The term Web3 is commonly associated with the next generation of the internet, underway to give the Internet a new face of existence. We, as a user, have come a long way from the first iteration allowing us to consume "read-only" content uploaded on web servers. The second generation grew comparatively fast, and the Internet's facility to "read and write" flooded the user base with social media.
Now is the time to embrace the change as we transition to the next generation of the Internet, where a user can read, write and own the content. Ownership is an important aspect of content creation and development as it ensures authenticity and also allows the audience to trace the creator of any content piece available on the Internet. And can you guess the technology at the foundation of all this fantastic reality?
Blockchain is the term, industry and experts have given to this new and simpler concept of building a network. It is an immutable, shared database that allows and facilitates the processing of recorded data transactions and allows participants to track assets deployed on the chain.
The whole idea of building a network powered by a chain is to increase the trust between both parties in a data transaction on the internet. This eliminates the requirement for a third party to authenticate and act as a trustworthy mediator, thus declining the amount of transparency among the transaction participants. These mediators and intermediaries are critical for our daily usage of the Internet in different applications. For instance, to facilitate a transaction, banks are there to verify and check the credibility of a financial transaction.
The major block in Blockchain's way of becoming mainstream is the lack of guidance and knowledge about its core concepts and applicability. It is often associated with cryptocurrency, which is not more than a mere use case of blockchain. It increases the benefits of a blockchain-based ecosystem by allowing you to facilitate trade in decentralized ecosystems. The sudden boom in cryptocurrency took the market at a greater pace, and regulating bodies couldn't keep up.
It generated the ideation of "get-rich-quick" and misguided people worldwide about Blockchain. The primary narrative of Blockchain became a "pyramid scheme" for users as they were making profits by onboarding new users on the platform. The chain continued since the increased demand also contributed to the network's valuation. Now that people realize the actual blockchain and its significance, worldwide adoption is underway, and 2022 has been a great year for Web3 developments and partnerships.
However, this pyramid scheme interpretation of any service is not "ethically" wrong or unlawful. Many traditional and modern services like banking, education, healthcare, and social media are examples. For instance, a social media community of 1 million people is more financially sound than a community of 10. It can be better understood with the example of banking services; a bank with 10000 customers will have more lending, investment, and borrowing power than a bank with 100 customers.
Now comes the greatest aspect of Web3, decentralization. With Blockchain at its core, Web3 can effectively achieve new milestones of community trust building. Web2 is a classic example of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. For instance, tech giants like Google have dominated the search engine game for a long time, and if you are a Google user, your perception of the Internet is in the hands of Google. It's up to Google what you see, how, and when. Monetization platforms like TikTok and YouTube are also classic examples of dictated terms.
People perceive Web3 decentralization as a tool for fraudulent activities like tax evasion, hiding financial frauds, and avoiding government control for unlawful activities. Sadly, the reality is just the opposite of this. Decentralization is a tool to redirect the control and ownership of the Internet from certain entities to the whole audience. However, we have not yet arrived at the final phase of Web3, i.e., achieving decentralization, scalability, and security all at once. The theoretical explanation using the Blockchain model is more complex than it seems, and most of it is financially draining since the resources to build the infrastructure is costly.
Wondering Why?
It is because, in theory, nodes on a chain are decentralized, but when it comes to practical deployment, these nodes are heavily centralized. The reasons are the low cost of entry and the reduced complexity of running these nodes in the cloud. This cloud dependency gives an upper hand to major players in the industry, and as a result, cloud service providers like AWS are dominant in decentralization. Statistics show that Ethereum, one of the most popular blockchain networks, had a whopping 52% of nodes processing via an AWS ledger, and this is not how decentralization looks.
The Solution?
If Web3 is inclined to reach these lofty goals of decentralization and a democratic Internet, it is important to remediate this consolidation of nodes. It will effectively decrease the risk factor associated with any major player on the platform, as is not the case in this "partnership" between Ethereum and AWS. AWS still holds the potential risk of damaging the entire ecosystem with just one wrong move. It creates a bubble of gaps in the market, and it can be filled through edge computing. As it becomes mature, edge computing has the potential to become the ideal platform for decentralization.
This relationship also requires nurturing in the form of an ecosystem. To build an ecosystem on edge, there will be a requirement for specialized offerings in the form of services for nodes. The requirement for a "more localized and distributed computer" will also increase. Web3 promises everything envisioned by Tim Berners Lee, who created the ideas of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0, but it requires decentralizing the processing and foundation of the Internet more than anything else.