The term “Web 3.0” is gaining momentum in the tech community, but what exactly is it?
Here’s as simple of an explanation as I can muster. During the 90s, I experienced Web 1.0 while working for a software company, otherwise known as the “Dotcom era.” During this time, everything on the internet was all about publishing information. You visited websites to find info, period.
The Web 2.0 era gave birth to blogging platforms, social media, and e-commerce. Not only could you read information on the web, but you could author your own content through web applications and participate in interactive communities. We now are reading and writing from centralized database servers.
Bringing this whole conversation back to NFTs: Did you play (or still play) an online game during the Web 2.0 era? Maybe you purchased “coins” to use in the game or bought an entire wardrobe of shoes and designer dresses for your Sorority Life character to wear?
And then:
This brutally points out the limitations of centralized web services and games. All those in-game items you bought? You don’t actually own them, and your license to use them only exists as long as the game (on a centralized server supported by a company) exists. This particular game was operated by Disney, and it serves a lesson that even big companies may pull the rug on their customers.
Web 3.0 and NFTs provide a solution for this in the form of trustless ownership. In a nutshell, when you purchase an NFT, your ownership is recorded on a public blockchain that is not owned by any single company.
You own your NFT assets, which can mean ownership of things like a game asset, a membership in a club, digital real estate, or a piece of art. Whereas in Web 2.0, a company earned all the profits from the digital assets, in Web 3.0 you own and can profit from and resell your digital assets. Essentially, when you own an NFT, you are holding a stake in a digital club.
And if you’re reading this, you’re early to the party! New functions and abilities are continually being developed and added to the NFT universe, creating new ways to earn revenue. For example: if you own Splinterlands cards, you can rent them out to other players. There are a number of companies coding projects that will allow collecting rents and managing both virtual and physical real estate. Other apps will allow you to lock your NFTs as collateral for loans.
For a more in-depth yet easy to read explanation of Web 3.0, I recommend reading this article.
For beginners, an easy NFT entry into the performing arts,
could be accurate renditions of ones own farts.
Coding the sound is already done well,
but I assume there's still work to be done with smell.
Make a party, leave out the drink, just come on over and enjoy the stink.