There’s a lot of hype surrounding the idea of a decentralized version of the internet that would give more power to the average user.Here’s what it takes to make it happen
technology
January 17, 2023
Chris Malburn
On a gloomy Thursday morning in Newcastle, UK, I sat with my laptop open and played a game. But I admit, I didn’t have a great time. Aside from the occasional pixelated image of a space hero, it’s mostly a text-based, multiple-choice offering, with prompts encouraging me to imagine myself on the planet Veles and asking where I’d like to mine next. The experience isn’t enhanced by the fact that I had to spend 20 minutes linking my cryptocurrency wallet to the game to get to this point.
Why am I putting myself through this? Because, believe it or not, this game is supposed to be the future of the internet, or at least part of it.It is one of the highest-rated distributed applications in the world, and some see it as the embodiment of a shiny new phase in the online world called network 3.
While my adventures on Veles were horrific, there was a serious side to my foray into the wilds of web3. There are many voices calling for a new iteration of the internet. It’s not hard to see why: The tech giants that currently control our online world are beset by scandals, is wasting money And it seems incapable of addressing the problem of online misinformation and hate. So what is web3, how does it work, and can it really provide a better digital future?
The idea of connecting a group of computers (the Internet) dates back decades. But the World Wide Web, through those shared collections of sites that we view online…
