What is Web3 and what is its role in NFTs?

Web3 (or Web 3.0) will revolutionize the way we use the internet by incorporating decentralization via blockchain technology. Some believe it will change the internet the way bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptos have changed the economic paradigm. To understand Web3, it is helpful to understand Web1 and Web2:

Web1 (or Web 1.0) is what we now call the early days of the internet. Web1 allowed you to consume internet content but little else. Internet sites were static and non-interactive; you can only send simple one-way messages or emails. Companies started building their own websites, but largely as a glorified press release; it was not a way to interact with the audience.

In this way, you can compare Web1 with a physical newspaper. Composed of paper and ink, you are just a consumer of content. There’s no way to openly see how popular an article is or who’s reading it – and you can’t interact with other readers.

Web2 (or Web 2.0) is what most people only think of as today’s internet. Web2 is interactive and allows you to create your own content, comment and react to content, and interact with other users. This enabled the creation of social media networks and other interactive websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, etc. Using our previous comparison, you could think of Web2 as our newspaper migrating to a website that allows you to interact in ways that were previously not possible.

Web3 is a response to concerns about the use of personal data and privacy on the internet. In Web2, user data is largely controlled by major social media platforms, browsers and websites. Web3, conversely, is designed to be a more transparent and censorship-resistant version of the Internet. It is more democratic than its Web2 predecessor and gives people control over both Internet architecture and user data.

By using blockchain-based protocols in conjunction with AI,

Beyond that, Web3 embraces the crypto ethos and is designed to be permissionless (no centralized gatekeepers), trustless (no need to trust a third party) and open to all (little to no censorship of individuals/ideas).

NFTs and Web3

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have many blockchain properties that make them useful and integrable with Web3. As unique blockchain tokens, NFTs allow you to openly provide proof of ownership for things like digital art, music, data, in-game assets, personal records, and more.

Some social media platforms now have NFT verification systems that allow you to use a crypto wallet to prove NFT ownership – and use it as your profile picture (PFP). Beyond that, NFTer allows you to control your digital identity and can also give you membership and voting rights. For example, a voting NFT may allow you to vote on where charitable funds are directed, how a blockchain works, or even change the characteristics of an NFT platform itself (such as which artists are featured and what fees are charged).

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When you register or sell a Web2 address such as “examplezyx.com”, you typically pay a third party to provide these services. Web2 uses a centralized database called Domain Name Service (DNS). Decentralized Web3 domain options such as Crypto Name Service (CNS) and Ethereum Name Service (ENS) allow you to connect your domain to a crypto wallet to accept cryptocurrency. You can even trade your Web3 domain on an NFT marketplace – much like any other NFT.

The ever-deepening interweaving of NFTs and Web3 expands what is possible on the Internet through the promise of decentralization. NFT and crypto usage on the internet will likely become ubiquitous to take advantage of the aforementioned opportunities – and the yet-to-be-developed solutions that will make the Web2-to-Web3 transition even more dramatic than the Web1-to-Web2 migration.