[New Wave] Can the Web 3.0 Era Come?

[Asia Economy] Web 3.0 is a hot topic. The web is an abbreviation for the World Wide Web (WWW), and the period from the emergence of the web until 2004 is called the Web 1.0 era, while the period from then until now is called the Web 2.0 era. Web 3.0 commonly refers to the integration of concepts such as ‘AI,’ ‘decentralization,’ and ‘ownership’ into Web 2.0.

The web was developed by Tim Berners-Lee, a researcher at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). In 1989, he introduced the concept of the WWW that he had envisioned and created the first web page.

CERN was a joint research institute established in 1953 by 20 European countries to catch up with the United States in science and technology after World War II. As such, CERN was always bustling with thousands of scientists from dozens of countries, who used all kinds of computers to produce vast amounts of research results.

The problem, however, was that the programs and data formats used were all different, making it very difficult to share information. To quickly and easily collect and share research information scattered across continents, Tim Berners-Lee started the WWW project.

The early WWW was passive, with users receiving information unilaterally. Internet users mainly used the internet to search for and read materials such as news or papers stored on servers, which is called the Web 1.0 era.

Web 2.0 refers to a user-participation, sharing, and open internet environment that allows anyone to easily produce data and actively share it online, giving rise to services such as blogs, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube. However, these services also led to the emergence of giant platform companies, which in turn resulted in the negative effects of monopolies and oligopolies.

Web 3.0 emerged from this awareness of problems, aiming to make the internet more open and decentralized. Originally, Web 3.0 meant the ‘Semantic Web,’ first proposed by WWW’s creator Tim Berners-Lee in 1998. Discussions on Web 3.0 later expanded from the Semantic Web to the ‘decentralized web.’

When existing Web 2.0 is combined with blockchain, smart contracts can transform the operation of applications based on centralized servers into decentralized forms, and IPFS (Inter-Planetary File System) enables the operation of data storage devices in a distributed manner rather than centralized.

Additionally, decentralized name resolution services such as Namecoin or ENS (Ethereum Name Service) can be used to locate documents or files, and the driving force that allows these decentralized services to operate voluntarily without central management institutions is provided by cryptocurrencies. Moreover, NFTs clearly define ownership of data produced and shared on the internet, further promoting active user participation and enabling the distribution of internet ownership.

Of course, there are negative views that Web 3.0 is merely a marketing slogan and that achieving perfect AI integration and decentralization is practically difficult. However, the current state of the internet, monopolized by a few giant companies, must change, and it is clear that blockchain is at the center of the innovation that makes this possible.

Seungjoo Kim, Professor, Department of Cyber Defense, Korea University