– What is Web 3.0, and why is it a big deal?
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So, the big thing to understand is it’s not some update that’s gonna be released the same way you’d release an update for a video game or piece of software. The name “Web 3.0” is purely marketing. When the web first launched, it was mostly individuals creating small websites and storefronts.
Around the early 2000’s when the web became more accessible and corporations realized how much money-making potential the web had, there was a huge shift in web culture and we started to see things like targeted advertising, massive and complicated websites like Amazon, smoother interfaces, and that change was so vast that some people called it “Web 2.0”
Now, some people believe we are on the cusp of another shift in web culture as big as the last one, mainly because of two emerging technologies: cryptocurrencies and virtual reality. Both of these technologies might arguably have the potential to cause drastic changes to the web, although imo virtual reality is a much bigger contender. Imagine being a few years in the future, and when somebody says the word, “website,” you think of a 3d virtual space that you visit in your VR headset, rather than a flat interface you view on your flat screen.
I’m personally not a big fan of the terms, “Web 3.0” or “Web 2.0,” I think it’s much more accurate to describe these as different eras of the web rather than different versions. They’re all the same thing, just in different stages of development and evolution, and there is no hard line where one ends and the other begins. Just know that when someone says “Web 3.0,” they’re basically either talking about crypto, VR, or both.
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