A brief history of the 3 phases of the Web (and why they matter)

There’s a saying in the NFT space – WAGMI – which stands for We’re All Gonna Make It. First, go hydrate, stretch and then let’s delve into this new and mysterious-for-most world together.

Let’s start with Web3 – but it will require a DeLorean and a flux capacitor so we can go back in time to Web 1.0. This is when Al Gore “invented” the internet and it was fresh and new. At that time, the Web represented the democratization of information. As in, “I have information, now it’s on the Web and you have the information.” If Web1 could be succinctly defined, it would be with the word READ.

If we used our time turners to reset to the early 2000s, we’ll find that the Web evolved. Web 2.0 gave us community, connections, and turned the internet into a two-way street. It featured the rise of social media, and the ability to use APIs to connect different pieces of software. If Web 1.0 was READ, then Web 2.0 was READ AND WRITE.

Now we can jump into our Dr. Who TARDIS and head to the present, where Web 3.0 is all anyone can talk about. The proponents of Web 3.0 believe that Web 2.0 presented some challenges, especially with data ownership. In Web 2.0, Facebook owns your data. Twitter owns your data. You don’t own any of your data.