Will Web3 replace web2?
Buzz or real?
Imagine you read a blog post around 1998 or 2001 where some dude says that web2 will replace web1.
How would you have reacted to the post? 🤔
What is web2?
But why web2 and not web1?
Well, web1 was the first iteration of the web.
Some call them static web pages. This is because you can only receive information the site administrator publishes. And this information was similar for every user.
So you can say it was “Read” only web.
Humans are evolutionary beings. Our nature is to adapt and evolve.
Around 2004, web developers started including Shockwave Flash and Javascript into their websites to give room for interaction between the site user and the site.
The platform owns the data you write to on web2 services.
These platforms use the data users provide to tailor the user’s needs.
In web2, two people could view the same page and get different results from the page.
So you can say web2 was a “Read-write” web.
Web2 didn’t just happen and didn’t just replace web1 overnight.
What is web3?
Bear in mind that web3 is not a framework or owned by a particular foundation. Instead, it’s an architectural pattern coined by Polkadot founder and Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood in 2014.
Web3 is web2 without centralized megalomanic intermediaries.
Web3 is or will be a web2 with its backend hooked on a highly decentralized blockchain, ensuring; decentralization, verifiable ownership, and censorship-resistant.
Big sentence? Yes.
Web1 → Read only
Web2 → Read and Write
Web3 → Read, Write, and Own
Web1 → Information
Web2 → Information and creation
Web3 →Information, creation, and ownership (Token economy, in a decentralized fashion)
Web3 is happening but will not wholly replace web2 overnight.
For Web3 to want to replace web2, there must be some issues with web2.
Let’s look at some of the optics.
The problems of web2?
The four most prominent issues web2 faces:
1. Monopoly
2. Censorship
3. Central point of failure
4. Data breach
Let’s look at these problems individually.
1. Monopoly
8 Corporations control 82% of cloud infrastructure; they can block other platforms from using their services at will (by tweaking their terms and conditions ).
Web3 proponents want this monopoly broken up by using a decentralized infrastructure.
This is what Ethereum is building. Ethereum and other blockchain networks are immutable. Once an app or service is added to its block, it can neither be deleted nor changed.
2. Censorship
Web2 services are not censorship resistant. Freedom of speech is superficial, and you must play by the rules. You can wake up in the morning and find your Instagram account banned.
Web2 requires ‘permissioned’ access and de-platforming occurs frequently. For example, in January 2021, the former president of America, Donald Trump, was banned from Twitter.
Many people said that Twitter was suppressing the right to free speech. But twitter responded by claiming — their platform, their rule.
3. Central point of failure
On October 4, 2021, loss of IP routes to the Facebook Domain Name System (DNS) servers caused a global outage for all Facebook’s (meta’s) services.
The downtime lasted several hours, and the outage affected The Google Public DNS and several other services.
4. Data breach
Another significant problem with web2 is the issue of data breaches, data selling, and data theft.
To be fair, we willingly gave out our data…
but we didn’t ask them to sell our data.
With centralized data storage, data theft is likely and highly lucrative. And there are cases of software supply chain attacks.
According to the Cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency,
A software supply chain attack occurs when a cyber threat actor infiltrates a software vendor’s network and employs malicious code to compromise the software before the vendor sends it to their customers. The compromised software then compromises the customer’s data or system.
We have looked at some of the problems with web2. The question now is…
Can web3 solve the problems of web2?
It is Web3’s goal to return content rights to creators, decentralize monopolies, and provide secure communication via cryptographic hash functions, thereby building a new and more robust transparent digital economy.
Web3 plans to solve web2’s problems by relying on existing blockchain technologies as a backend tool.
At the moment, Web3 only solves web2 problems theoretically. This is because web3 is still in its infancy and has many inherent problems due to various architectural models used in developing blockchains.
Web3 on its own has lots of problems.
Let’s look at some of them.
Some Web3 problems
1. Scalability
2. Usability — Cost of using — Gas fee
3. Exploit consequences
4. Influx of VC funds
1. Scalability
Storing a large amount of data on the blockchain will completely take away decentralization from the blockchain.
But with a centralized server, a platform can scale as much as it wants.
For instance, building a platform like youtube on the blockchain is practically impossible.
2. Usability
To connect to web3, a user must set up a wallet. This technical process requires the user to assume full responsibility for digital avatars and assets.
Getting your grandma to migrate to “web3-Facebook” will be much more difficult. She might make a mistake and incur heavy losses.
Also, how would you explain to your non-crypto friends that before they use a web3 platform, they have to pay some fees (network fee)? 🤔🤔
Meanwhile, using Instagram doesn’t warrant them to pay a dime.
3. Exploits
The Open source nature of web3 is a double-edged sword.
First, it allows projects’ code base to be easily researched and reviewed by anyone.
Second, malicious people can take advantage of it to understudy vulnerabilities in the codebase.
97% of crypto hacks are web3 related, and over $2B has been lost just this 2022.
However, unlike web2 hacks, web3 hacks are fatal.
4. The influx of VC funds
“Concentrated insider ownership may permanently impair projects’ ability to become credibly neutral public infrastructure.” — Ryan Watkins
What the future holds for web3
The future is bright.
Currently, web3 largest apps have less than half a million daily active users.
This is tiny when compared with web2 platforms.
There will be many years or decades of massive crypto adoption and acceptance.
For now, most web2 projects will adopt some web3 ideologies, so we will experience many web2 iterations and not necessarily a jump into web3.
Conclusion
Web3 will eventually replace web2.
As monopolies get squashed and people yearn for decentralization.
Web2 will become obsolete. And the p2p economy governed by DAOs will be born.
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