cannot be altered, edited or removed. An attempt to undo or edit an entry would require the same to be done to EVERY other block before it, which is impossible. Every new block is linked to the one before it and carries information about the previous one that reinforces its existence, these blocks are linked together through cryptography (protocols that prevent third parties or the public from reading private messages). The core of blockchain is its decentralization. It is a public ledger that is distributed on many computers or peer-to-peer networks. It gives each participant access to a copy of the ledger for complete transparency, reduces the level of trust participants have to put at stake and eliminates the risk associated with a centralized system of administration e.g. server crash, downtime from server upgrade or hacking.
A Back Story On The Evolution Of WEB3
If you were born in the 90s you may or may never have heard of Web 1 and 2 and suddenly there is so much raving about Web 3. Was I a caveman for an aspect of my life and didn’t realize life passed by at some point? you may ask yourself. No, you didn’t lose track of time, you’ve been right in the middle of the evolution from the beginning. Let’s recall back to the 90s when the concept of the digital age began, then most of the people who interacted with the internet did so to get information and news and communicated basically via emails. Most people needed to visit a cyber cafe to get access to the internet. At that point, in the Web 1 era, users were consumers of whatever resources were available on the net.
Web 2 began about 2004 when Facebook the first of its kind social network came to be and people could sign up to be on this fantastic platform, upload pictures, like and share content. After that came Instagram, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Youtube etc, there has since been an explosion of social media, creativity blossomed and we were introduced to cloud storage, where instead of having your information merely on your desktop device, it can be stored in the cloud and accessed through any other device.
For most, the internet is where we currently live and run businesses because these technologies became so available and there’s an app for almost anything on devices that can be carried around conveniently. The concept of Web 2 made users co-creators and owners of web spaces and marketplaces, this came with a lot of wealth, amazing personalized user experience, really great content and ease of life. But to access platforms, we traded freedom and privacy, with this, we are usually required to share some personal information. We don’t think so much about this, after all, we need something that these entities have, therefore, whatever they choose to do with the data shouldn’t be so much of a bother, besides there is often the promise of privacy with policies and terms we must agree to.
We will come to realize that many of these companies or platforms began selling the data we shared with them to advertisers. For these big companies, users became the products they sold. This amongst others is what Web 3 has opened our eyes to, as decentralization has made obvious the fact that these tech companies have absolute control over the interactions happening on their platforms and therefore can revoke, deactivate or restrict users based on certain criteria and the single point of failure such that if something went wrong with their servers, it affects everyone in connection.
These are really exciting times, web3 presents a world where users are absolutely in charge of what happens with their data and gain incentives from interacting with the blockchain.
