Web 3.0: The Future Architecture of the Internet?

Abstract

Pursuant to two broad “iterations” of the world wide web, the first relegating the user to a rudimentary read-only role, and the second to that of a content-creator bound by an architecture of oligopolistic entities, a third iteration (Web 3.0) is posited as one wherein the user is incarnated as the ultimate arbiter and primary agent of value creation and exchange. To attain such decentralized ownership for a new internet architecture, Web 3.0’s proponents argue for a blockchain-oriented structuring of the internet, with the onus of participation and possession relegated to the user at the centre. The aim of this paper, then, is to gauge the merits of such a decentralized manifestation of the internet as Web 3.0 using social, economic, and cultural lenses.

Keywords: Web 3.0, Web3, blockchain, cryptocurrency, NFT, non-fungible token, defi, finance, crypto