Even if most people don’t realize it, the internet evolves and changes like any other technology. For example, there is a serious difference between online casino CA sites ten years ago and those today: online gaming can now use impressive technologies such as VR and AR. This applies to any service or product offered online: we can now do more than we were able to do ten years ago, and in another decade, we will be using a very different internet than we do today. The technology that will make this possible is called Web 3.0, and in this article, we talk about what to expect from it. First, let’s briefly explain what Web 3.0 is.
What is Web 3.0?
Web 3.0 is the name of a new generation of Internet technology that is largely based on machine learning and artificial intelligence. In the early 1990s, websites could only display HTML text, and it was not considered possible to do anything else (for example, play videos). Today, we call this Web 1.0. At the end of the 90s, websites gained their current capabilities, meaning they can now run even complex applications. We call this Web 2.0, and this “version” is still in use. Web 3.0, on the other hand, aims to create a highly autonomous internet by adding technologies such as blockchain, virtual reality, IoT, and P2P.
Consider, for example, websites hosted on blockchains rather than on physical servers: they would not need data centers to operate and would not be censored. We can be more secure and more private as blockchains will encrypt all data transfers. We will not have a problem such as websites becoming unusable due to a technical malfunction or maintenance of the servers. Web 3.0 offers all this and more. So, what are the most impressive projects built on this technology?
Helium
This project describes itself as a “people-powered network”. It aims to create a worldwide network and use its own low-power devices for this. In other words, everyone can access the internet for free without using cables or infrastructures of governments, and while doing this, you earn crypto coins. To explain it simply:
- You are purchasing one of the wireless connection devices supported by the project. You can think of them as cheap and tiny antennas, but you can even carry them in your pocket.
- As long as you use these antennas in your business or home, you get access to the Helium blockchain as a miner, and you can earn the project’s own cryptocurrency called HNT.
- Other people can go online using the network of these antennas and gain access to all applications (including websites) on the Helium blockchain.
The project has already created more than 400,000 hotspots in North America and is available in more than 1,000 cities.
Arweave
If you use Dropbox, G-Drive, and similar sites to store files, you know that none of them make a “forever” guarantee. Arweave also works as a file storage service, but unlike the others, it is committed to storing all your files forever. What makes this possible is the “permaweb” technology.
The person who wants to store files on Arweave needs to buy the token of this blockchain once. After that, the files are shared between users who are connected to the Arweave blockchain and have enough space on their hard drives. In other words, instead of a single central server, the data is stored by thousands of users. These users can earn crypto tokens in return for the service they provide.
Polkadot
Web 3.0 technologies are quite impressive, but there is a downside: each of these projects uses its own private blockchain. So, for example, if someone who already uses the Ethereum blockchain wants to take advantage of the Arweave storage service, he/she must start using this project’s blockchain too. In the long run, this can become a serious problem, as you will need to join a different blockchain for each Web 3.0 service you want to use.
Polkadot is a project developed to solve this problem. Its purpose is to enable different blockchains to communicate with each other. It may not seem very impressive at first glance, but we can say that it is perhaps the most important Web 3.0 project. Because it eliminates the problem of using different blockchains that we mentioned above. Polkadot, for example, enables users of the Helium blockchain to transact on the Arweave blockchain without having to do anything.
Theta
Don’t forget the name because it has the potential to be the YouTube of Web 3.0. It is no different from any video site in terms of operation and use. In other words, it really works like YouTube. However, it has no central server, and all videos are stored on the blockchain. When a user wants to watch a video, the blockchain automatically connects it to the nearest peer and ensures high image quality even at low connection speeds. And since it works on the blockchain, there is no censorship of any kind. One of the managers of the project is Steve Chen – he was a co-founder of YouTube.