What is Web3

Web3

For a fairly accurate definition of Web3 we often use Chris Dixon's take on Web3: "An internet owned by users and builders, orchestrated by tokens"

In this article we'll start to explain Web3 in the context of the web's evolution, and how DCVX might help to support it.

Web3 applications are mostly referred as Dapps or Decentralized applications and blockchain engineers use blockchain to build and deploy those applications. To achieve a stable and secure decentralized network, network participants are incentivized and compete to provide the highest quality services to anyone using the service.

A good example would be this website, DCVX website is using CMS like Webflow to run host and run it's website. If Webflow has an outage, this would affect this website, as the content is stored in a centralized manner in one of the big cloud providers. In a distributed fashion for example, DCVX' website would be hosted and served from multiple locations operated by different entities, which would guarantee that the website has almost zero chance to go down.

Benefits of Web3:

• Permission to use any service is not required
• No one can block you or deny access to a service
• Native tokens are used as a business model
• Services are hosted in a distributed and robust manner
• Trustless - participants are allowed to interact publicly or privately without a trusted third party

Very practical example of how to participate in Web3

You would need:

• Metamask wallet
• Ether(Native currency of the Ethereum blockchain)
• Uniswap

Let's say you are like me and you would like to understand Web3 from a practical perspective. This example would show you the above mentioned benefits of Web3.

Metamask is a Web3 wallet and you can add as an extension to your browser or download as application for Android/iOS. Let's stick with the browser extension for now. Metamask does not require any form of authentication and you can easily create an address, which serves as your bank account, but unlike banks, everything happens online and without any KYC(Know your customer) procedure. You would need now Ether, which is the native currency of the Ethereum blockchain and for this you would need to go to any Web2 service to convert say USD for Ether or directly buy Ether from Metamask, but the 3rd party services you would be buying Ether are still Web2 services. If you have Ether already, you can deposit it from your wallet to Metamask's address.

Once those steps are completed we will go to another example of a Web3 service and use it to convert your Ether to say Floki Inu token. For that step you would need to visit Uniswap, which is a Decentralized Exchange or Automated Market Maker, but let's stick with Decentralized Exchange(DEX).
Uniswap being decentralized exchange can not block you or deny access to use it, all you need to do is to use or Metamask wallet to connect to Uniswap. Once connected you can exchange Ether for Uniswap, and no one can stop you from doing that as both Metamask and Uniswap are Web3 products and no intermediary sits in between. When you exchange your Ether for Floki Inu you would be required to pay gas in the form of Ether. This Ether is rewared to the network participants mentioned above, who make sure that the whole Web3(Ethereum network) runs smoothly by providing computing power.

In short, exchanging one asset for another is happening using decentralized web applications, where there is no intermediary, hence no way to stop you from using it.

The new wave of Web3 will go far beyond the initial use case of cryptocurrencies. Through the richness of interactions now possible and the global scope of counterparties available, Web3 will cryptographically connect data from individuals, corporations and machines, with efficient machine learning algorithms, leading to the rise of fundamentally new markets and associated business models.