What is Web 3.0 or the Metaverse? Sure, you’ve probably already heard that Facebook changed it’s name to “Meta”, but what does that really mean?
In order to understand this concept, let’s take a quick look at the history of the internet or the world wide web! The nascent days of the internet were basically from the early 90’s until the early 2000’s, as we watched the start of email (my first email account was dan@aol.com !!) and the creation of the first web sites. These sites were basicly static pages which contained information, but not yet e-commerce capabilities. This is referred to now as Web 1.0.
As the internet developed, along with bandwidth access speeds, applications, and services, we watched the evolution and migration towards Web 2.0. In fact, we are still in the Web 2.0 stage today! This included a new world of user-created content (social media) and blogs, as well as the idea of the Web as a platform.
While some industry titans like Elon Musk believe Web 3.0 is simply a buzzword, most of the crypto/defi/blockchain world is ready to prove him wrong! So What is Web 3.0? It is the next iteration of the world wide web which utilizes the underlying technology of the blockchain to provide users with a truly decentralized access to technology vs the centralized (stored and controlled) system in Web 2.0.
To take an excerpt from a recent Forbes article…”Web 3.0’s decentralized blockchain protocol will enable individuals to connect to an internet where they can own and be properly compensated for their time and data, eclipsing an exploitative and unjust web, where giant, centralized repositories are the only ones that own and profit from it.”
How does this definition compare to the Metaverse? Well, the metaverse is an extension of Web 3.0 creating a virtual world, or worlds, where the users can participate in the virtual world through the use of virtual and augmented reality headsets. While most of you think this means gaming or shopping, it’s so much more.
Let’s look at what happened during the Covid pandemic. Many people in the world learned that they could continue productive employment from the comforts of home. Zoom became an verb just like the word Google where daily lives transformed from the office to the couch, kitchen table, or backyard! Now imagine several years in the future where instead of commuting for an hour to the office, you simply slip on your headset, fire up your computer, and walk into the office (virtually!) to participate in your first meeting of the day with your other colleagues whom are already in the room! You take turns providing updates on recent product changes and sales, and then the Manager shows a five minute presentation about upcoming new product launches and sales objectives. Anything you can imagine in the course of your daily life can be transformed to the Metaverse world of the Web 3.0!
Does that apply to manufacturing, the service industry (restaurants and bars, etc.)? Of course not! But is has been estimated that the inclusion of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the development of Web 3.0 will have a dramatic increase in the efficiency of Web 3.0 rollout compared to Web 2.0 (we are about 20 years into Web 2.0). So, if Moore’s Law** is accurate ((**Moore’s Law states (in layman’s terms) that the computing power of chips and processors will increase very couple of years, and we will pay less for them)) is it reasonable to expect a functional transition to Web 3.0 in 10 years?
Bringing artificial intelligence and natural language processing together with Web 3.0, businesses of all sizes across the globe can use this powerful combination to give their customers faster and more relevant results. Stay tuned if you want to learn more about AI!