Welcome to The Obol Odyssey!

The Obol Odyssey is an educational blog series that will guide you through the world of Web 3!

The Odyssey is the grand journey. This is the complete journey of knowledge that you will take to understand the major components of Web 3, why it is the future of the Internet, and why Obol will play a critical role in securing this future.

So let's start with defining Web 3 itself.

What is Web 3?

The Internet has gone through several major revolutions to become what it is today. In order to define Web 3, we must first take a step back and attempt to define the previous iterations of the Internet. ?

Web 1.0, or "The Static Web", was a read-only environment and was mainly focused on information exchange. A minority of users were creating static content for the majority audience. It was focused on knowledge sharing with a limited means of actual engagement with content. Web 1.0 was significant because it helped people to more effectively find information in one place while also laying out the experimental foundation on which future iterations of the Internet were built. Examples of Web 1 included: Britannica Encyclopedia, AOL (America Online), and Netscape.

(Time period: early 1990s to early 2000s.)

Web 2.0 is the Interactive Web, or the user-focused Web. It is the environment that enabled a wider range of participation from the masses of users. This included creation of dynamic, collaborative content, engagement between users, and a strong focus on a smoother user experience. Web 2 is the Internet as most know it today, and is defined by social media, social networking, search engines, mass participation, e-commerce, open-source software, digital marketing, user-focused applications, blogs, forums, and video/written content creation. Examples of Web 2 include: Youtube, Twitter (X), Instagram, Facebook, Google-based applications (Google Docs, Gmail), current iteration of Amazon, Wikipedia, Tik Tok, Medium, Substack, Zoom, and Wordpress.

(Time period: early 2000s to now.)

Web 3.0 was a term coined by Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood to describe the next iteration of the Internet: a decentralised online environment built on blockchain technology. Although Web 2 was a much needed revolution in the user experience of the Internet, it was still built on centralised platforms managed by big tech organisations. In Web 3, applications are now built on decentralised platforms, where it is no longer necessary to have a centralised authority individually manage the platform, thanks to blockchain technology. If used correctly: blockchain, or the distributed database technology, is sufficient to maintain a secure and decentralised system! Examples of components of Web 3 include: Blockchain, Digital Assets, Ethereum , Bitcoin, AI, Non Fungible Tokens, the Metaverse, and Autonomous Smart Contracts.

Web 3 is more than just the building of the new Internet on blockchain technology. It has also been called the "Semantic Web", meaning that it is an Internet that is not only understood by humans, but by machines as well. This alludes to the incorporation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into Web 3. Machines will be able to understand and process Web 3 data.

We are now at a critical point in history. Why? Because Web 3 represents a true paradigm shift of the Internet in several major ways. The foundational and revolutionary pillars of Web 3 include ownership of digital assets, decentralisation, trustlessness and transparency.

Ownership

Web 3 users are able to own their information, digital assets and rights. In an open decentralised system, users are able to have a more democratised Internet experience and actually influence the major decisions of the very Web 3 ecosystems and protocols they use.

Decentralisation

Blockchain technology can ensure that there is no central point of control and enable democratisation and decentralisation of different Web 3-based systems. More on decentralisation and blockchain in future blogs.

Trustlessness

In a trustless transacations, there is no need to trust two other parties to make a transaction. The smart contract function of the blockchain ensures that a transaction will only happen under certain determined criteria, creating a true peer-to-peer network.

Transparency

Because transactions in an open distributed ledger are publicly verifiable and immutable, this creates a transparent environment.

Overall, all these qualities of Web 3 enables decentralisation and individual digital ownership, which truly brings the power back to the user in this next iteration of the Internet.

Coming Soon

This is a just the tip of the iceberg in regards to understanding Web 3. In future blog posts, we will diver deeper into the importance and components of Web 3, how blockchain works, and of course how Obol is playing a critical role in maintaining the neutrality and trustlessness of Web 3 infrastructure. Stay tuned!