Moving towards a Democratic Internet

Moving towards a Democratic Internet

The Internet is getting fast and we are getting trapped! In the modern era, if we want to understand any concept, google teaches us everything and YouTube has become our savior. But do you know, “YOUR interests are being SOLD to advertisers!!”

“Remember the last time when you were scrolling through your favorite clothes on a shopping site and as soon as you opened your socials, you saw advertisements related to the clothes.”

This is the era of advertisement. You will be attracted to the things and subconsciously your mind will start processing them, eventually leading you to buy them. According to this theory, whatever we do on the Internet is a form of data for companies that can be used to earn profits, whether it be grocery shopping, E-learning, or reading political news. Companies sell out the information for monetary purposes.

It is a proven fact that Privacy is a Myth. Your data on the internet is not secure and can be hacked easily. Let’s dive into the concept of the Web.

Antiquity of the Web:

The World Wide Web (WWW), founded in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee, a scientist working at CERN, is the largest repository of information on the Internet. Since then the web has started becoming advanced. The current phase is Web 2.0. The brief of the web is:

  1. Web 1.0:

    Web 1.0 was the first stage of the Internet from 1992-2004 when only static websites like Wikipedia were present. Users were the consumers only as they could read the content but cannot write anything. Therefore, there was no way to make money through it.

  2. Web 2.0:

    Gradually, when people started using the Internet, it increased its engagement, and now users can create content, shop for anything, listen to music, etc through the web.

  3. Web 3.0:

    Web 3 is more reliable, secure, decentralized with user controls, and plays through the metaverse. It makes transactions easier and operates through blockchain.

A drawback of Web 2 is that it is a centralized network i.e., big companies like Google, and Microsoft have their servers that store our data. Here comes the privacy issue.

To enrich our experience on the Internet, companies have started collecting our data using location, etc. The agenda behind giving our data was to have a smooth experience in searching and crawling. But the companies double-played the consumers and started selling data to advertisement companies.

Decoding the solution - Web 3.0

In 2014, Gavin Wood, co-founder of Ethereum, a cryptocurrency, invented the term Web 3. It was a different experience with technology. Gavin Wood quoted Web3 is sort of an alternative vision of the web, where the services that we use are not hosted by a single service provider company, but rather they're sort of purely algorithmic things that are, in some sense, hosted by everybody. So it's like, it’s very peering to peer, right?

The projects in Web 3 use blockchain technology. Distributed ledgers, or blockchains, are shared ledgers that are maintained among peers of a computer network. Blockchains function like databases, storing information digitally in electronic form. In the world of cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, blockchains are renowned for maintaining a secure and decentralized record of transactions. With blockchain technology, a data record is guaranteed fidelity and security, and trust is generated without requiring a trusted third party.

The way data is organized in a blockchain differs from what is found in a typical database. As users input data into a blockchain they assign them to groups called blocks. Blocks store sets of information. Blockchains are chains of data that start with empty blocks and fill up with data over time, forming a chain of data as they are filled. Anyone in the world can join the blockchain.

Some features of Web 3:

  1. Since in Web 3, the user will be the owner of its information and not depend on a particular server, the server will be available 24 x 7 unlike in Web 2 where server down is the most common issue.

  2. Because blockchains are used to make websites, the content posted on them cannot be deleted.

  3. The biggest advantage to the users is their privacy being secured! You don’t have to tell your real id or share your location. Each user will have a different “Avatar” and crypto IDs which will be used as the identity.

  4. You have to pay for everything on web 3. The payment will be in their respective currencies.

For instance, if you want to use Ethereum, you have to pay fees to do transactions. These fees will be in the form of their native tokens.

But who will run this organization?

As Web 3 is decentralized and not owned by any specific company, then who is going to take charge of it? The basic motive is to make peer-to-peer technology by eliminating middleware like Facebook. And to make it open source so that everyone can contribute.

The Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO) will run this. Working with like-minded individuals around the world is much easier and safer with DAOs.The network is organized around members who are collectively owned and managed by the organization. They have built-in treasuries that no one has the authority to access without the approval of the group. To ensure everyone has a voice, proposals, and voting are used to make decisions. DAO's code incorporates the rules for spending into its structure, so everything is open.

One of the examples of Web 3 is NFTs( non-fungible tokens). NFTs are your digital asset. It is a file that has been signed using non-fungible data to create a unique signature. There are many different formats in which digital media can be used, including image files, music, tweets, web pages, physical items, and various other formats. NFTs are brought using cryptocurrency.

Indians Contributing to Web 3:

Indians are growing with technology. India has always been a great achiever be it in sending spaceships into space or acknowledging the latest technology. Some Indian startups who have been working on Web 3 are:

Polygon

Polygon has had a wild 2021. It is debatably India's largest cryptocurrency and blockchain project yet. Sandeep Nailwal, Jayti Kanani, and Anurag Arjun, three businessmen from India, founded Polygon, which is based on the Ethereum blockchain but has worked to address a number of its core problems. The polygon platform improves the project’s flexibility, scalability, and sovereignty.

Biconomy

Biconomy provides a cross-chain transaction protocol and was founded by Aniket Jindal, Ahmed Al-Balaghi, and Sachin Tomar. Its ultimate objective is to provide services with an easily implementable API (application programming interface) that will enable the integration of a decentralized payment gateway. The latter runs across various blockchains. In plainer terms, Biconomy seeks to open up blockchain-based payments to the general public. Developers can use Biconomy as a platform to improve the transactional usability of their Web 3 projects.

Challenges with Web 3:

While everything in this world exists with pros and cons, there are certain obstacles to go through with Web 3. They are:

  1. The vastness of the Internet is difficult to crack.

  2. Vagueness is the main factor because users are uncertain about the queries and can be extremely vague.

  3. Uncertainty can happen if anyone has the right to contribute.

  4. Inconsistency in data may lead to non-predictive analysis.

The future is bright with the upcoming Web 3 technology. Even The Government of Telangana has established a blockchain district in Hyderabad that unites all aspects of the blockchain technology industry. Tech firms, research institutes, universities, startups, investors, facilitators, user groups, and communities, everyone is excited and adopting this Democratic Internet with open arms.

Thank You

Have a Productive day!