Explained: What is Web3? What’s its connection with Crypto? Here’s all you need to know

New Delhi: A 12-year-old making $160,000 by selling an NFT collection, almost $70 million paid for a digital collage, Dapp, Defi, Metaverse and now Web 3.

These news and buzzwords have got the internet gone crazy. You also must be wondering that what this new crypto-related thing is? If you haven’t heard about Web3 then you are not alone in this.

Well, If you casually follow the Cryptocurrency ecosystem then you can understand this new jargon too.

Web3 is the ‘next-gen’ internet idea that believes that crypto isn’t just for sending money but could also be used to build a whole new web. It’s basic idea is to take the internet and add blockchain technology to everything.

However, Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey are skeptical about this idea and Web3 advocates believe that today’s online platforms are controlled and centralized by some large internet companies like Apple, Amazon, Facebook (now meta), and Alphabet.

What is Web3? 

The World Wide Web, launched by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 was the earliest interconnection of computer networks that allowed people to go online. Tim Berners-Lee would have never ever thought that it will be could Web1 in 2021.

On the other hand, Web2 refers to the version of the internet most of us know today. Web2 saw the evolution from social media to search engines to Wikipedia.

And now, Gavin Wood, the man behind Ethereum has been credited for the formation of the Web3 ecosystem. Web3 can be referred to decentralized apps that run on the blockchain as these apps allow anyone to participate without monetising their personal data.

Web 3 is largely built on three important layers of technological innovation, i.e edge computing, decentralised data networks and artificial intelligence.

How does it work?

Ethereum, a decentralised, open-source blockchain has explained Web3 as decentralised apps that run on the blockchain. These are apps that allow anyone to participate without monetising their personal data. Anyone who is on the network has permission to use the service and no one can block anyone or deny you access to the service.

You can easily do payments through native tokens ETH or other cryptocurrencies using blockchains.

What’s its connection with Crypto?

King of cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, and other coins work on a public database called blockchain which records each and every transaction. The process is completely decentralized as a ledger is maintained not by one company but by a vast network of computers all connected to the internet.

But, there is more you can do with a blockchain than just recording transactions of virtual coins. It can be used to make contracts and apps and control how software and apps work.

Web3 applications are mainly based on a technology called Ethereum and it rewards the users who help to maintain its network. Network’s coin Ether has a total market value of $511 billion.