FOR some experts, Web 3.0 is just a buzzword to get people talking. For others, it's a revolution already underway. But what does this term really mean, and will it really revolutionise the internet?

Whether it's a mere buzzword or a real revolution, Web 3.0 seems to be a term that's on everyone's lips. With the web celebrating its 33rd anniversary, the internet has become essential for many of our day-to-day activities. So much so that it's hard to believe that we could ever really disconnect. And even more so when tech giants are gathering more information and data every day to make us stay online and consume more. So is an update really in order? There's every indication that real change is coming with blockchain technology and decentralized solutions. Simply put, power would not be held by a single entity, but by a set of unbreakable nodes to obtain 100% verifiable information.

The term web 3.0 can be traced back to 2006, where it is vaguely defined in a New York Times blog post. More recently, Gavin Wood, co-founder of Ethereum and creator of Polkadot published a blog post titled "What Web 3.0 Looks Like." Gavin Wood's vision qualifies Web 3.0 as "post-Snowden," where we must no longer entrust all of this information and data to centralized solutions (in this case, the big tech or so-called GAFA companies). We should instead protect ourselves from overly greedy corporations or even from various governments ready to act in the shadows to recover information.

"Even pre-Snowden, we had realized that entrusting our information to arbitrary entities on the internet was fraught with danger. However, post-Snowden the argument plainly falls in the hand of those who believe that large organizations and governments routinely attempt to stretch and overstep their authority," explains Gavin Wood in his blog post.

Generating wealth

In other words, Web 3.0 could be seen as the answer to abuses of power in our current digital world. The decentralization of information and data is at the heart of this new vision of the internet. While the web was sometimes seen as a "Far West" where (almost) everything was allowed under the cover of a pseudonym or a company, things could well change. Thanks to the blockchain, we could see the dawn of a web with more trust, and thus more value. And painting a picture of this new version of the web would inevitably involve cryptocurrencies, NFTs, the Internet of Things, virtual reality and the cloud.

Cryptocurrencies and NFTs would allow users to generate value easily. Tokens of a work or a currency could be exchanged in exchange for a service in the system or a job.

Web 3.0 would offer a more user-centric environment and the digital giants would lose their dominance. Data monetization would no longer be able to be exploited in the same way, and for many, this would mean a major loss of revenue. Still, the metaverse could offer a significant new avenue of opportunity for large tech companies such as Meta, since the two worlds would complement each other to create a quality digital universe.