The Era of User Dominance: Web3

The internet is a global communication network. Through increasingly advanced computers, we can participate in this network, access data created on the network, generate new data, and transfer data. Data communication on the internet is based on communication protocols.

These protocols standardize data transfer between computers. But why was such standardization needed?

People communicate with each other through a language. There are standards for reading and writing this language. Alphabets, pronunciation rules, spelling rules, and punctuation rules of languages are protocols in themselves. Over time, within a community speaking the same language, an agreement is reached spontaneously, and eventually, it becomes standardized. In our country, the institution concerned with the standards of Turkish is the Turkish Language Institution.

There are also organizations that determine the rules of the Web. The concept of the World Wide Web, and also the first website in the world, is depicted in the image above. Tim Berners-Lee created the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), which he named, and HTML has become the foundation of the World Wide Web, which is an important part of our lives today. The standards of the Web are still determined by the WORLD WIDE WEB CONSORTIUM (W3C), chaired by Tim Berners-Lee. We can say that HTML is the working standard protocol for web services on the internet.

TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is the most commonly used communication protocol. TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) ensures that data is divided into packets before transmission and that these packets are reassembled correctly at the destination. IP (Internet Protocol) is a control protocol that ensures the routing of transmitted packets to the desired network address.

In light of the information we have discussed so far, if we briefly summarize the development of the internet: Web and internet are different concepts from each other. The Web is a service that operates on and provides services over the internet. Of course, the connection that enables the use of the network that surrounds the world is the internet.

Before the Web, it was possible to send emails. However, the development of the Web into the World Wide Web, becoming a network that encompasses the whole world, became possible with the emergence of the HTML markup language. Hypertext documents were created using the HTML language. Each of these documents is called a web page. Initially, these web pages, containing very simple texts and images, evolved into their current form with the development of programming languages and computer hardware. Now let's briefly try to understand the evolution of the Web.

WHAT IS WEB 1.0?

Web 1.0 can be described as the first phase of the World Wide Web. It generally covers the period from the late 1990s to the early 2000s. Web 1.0 refers to a period when the internet was primarily used as a source of information. During this period, websites were mostly static and non-interactive. Users mainly visited websites to obtain information, but these sites generally did not have the ability to interact with visitors or collect feedback.

WHAT IS WEB 2.0?

Web 2.0 defines a period when the internet began to offer a more interactive, participatory, and sharing-based experience. The nature of participation, how participating users can create new data, and how the created data will be used are determined by the companies that own the platforms. Of course, these companies must operate in accordance with the legislation of the country where the company was established, and then according to the standards determined within the company. This situation has centralized the management of the Web and data. For example, how would it be if users could decide how the YouTube web page would look when they entered YouTube? Or if all users could participate in the decisions made about the company and everyone could vote when decisions were made, how would it be? Yes, it could be nice, but how could this be possible? Blockchain technology enables this. Blockchain networks (like Ethereum) make it possible to create and run smart contracts on them. Although this technology, which has just begun to be used in daily life, evolves into what, we observe it with interest.

WHAT IS WEB3? IS IT WEB 3.0?

Web3 is a new concept where the idea of a protocol that decentralizes the control of digitized data, removing its dominance from a central authority and instead securing the management authority of the data in a distributed manner (with the approval of 51% of the network) is applied to the Web world.

While most of the discussions revolving around the third generation of the Web imply that web3 and web 3.0 are the same, they are fundamentally different. Web3 is a blockchain-based version of the Web, whereas Web 3.0 emphasizes Tim Berners-Lee's concept of connected or "semantic web."

The concept of the Semantic Web first appeared in May 2001 in an article published in the Scientific American magazine, with the joint signature of Tim Berners-Lee, James Hendler, and Ora Lassila. Although the Semantic Web does not constitute artificial intelligence itself, it includes the use of artificial intelligence technologies. This technology produces smart data that machines can understand. In the concept of the Semantic Web, there is a technology capable of solving a well-defined problem by performing well-defined operations on well-defined data. The Semantic Web is fundamentally a combination of many technologies, philosophies, and principles.

Can we say that blockchain technology, known with Bitcoin, is a revolution for the web? Has the Semantic Web revolution, i.e., the era of Web 3.0, come? Blockchain technology is a technology that securely records, manages, modifies, and determines how and for what purpose data will be used in a decentralized manner. If we consider that the data to be verified and stored is a protocol, then achieving common consensus on this protocol, making changes to the protocol items, adding new rules, or removing some rules from the protocol will be done democratically by everyone participating in the network in a reliable, transparent, and immutable manner. In other words, blockchain technology enables preparation of a protocol, the establishment of an organization that is in line with that protocol, and the management of that organization in a decentralized manner through common consensus. (We mentioned the YouTube example earlier because we will touch on this issue)

In our opinion, a revolution has begun in the way the Web operates with blockchain technology. And along with this, developments within the Semantic Web concept, which includes technologies such as artificial intelligence, continue to occur. Therefore, we prefer to call the revolution brought by blockchain technology not Web 3.0 but Web3.

If we were to answer the question in the title: We explained the difference between the Internet and the Web above. We used the concept of the Internet in the title to emphasize the difference between these two concepts even more. Therefore, we can say: Web3 (not the Internet) is changing the way the Web operates, and even the way organizations operate in real life.

Some Concepts Introduced with Web3 to Our World:

Blockchain Technology: Web3 generally involves the use of blockchain or distributed ledger technology. Blockchain is a decentralized and secure way for a computer network to record and verify transactions.

Cryptocurrencies: Web3 systems often use cryptocurrencies as a means of value transfer and as an incentive mechanism for network participants. Bitcoin and Ethereum are among the cryptocurrencies associated with Web3.

Smart Contracts: Smart contracts are protocols where contract terms are directly written in code, and how the organization will make decisions autonomously is determined. Smart contracts operate on blockchain platforms and automatically.