Spinning the next generation of the web

The digital realm is in a profound state of evolution that is both overhyped and underappreciated. Web 3 – the third evolution of the web – is in progress. Advocates promise a more democratized approach to this next generation of the web, but its evolution is more organic and less standards based. This leaves many people asking the question, “What is Web 3”? There isn’t a definitive answer, but one will evolve over time based on underlying technologies that enhance Web 2.

Blockchain capabilities will improve security and authentication of digital assets promising individual ownership of one’s identity, information and assets leading the way to cryptocurrency, decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Improvements in 3D graphics and bandwidth speeds will yield more immersive virtual environments. Combined with advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual/augmented/mixed reality capabilities, the foundation for the metaverse will be laid.

Web 3 will be full of value from an amalgam of technologies, including machine learning, IoT, data analytics, and more. Delivering these to the end-user in a way that is effortless, easy and optimally efficient is the driving force behind leading innovations in this space. Leading into the future of new online structures and experiences won’t be easy, but purposeful, passionate, mission-driven leaders are already achieving it every day.

As the interplay between humans and technology develops, the prevalence of Artificial Intelligence (AI), intuitive interfaces, and predictive capabilities also grow. This asynchronous development has the net impact of making life easier, businesses more profitable, and infrastructure more enduring. All told, this provides an exciting iteration on what it means to live, operate, and excel not just as individuals or businesses but as the human race: an endless horizon of technological innovation.

Web 3 will also connect more digital devices than just PCs and smart phones, including vehicles, home appliances, climate control systems, personal fitness devices, building access systems and just everything with a digital sensor. Emerging semantic web technologies will provide meaning to web pages via machine-interpretable metadata, changing the efficacy of information searches.

In the face of myriad privacy breaches as a result of the ownership of our data by big corporations, Web 3 – otherwise known as a decentralised internet based on true peer-to-peer interaction – represents a beacon of hope to enable individuals to take back control from the current generation of internet behemoths.

Personal data is being mined on an industrial scale and extracted to create profiles that commoditize us as consumers. The leading social media platforms and search engines that take ownership of our data to assemble digital profiles know our wants and needs better than we do. While each piece of data may seem innocuous enough, these data chunks create a blueprint to be targeted by algorithms that pitch products and services based upon our unique preferences.

Web 3 technologies can enable people to freely exchange personal data while evading the hidden data servers of powerful intermediaries. The stratospheric rise of Bitcoin and Ethereum into the mass consciousness demonstrates the latent power within these technologies. Cryptocurrency has evolved independently of the central banks and large institutions at the centre of financial markets.

Thousands of our best and brightest engineers and researchers are hard at work building an Internet that is resilient to the threat of major corporations’ abusing their power by means of the huge rafts of data currently held under their possession. This technology will create important backstops that will empower consumers to share data freely without having to compromise their own data privacy.

How we govern these protocols is a major issue we are working to tackle as a community, and it will take a lot of iterations to find a system that works. Consumer adoption will likely also take time – we are at a very early stage in the development of this technology and end-user-facing products are far from ready – we are still building the infrastructure those applications will be built on.

Still, those pursuing Web 3 foresee a technology that has the potential to lead to an almost hard-coded regulation, where a system can only behave in certain ways, according to the rules of the system encoded in the blockchain. We are moving from “don’t be evil” to “can’t be evil,” which is the way the Internet should be.

Glow’s role

Web 3 requires a solid 5G foundation and this is where Glow comes into play. Web 3 uses advanced connectivity technologies like 5G and Glow helps in its implementation. 5G networks pave the way for superior collaboration opportunities in the virtual realm and Glow plays a crucial role. It helps process increased volumes of data in real time with improved mobility, guaranteeing a high-quality 3D experience.