We’ve come a long way in decentralizing data, allowing individuals to create and share information via websites, from Web1 to Web2. Because consumers do not own or manage their data, this is where the buck stops. Furthermore, because Web2 is mostly governed by giant tech businesses, people have no idea what true privacy and ownership feel like.
Web3 is a game-changer. It provides users with access to an open, trustless, and permissionless Internet in which they must rely on these corporations or risk losing control of their data and privacy. From Web1 to Web3, the progress in privacy and storage has been enormous. By returning control to users, Web3 has the potential to empower society. Here’s how to do it:
The progression of privacy and data storage from Web1 to Web3
In its early days, the internet was mostly a static medium. Web1 was the first to offer websites, a game-changing breakthrough that gave users a new and powerful way to consume material. However, the fundamental restriction was that it only enabled one-way communication. Web1 was non-collaborative and a little boring in comparison to today’s websites since users could only consume material, not produce or contribute.
Furthermore, Web1 was highly centralized. The website, data storage, and even data connections or transmissions were all under the authority of the designers. As a result, users in Web1 played a minor role; they were essential participants who consumed online material but had no ownership or rights.
In the direction of user participation
We’re on Web 2 right now. One of the most significant advantages of this phase is that the focus has turned to user interaction, at least theoretically. This version allows users to not only read but also write data. They can, for example, produce blogs, video lessons, and more. However, there is a catch, since there are certain restrictions on what users may do.
Web2 gives users more creative freedom. They can fill bespoke webpages and connect with various types of data, allowing for solutions and services that were previously unimaginable in Web1. Despite this, large IT corporations own and manage the servers that hold and keep such data. To put it another way, people may now generate and contribute material to the web, but they no longer have control over it. As a result, web-based communications and storage continue to be extremely centralized.
The ability to exchange and produce data on the internet is liberating, but it does not guarantee ownership. Web2 is a service that comes with a set of terms and conditions. Big IT corporations, on the other hand, have complete control over these phrases. So much so that people can’t use the internet without consciously or unconsciously accepting the conditions.
As indicated in the last report, we are late to recognize the value of online privacy, and our clipboards, preferences, and surfing behaviors are transferred to a plethora of websites and sold without our knowledge.
Web3: Towards decentralization
The promised paradise is Web3. It addresses the concerns of data storage and communication centralization. Web2 started the decentralization process, although it eventually bred greater types of centralization than Web1.
To be clear, users did not have control over or ownership of the data they generated. Furthermore, the centralized web facilitates censorship and de-platforming. Big IT businesses, in the general, badly abuse end-users in order to increase revenues. Now the issue is, what makes Web3 unique?
Decentralization. Web3 gives people back ownership of their data, leaving them in charge of storage and transmission. Websites on this user-centric form of the web run on blockchain networks, with thousands of globally dispersed computers replacing single (centralized) servers (nodes). They communicate with end-users using decentralized apps, or dApps, rather than old procedures and channels.
The majority of dApps are really community-run and non-custodial. With algorithmically protected intellectual property rights, users may experience true and meaningful ownership of their data. Furthermore, the blockchain that underpins it allows for transparent communication while prioritizing privacy through cryptographic encryption.
Censorship is also nearly impossible since smart contracts conduct online procedures without human intervention based on predetermined triggers and circumstances. In addition, the method provides maximum fairness.
Web3: Data storage and privacy are not frills
Users can reclaim their privacy and ability to save data when dApps replace centralized websites. In theory and in fact, Web3’s user-to-platform interactions are private and anonymous. All of this gives people a sense of self-sovereignty and gives them peace of mind regarding the security of their personal information.
Web3 isn’t quite here yet, but we’re getting closer to a digital future where privacy and ownership are rights, not frills. The current problem is to assure the reliability of critical infrastructure. For starters, dApps must be highly functional, capable of enrolling large numbers of users and offering services at scale.
But, owing to the industry’s numerous creative and imaginative communities, we’ll be there shortly. Web3’s societal influence empowers people on a fundamental level. We can eventually establish privacy and ownership as the norm for human-to-human and human-to-machine interactions if we secure privacy and ownership at this level. Web3 is the future that people deserve, and it is now here.