The continuous evolution of the world created by Tim Berners-Lee has not stopped its continuous becoming.
These transformations have often accustomed us to small but decisive upheavals that have slowly carped away at part of everyone’s everyday life, improving it and making it ever smarter.
In other cases, however, these small changes, give way to great revolutions that invade in a very short time the entire system on which all transactions and communications on the web are based, meaning those relationships of any nature.
With the rise of cryptocurrencies, which began quietly for many, the question has been raised from the outset as to whether this was an opportunity to begin the search for a new definition of the web or whether it would be more consonant to document its evolution.
That is why it is useful to think of the web as we see it today, in light of all that has been created and continues to be created with cryptocurrencies and NFTs, as a new web, Web 3.0 precisely.
Web history
In order to get a clear view of the evolution of the Web and what is essentially its current definition, it will be useful to do a little history; we will start from the origins, from the fabulous 1990s, and arrive without dwelling too much on the present day.
As already mentioned in the introduction, the man who brought it all to life is without a shadow of a doubt Tim Berners-Lee with his HTML that even today all web developers still use in its most recent versions for the construction of everything on the web.
Indeed, Tim understood the value of linking through hyperlinks.
So the content was there; it had to be made usable in an orderly fashion in a kind of virtual library.
This was the era of the first browsers precisely, applications capable of allowing users to be able to search the Web for any document present through an ordered search.
We are in the era of Web 1.0, a web that is decentralized on the one hand but highly static.
During these years through different protocols it was possible to do things that were revolutionary for the time such as accessing documents (http), transferring files between servers (ftp), and sending mail with the famous pop3 and smtp.
With the advent of new technologies related to broadband and thus greater data rates came a more democratized and centralized Web, the first peer-to-peer platforms such as Napster, eMule, and Bit Torrent became widespread.
Social networks thus represent the hallmark of Web 2.0 in addition to anointing Google as the only established search engine.
The web, as we understand it today, was born from the common goal of projecting the world into as decentralized a definition as possible by favoring individual users in their characterization and, most importantly, in the monetization of their skills and personalities.
Through blockchain, in fact, it is possible to achieve an equal view of the network, where everyone is rewarded for the work done both in time and resources expended.
web 3.0 definition
Web 3.0 is by definition the latest release of the web to which many have had access for some time now, even unknowingly.
To try to characterize Web 3.0 from its earlier versions, one could mention first the elements of machine learning and artificial intelligence.
The new generation of the web world differs largely in one main feature that for many may be obvious or taken for granted but in real terms much will change with web 3.0: data.
In general, since the first page was created in HTML, the centrality of the web has been to the possession of data.
Throughout Web 1.0 and 2.0, data has always been handled by the big giants like Google.
With the advent of Web 3.0, we envision a web of content no longer tied digitally and physically to the servers of private companies but essentially tied more to users who can now monetize it more appropriately.
Buying virtual land in the metaverse is really a parallel reality to our own, but definitely innovative.
Nowadays, the metaverse is just a concept related to the idea of owning a lot where we can build a new experience, playful in some ways.
Whether such activity will bring positive feedback in the long run is unknown, as it is a really volatile and risky market.
Reason why, regardless of the choices, it is recommended to invest responsibly (online and otherwise).
Web 3.0 features
Since it is not characterized by a definition in phraseological terms, we can define Web 3.0 through its distinctive elements.
First, there is the desire to revolutionize the web by turning it into a large database by facilitating access to the various content present not only by various browsers but also by external applications.
Then we have the aforementioned desire to use technologies that make artificial intelligence its pulsating engine with all the applications that this entails. Third, there is the much-acclaimed blockchain along with the cryptocurrency system and related markets.
More generally, we are moving toward a web that is increasingly semantic, and not simply hypertextual.
Semantic markup
Semantic markup represents one of the many culprits for ranking in the various search engine rankings, and this represents a fundamental point for any reality that wants to develop within the world that Web 3.0 creates day by day.
It could, in fact, be defined as a particular way of writing code, whether HTML or XML does not matter, that plays a definitive role in the presentation and organization of various online documents.
