Web 3.0

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Web 3.0 is a decentralized internet built on an open blockchain network that is not owned and controlled by large entities.

Web3 is the third generation of the internet currently being built, where websites and apps will be able to process information in a smart human-like way through technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), Big Data, decentralized ledger technology (DLT), and more.

At present, Web3 is still a rather undefined concept that could take 5-10 years to build if we look at the transition from Web2 to Web3. In fact, we might very well first see a prolonged era of Web2.5, where Web2 platforms gradually onboard useful Web3 protocols.

There is broad consensus amongst experts that blockchain-powered applications will be key to its success in order to ensure adequate decentralization, while AI and ML tools will help automate and scale it as required in order to become a semantic web.

Web3 was in fact originally called the Semantic Web by World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, and was aimed at being a more autonomous, intelligent, and open internet.

The Web3 definition can be expanded as follows: data will be interconnected in a decentralized way, which would be a huge leap forward for our current generation of the internet (Web 2.0), where data is mostly stored in centralized repositories and therefore subject to manipulation or worse.

Furthermore, users and machines will be able to interact with data. But for this to happen, programs need to understand information both conceptually and contextually. With this in mind, the two cornerstones of Web3 are semantic web and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.

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