All disruptive innovations that have the potential of widespread adoption on a worldwide scale have one thing in common: innovation. The evolution of the internet exemplifies the interplay between such ingenuity and a steadfast commitment to an unimaginable future. We must first know the context of the internet and web, as well as its gradual shift toward a future built on authenticity, trust-free services, and decentralized protocols, in order to truly define the technology of the future and prepare companies, applications, and organizations to initiate broadening what is known as Web3.
Background:
People referred to the internet as an “abstract” idea with limited use by government agencies and colleges, allowing several computers to interact with one another on a single network. It wasn’t until the early 1980s that communication protocols (TCP) and standardized systems (DNS) emerged, laying the groundwork for the internet we know today.
Internet adoption became easier ever since the introduction of transfer protocols (HTTP) that power the world wide web — an innovation ascribed to a group of scientists, engineers, and programmers devoted to providing users with a “information superhighway.”
In its early version, the web-enabled public usage of data access was driven by the internet. Web1, often known as the read-only web, is distinguished by clickable hyperlinks that connect material and information with minimal input. Web1.0-powered technologies such as Google and Yahoo continue to offer essential use cases for the internet as it exists now.
While Web2 has definitely offered significant benefits to consumers, rent-seeking centralised companies have taken advantage of this dissemination of information to commercialize user data and activities. A breakdown of trust expectations, user exploitation, and data-locking have necessitated the creation of a web that is really owned by both builders and users.
The road ahead:
Web3 attempts to achieve what the internet has so far failed to do: promote open services driven by decentralized protocols rather than centralized apps controlled by IT behemoths. Web3 may be seen as the “read/write/own” form of the internet, in which users can link programmes and material directly without relying on central middlemen. Web3-based open services encourage permissionless entrance, maximize value, and ensure verifiability. These services are significantly more dependable, equitable, and ethical.
Users engage in the governance and management of the protocols directly, instead of using tech platforms in return for subscription charges and personal data. Participants are actual network stakeholders, not merely customers or goods manipulated by economic pressures.
Decentralized Autonomous organizations (DAOs):
Many prominent tech and payment titans are migrating to a variety of Web3 applications. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are at the vanguard of this acceptance, and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) will drive the next wave of user adoption in Web3, communal ownership, and accessibility.
DAOs, in general, are organizations governed by a group of individuals that construct their own governance and make choices that are carried out via smart contracts on the blockchain. DAOs eliminate the need for any central body or single point of control, with the primary intention of bringing collaboration between people with shared interests and goals.
In addition, DAOs can be used to facilitate communal ownership in the context of NFTs. Built-in treasuries are only accessible with the agreement of members, and choices are made by group votes over specific time periods. Because NFT costs have skyrocketed, many collections have become relatively unavailable to individual consumers. DAOs like PleasrDAO allow users to share the cost and ownership of individual NFTs, leveling the playing field and strengthening the decentralized ethos of accessibility and inclusivity.
DAOs provide a governance structure for Web3 that improves participation and lowers the danger of corruption or censorship, ranging from social media DAOs like Friends with Benefits to governance DAOs inside the play-to-earn gaming arena. DAOs will continue to prosper as their popularity spreads to charitable organizations, decentralized finance, and NFT collecting. Furthermore, rather than being bogged down by hierarchical structures, DAOs allow choices to be taken in an instant once consensus is obtained by all participating members.
