Web 3.0: Taking Back Control

Since the democratisation of the internet, we have seen rapid and fascinating growth, giving us a wide range of tools used in our day-to-day life. With such incredible improvements comes a fair share of challenges. Let's dive in!

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To be able to fully understand Web 3.0 we need to take a walk down memory lane to the early days of the internet; the era of Web 1.0

Web 1.0

Available in the early 1990s, Web 1.0 is also referred to as the "Read Only" internet. Websites could be visited, but close to no interactions were possible. The most significant revenues came from advertisements on websites.

In addition to this, web pages didn't offer any interactive features; no matter the visitor's behaviour, the website would stay identical.

Guestbooks; the old comment section. While nowadays most social and news websites allow anyone to comment, it hasn't always been the case. To save loading time on the content pages, websites would create a "guestbook" page, independent from the article, where users could share their thoughts.

Databases and scripts:
Most websites during this period didn't have a database and would store all the content in the website files. Drastically increasing the loading time for each new file they added.

Scripts running on a web server weren't a thing either, so actions like filling in forms were just a trigger to open a new e-mail with the receiver already filled in.

The transition to Web 2.0 wasn't an overnight phenomenon but rather slow and steady. The main changes, that allowed the upgrade, were due to the increased performance of servers and the connection speed.

Web 2.0

It became well established around 2004/2005; Web 2.0 is what we use today on most corners of the internet.

The main change from Web 1.0 was the possibility to publish user-generated content, allowing visitors to create content and share their views and experiences on anything.

The user experience also became a priority when developing websites, creating interactive and personalised content.

The use of APIs (application programming interfaces) also improved interoperability between websites and services.

Social Media platforms are a great example when it comes to a typical Web 2.0 website; they allow you to share your content, tailor-make your newsfeed and send messages directly from the page.

While Web 2.0 has made our life's a lot easier, we've also discovered the risks of sharing our personal data with companies. As time has shown, the purposes of those websites might have been genuine at the start. We have now been proven time after time that our data, attention span and even opinion is sold to third parties for personal gains. While your data might be of high value to them, they have no intentions to share a piece of the pie with you.

We've come to a point where we have become dependent on Big Tech companies like Google, Meta, Amazon etc... Our daily life is tracked from the moment we wake up, bringing us a step closer to a dystopia where our only purpose is to consume.

While Web 2.0 has undoubtedly improved the way we use the internet, it has also shown its weaknesses by giving too much trust and power to a handful of entities.

The follow-up questions are of course: how do we change that, and most of all, what does Web 3.0 allow us to do that we couldn't before?

Web 3.0

The milestones needed to reach Web 3.0 include but are not limited to Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Decentralised Ledger Technology. We will focus on the latter for the remainder of this article.

As mentioned earlier, Web 2.0 allowed a few corporations to rule over the internet, making the World Wide Web a very centralised space. Most websites are hosted by big entities like Amazon Web Services or Azure Cloud Hosting (Microsoft); not only creating a major shutdown of services when they have an outage but also giving them an incredible influence.

With the growing awareness about the risks of centralisation, all parties are looking for other options. This is where blockchain and cryptocurrency come into play. Using such technology allows creating P2P (Peer-to-Peer) interactions that were impossible to do in the past without trusting the other party.

As an example, Akash Network created an infrastructure allowing P2P cloud computing. This means that anyone can offer their machine as servers on the network. It allows protection from censorship as your website can be hosted by anyone and even on several servers! Our website (gaupalabs.com) is hosted on Akash.

We also mentioned earlier how our attention span is being monetised by companies through ads; without the user seeing any returns. Brave, a web browser, decided to do something about it and allows you to earn their BAT token (Basic Attention Token). Each time you see an ad, you receive fractions of the token as a reward. The token can also be used to tip creators if it's on Twitter, Twitch or Medium!

Decentralised Finance is also a fascinating part of Web 3.0. Without having to share any data you can connect your crypto wallet to exchange crypto, lend or borrow money, add liquidity and get a share of the profits.

Personal data is another vital point of Web 3.0. We have been accustomed to logging into accounts like Google, Facebook or Twitter to use their services. Most dApps (applications interacting with a blockchain) ask you to connect with your crypto wallet (Metamask, Phantom, xDefi, Maiar, you name it), to only share your public address. You could decide to use a platform where you share content like a social media platform, but where you are the keeper of your data.

You might be wondering how Gaupa Labs' project suits the Web 3.0 era; let us show you!

Gaupa Labs and Web 3.0

We are creating both a network and software tools to make the management of the Supply Chain and its transparency accessible to anyone.

On the company side, we're creating ERP and Supply Chain Management tools that are interacting directly with the blockchain. The software is designed in a fashion that users interact simply, without having to focus on transactions, private/public keys etc... This dApp has the same principles as discussed further up, giving the companies full control and ownership of their data. The benefits, compared to similar software, are not only the decentralisation of the database but also our solution being tailor-made, at a highly competitive price.

When it comes to the daily users, they will be able to track any product they buy without sharing any information, the tracking website interacts directly with the blockchain to show a clean interface with all the information needed. All transactions can also be looked into further, through the explorer. Our reward system allows you to claim GAUPA tokens, participate in the network and have your say. By only providing your wallet address, no other information is needed.

More information on the reward systems will be shared at a later date.

Our whitepaper can be read here and don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date on the latest and to secure an early spot!