Lately, there have been many news stories on how the web is evolving into something new. A lot of this news cycle is about Meta, but that’s just one vision of how we can interact with each other online. The paradigm shift that’s coming is irrelevant to the display, which is great for advertising but is no more than a glitzy distraction.
Instead, the most powerful change is decentralisation. This is the idea that your data can be spread on everybody’s computers instead of hoarded inside corporate headquarters (don’t look at us!–Ed). In the mind of the pioneers, users will have full control and everything will be equal. You can think of the third web as a mash-up of regular web pages, peer-to-peer networks and blockchain technologies.
To grasp the power of these technologies, it’s crucial to understand a few key concepts: the basics of blockchains; cryptography on a user level; and how you’re part of the redistribution of all the data involved.
Initially, you’ll get the feeling that all of this will be great and that the “hippie generation” has caught up with modern computing. But as we’ll soon discover, not everything is rosy. People will still need to be vigilant for fairness and to avoid corporate rot. We’ll explain how to take a cautious approach to this
