Web3 what is it?

Despite its relative youth, the Web already has a rich history with several notable developments. During the 90s, Web1 was born. Made of static pages, this Web is quickly replaced by Web2, more dynamic and with user-generated content of which blogs, forums and social media are the main representatives. Today we are talking about Web3, a more decentralized and encrypted version of the Web.

Web3 and Semantic Web

Until recently, what we called Web3 was the “Semantic Web”, defined by the ” father of the Internet “, Tim Berners-Lee, like a human-to-machine Internet relying on natural language to facilitate interactions between them. However, Berners-Lee’s concepts are considered part of what we call Web3 today, but not all of it.

Web3, a decentralized Web

The majority of sites andappspopular sites we spend time on are owned by private companies subject to regional regulations (like GDPR in Europe). This mode of operation is inherent to the needs of a network infrastructure . This type of infrastructure has a cost of installation and maintenance and is subject to the laws of the country where it is located.

Today, there are other options, and in particular blockchain technology . Blockchain is a relatively new method of storing data online, which revolves around two fundamental concepts:encryption and distributed computing.

Encryption means that data stored on a blockchain can only be accessed by people who have permission, even if it is stored on acomputerowned by someone else, such as a government or a company.
Distributed computing means the file is shared among many computers orservers. If a particular copy of the file does not match all other copies, the data in that file is invalid. This adds another layer of protection, meaning that no one, other than the person who controls the data, can access or modify it without permission from the person who owns it or the entire distributed network.
Together, these concepts mean that data can be stored in such a way that it is never under the control of the person who owns it, even if it is stored on a server owned by a company or under the control of a local administration. The owner or government can never access or modify the data without encryption keys that prove ownership. Even if he shuts down or deletes his server, the data is still accessible on one of the many other computers on which it is stored.