Web 1.0
- The first iteration of the world wide web was mostly static content… Websites were like online versions of magazines, newspapers, or encyclopedias.
- Information flowed one way. You could go to a website and read, listen to, or watch content, but not interact with it more than that.
- Open source. Nobody owned the ‘www platform’. Anyone could buy a domain and host content on it. Would that content reach anyone outside that tiny sandbox? … Good luck.
- Google seized the open-source power vacuum, winning the search engine war. They connected these individual silos of information (websites) and organized them together in a meaningful, user-friendly way. Their prize was de facto ownership of a technically ‘open source’ internet.
- In 2004, we moved into the age of social media and user-generated content.
- Instead of static webpages that hold all of the information, you and your fellow users create and distribute content every time you post.
- You have the power to reach and interact with a vast network on platforms that are already built such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc..
- But you are a guest on these platforms. You own nothing and gain little to no value from your intellectual labor.
- Information flows both freely, ownership does not.
- You pay a price by giving up any rights to the EULA. Along with ‘losing’ the content of what you post, you give up much of your privacy and data behind the scenes.
- The community and networking effect of the internet will reach new heights, but power will return to open-source and decentralized software.
- Blockchain, smart contracts and tokenization allow for individual ownership, in a way that was never possible.
- You will own your online identity in a very tangible way, rather than just being a guest on several ‘free’ platforms.
- The value you create will transfer with you anywhere you go. Your contribution and reputation will be as good as real money that can be exchanged for goods, services, or ownership.
- Software code will be 100% out in the open. Anyone can look under the hood and audit what any piece of software is doing behind the scenes.
- Software and apps will all fit together like Lego blocks and be compatible with each other. You won’t have a separate Apple ecosystem, Google ecosystem, etc. Instead, you will have your own individual identity that you can take anywhere.
- Whatever the next ‘Facebook’ is, it will not be owned by a company but by the community. As a user, you will own the content you create. You will also have a stake in the decisions made as a partial owner.
- You will own digital assets you buy (art, music, video game loot, etc…), they will have real value, you'll have the rights to resell them or alter them and you’ll be able to take them with you across platforms as part of your ‘virtual identity’
- Information, ownership, and value flows freely between users, their communities, and the assets they help build through participation.
- Instead of a centralized authority making the rules, it will be a community. There are downsides of this democratization of power. Jack Dorsey can’t de-platform you, but the mob still can.
- Some of the big players (Facebook, Apple) are fighting against this. Some countries (China) are fighting against this. Decentralization makes censorship difficult. It represents a huge loss on their grip of power. However, the technology will not be stopped in the long run. The genie is already out of the bottle.
- There are a million more applications of the blockchain that aren’t covered here – cryptocurrency, DeFi, NFTs, etc.. and the implications and use-cases of these technologies are endless.
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