Semantic markup thus includes elements such as lists or paragraphs; the integral organization of a site such as its header, footer, body along with the various elements that make up all the pages.
Semantics, then, is the central point, the science of the meaning of a word then.
Semantic markup is not always used to its full potential because, for various reasons, we are often faced with a disconnect between the presentation of a site that we might define as web development and content i.e., search engine optimization.
All the elements of a site are contained within semantic tags, in the writing code in fact everything could, at the limit, be enclosed in a <div></div>.
But this way of writing code reports nothing to the browser about the actual content of the site.
Using semantic markup is equivalent to using tags such as article, aside, footer, header, nav, or section. Each tag represents a distinctive feature of what the site actually is and its nature.
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence represents one of the most important concepts to define Web 3.0.
It is a collection of various technologies that are also very different from each other but possess one characteristic: interacting with each other to enable other machines to gain perception of the world around them and beyond.
Through artificial intelligence it is possible, in fact, to enable machines to understand and act accordingly by responding to behavioral protocols that become expressions of levels of intelligence quite comparable to those of humans.
The first useful definitions for understanding artificial intelligence are primarily those of machine learning and natural language processing.
It is useful to define artificial intelligence as a set of two factions or branches: narrow AI and general AI.
The first category absorbs most of the technologies that are used by users every day as they deal with providing minimal data such as that offered by weather apps, digital assistants, and, at most, software that deals with optimizing related business functions.
The second category is a form of artificial intelligence that, in the future, will be able to understand and act accordingly almost autonomously.
Blockchain and cryptocurrencies
The element that most distinguishes Web 3.0 from its past generations is undoubtedly the blockchain.
Trying to express blockchain through a description that everyone can understand, it is possible to say that it represents an effective ledger that has the characteristics of sharing and immutability that together facilitate the process of recording each transaction and the following phase of tracking the actual transacted assets within a commercial network.
With each transaction, a record of it is made as if it were a block of data that will be linked to both previous and future transactions.
Such transactions are irreversible and each transaction will precisely be a block on the chain called the blockchain. Much of the technology used for cryptocurrencies derives from such a protocol.
The latter are in fact virtual currencies based on a transactional computer protocol that is completely encrypted and decentralized in that it is not regulated by national institutions such as banks or others.
Cryptocurrencies are based on blockchain technology in that every transaction in cryptocurrencies is secured and tracked by blockchain technology.
Exchanges therefore take place in a peer-to-peer environment approved by so-called miners.
As in the “physical” world of economics, with cryptocurrencies there is a need to create one’s own wallet or wallet in order to hold cryptocurrency.
These are protected by public and private keys in order to access them.
3D visualization and graphics
3D graphics represents a specific branch of computer graphics that uses model processing that follows three-dimensionality to represent graphics made through algorithms capable of expressing a very high level of verisimilitude with the real world.
Some theorists have wanted to give a definition of Web 3.0 as a spatial web completely directed toward the goal of breaking down with the highest level of precision the division between the real and digital worlds.
The goal then becomes to create and make available to users a three-dimensional world created precisely through 3D graphics.
The application of 3D representation technology is a very powerful tool for creating metaverse, such as Decentraland, but also in other areas.
Just think of the real estate sector, which in this case would allow its users to take a virtual tour of properties, or even museums that could now allow more visitors to enjoy the artistic and historical content they possess and interact through multiple interactive activities.
Web 3.0 applications
The requirement common to all Web 3.0 applications is the ability to be able to assimilate data and information on a large scale thus being able to transform it into actual knowledge useful to the end user.
Right now the field of 3.0 applications has a lot of room for growth and improvement being, in fact, very far from the goal of operating at full capacity.
However, there are examples of companies that have been sniffing the importance of developing applications of this type for years now, names such as Amazon and Apple have in fact followed this path by creating Siri, Alexa and Wolfram Alpha.
In fact, we mentioned two voice assistants that, as exposed above, are capable of mining data and information on a large scale to create answers and data to be provided to the user through a quick and easy exchange.
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