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Web 1.0 was all about sharing information amongst the people and so it had open protocols which were decentralized and governed by the community. It lacked the interactivity which we witness now through social media. In short web 1.0 was a digital library with tons of information without any interaction.
As more and more people started adopting the internet it was time for the web to become more interactive and let the user create their own digital identity which could then interact with more such digital identities. Hence, web 2.0 emerged which lets users interact with the websites through their digital identity (social accounts).
Now the question arises why do we need to evolve to the next version of the web when this one is already a massive success?
For an accurate answer, we first need to understand the lifecycle of the centralized platforms. All centralized platforms follow a predictable life cycle.
At first, they do everything they can to recruit users and third-party complements like creators, developers, and businesses. They do this to strengthen their network effect. As platforms move up the adoption of S-curve, their power over users and third parties steadily grows.
When they hit the top of the S-curve, their relationships with network participants change from positive-sum to zero-sum. To continue growing requires extracting data from users and competing with (former) partners.
Famous examples of this are Microsoft vs. Netscape, Google vs. Yelp, Facebook vs. Zynga, Twitter vs. its third-party clients, and Epic vs. Apple.
Therefore, the need for a new decentralized version of the web has emerged which is called web 3.0. The core idea of this revolution is to combine the decentralized aspect of web 1.0 (where the community is in-charge) along with the interactive aspect of web 2.0 but unlike the current internet where one can only be a part of the web by creating a social account, in web 3.0 users can own the portion of internet wherein they can purchase some Tokens for which all the token holders work together towards a common goal the growth of the network and the appreciation of the Token.
This fixes the core problem of centralized networks, where the value is accumulated by one company, and the company ends up fighting its own users and partners. Before web3, users and builders had to choose between the limited functionality of web1 or the corporate, centralized model of web2. Web3 offers a new way that combines the best aspects of the previous eras. It’s very early in this movement and a great time to get involved.