Web3.0 has been mentioned frequently recently and has attracted the attention of some people in the industry. In fact, web3.0, like concepts such as blockchain and DeFi, has no clear definition. These things are often born before concepts, and most capital is actively deployed. It is meaningless to really care about how to define it. Therefore, so far, many people can’t explain what web3.0 is, but this does not affect our expectations and discussions about web3.0.

At present, most people are more likely to accept that web3.0 is an open, free and equal Internet. Relatively speaking, the existing Internet is definitely not doing well in this regard, which is why people are more eager for web3.0. So what are the problems with the existing Internet?

Problems with the current Internet

In fact, the Internet has been endowed with slogans such as openness and freedom since its early days. However, due to the setting of the infrastructure, the root servers that most Internet sites currently rely on are basically located in Europe and the United States. This structure is inherently centralized, which may cause potential risks. For example, when Americans can easily cut off China's network connection with the international network through the root server settings, although the United States has not done so, it cannot guarantee that it will not do so in the future, especially when there is a trade friction between China and the United States.

Another problem with the Internet is the monopoly of large companies. In Europe and the United States, there are Google, Facebook (meta), Twitter, YouTube and Netflix, and in China, there are Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, Weibo and Youku. These Internet giants occupy most of the market share in their own segments, resulting in the second and third place, or even all the market capitalizations combined, being less than that of the first place. In this way, Internet companies can theoretically use this monopoly position to do some legal "bad things", such as using people's private information, maliciously promoting advertisements, buying and selling user data, etc.

The third is the ownership of information generated by Internet users. In the early days of the Internet, it was a content provider. People went online mainly to obtain information. After the birth of mobile Internet, the Internet became a place where people produced content, from small forums and online novels to large video bloggers, short videos, or the equipment and accounts of people playing games, etc. In theory, the ownership of these should belong to the users themselves, but as a platform, they have the authority to process user accounts and data, such as deleting your account, which infringes on people's ownership of data to a certain extent. In addition, the data protection laws of various countries have made personal data a part of national assets. Many people in China may not have this concern, but foreign countries are very concerned about this, which has led to some social conflicts.

Problems that Web3.0 solves

What Web3.0 actually solves is that people can take back the autonomous control of the Internet through various means, so as to ensure that they can truly own the value they create in the virtual world. Based on the current problems of the Internet, the solution is mainly divided into three parts.

first part

The underlying Internet service providers, such as Helium, are well-known solutions. They provide basic Internet services in the form of wireless network hotspots and provide corresponding incentives for nodes (hotspots). Some people also say that this is a foreign version of the 5G solution. Anyone can become a network node and provide services by building equipment. There are also some similar blockchain IoT solutions, which also create different ecosystems in dedicated networks.

Of course, the current basic network solutions still rely on existing Internet operators. In some countries, such equipment is still only used in large cities and may not be very profitable in remote areas. Therefore, this solution still has certain problems that need to be solved.

the second part

This is a problem that can be solved by blockchain applications that are familiar to most people. The current monopoly model of traditional Internet giants is not sustainable. In fact, it will also be subject to certain constraints at the legal level, such as the pressure of anti-monopoly. Internet giants have also gradually realized this problem and tried to make changes, but we believe that this is only to alleviate the current pressure, and it is not their true intention.

The tentacles of current Internet giants have actually penetrated into most fields. They participate in them through investment, mergers and acquisitions, etc., allowing emerging industries to serve them, become one of them, and eventually incorporate them into the ecological map. Even if this cannot be achieved, they will expand their territory by supporting competitors.

The gradual popularization of decentralized applications based on blockchain has led to the rapid development of various decentralized applications. This is another truly cooperative model. The biggest feeling people get from using decentralized applications is that it is similar to the Lego model. Multi-protocol combination or nesting dolls has become a common practice. This method benefits from the fact that each application protocol is relatively open, and there are not many restrictions on the combination of multi-protocols and ecological applications. This breaks the moat between applications, allowing the ecology to develop further and faster.

For example, the crypto exchange function of metamask wallet mainly combines multiple protocols together and provides users with the best quotes in real time, which saves users more costs. This cooperation model is not to bind users, but to make the entrance more open. At least now it is difficult to see that there are multiple shopping platforms on the same software in the traditional Internet, which is enough to illustrate the openness of web3.

Of course, this does not mean that there is no competition among decentralized applications of blockchain. In fact, competition among similar applications makes it difficult for the first place to monopolize the market. The introduction of new mechanisms will easily lead to the emergence of disruptors, which will quickly seize the market, thus maintaining a high level of vitality in the development of web3.0 applications.

the third part

Mainly for users, another major problem of Internet giants at present is that users' own data does not really belong to the users themselves. Many similar terms of service will attribute the user's data to the platform. The platform can arbitrarily ban accounts, even delete and modify user data, and use user data to do other extraordinary things, such as big data monitoring chat records. As producers of online information, users do not get any fair benefits. Although the development of Douyin and live streaming in recent years has enabled information producers to have their own traffic and monetization channels, this is still a minority and has certain risks.

Web3.0 is another way. The principle of data on-chain followed by web3.0 is to bind the data generated by users to their accounts (wallets), and all user behaviors are on-chain. In this way, even if you leave the original platform, your data can still be taken away, and it is not controlled by the platform. No one can take it away except you. Another is the protection of user privacy by web3.0, which can enable more big data applications to avoid malicious acquisition of user privacy. For example, using zero-knowledge proof, you can sell your insensitive data to corresponding data companies without exposing your private data, so as to obtain a certain amount of compensation.

The most direct feeling of Web3.0 for users is that no matter what others want to obtain from you, they must obtain your authorization before they can do so. This is written at the software level, not described by densely packed legal provisions, because most users cannot afford the time and energy to go to court, so it is more convenient to use programs to solve the problem. We will not have a case where the avatar set by this platform cannot be used on another platform. Instead, as long as I use this avatar, no matter which platform I go to, it will not affect my continued use of this avatar.

Will Web 3.0 become a reality?

Although the ideal is beautiful, the reality is also cruel. Web3.0 has depicted the initial vision of the development of the Internet. However, some people continue to pour cold water on it. For example, the richest man Musk once said that web3 is BS (bullshit). Some people also question web3.0, believing that web3.0 is a decentralized application covered with blockchain, and the ultimate bottom layer is still hype based on various tokens. In addition, the existing Internet 2.0 giants are also trying to avoid the monopoly of one dominant company and the situation of disconnection. For example, you can use WeChat account to log in to a large number of websites, which is actually a way of mutual cooperation. Of course, the operation of the giants is to increase their market share on the one hand, and to avoid being killed by the anti-monopoly stick on the other hand. Therefore, it may be difficult to say whether web3.0 will be strangled in the cradle at this time.

The author believes that the token speculation in the early days of web3.0 is a normal phenomenon. Although there is a hype bubble now, web3.0 has indeed attracted the attention of some people. The most important thing for the development of another thing is the early dividends. If there are no dividends, it will be difficult to succeed. Token speculation is actually the best way to provide dividends. It can attract both people and funds, and people and money are the key to the development of things. With the support of capital and technology, some things will definitely continue to advance and make up for the corresponding defects, thereby causing things to explode on a large scale.

Of course, we also need to be vigilant that many times ideals are very full, but reality is very skinny. In fact, the concept of web3.0 is also people’s earliest conception of the Internet. When it is actually implemented, the effect may be different from what we originally imagined, or even very different. But there is no doubt that web3.0 will definitely become a ladder to promote the continuous advancement of the subsequent Internet. Keeping up with the pace of the times and how to enjoy the dividends of the times are what ordinary people need to pay attention to.