basics of web 3.0
Welcome! I'm excited to explore the future of the internet with you. Before we dive into the evolution of the web, I'd love to know a bit about your background.
Are you already familiar with concepts like or blockchain, or is this your very first time encountering these ideas?
I'm a complete beginner, starting from scratch
It is completely fine to start from scratch! In fact, it is often easier to learn this way because we do not have to unlearn any confusing jargon.
To understand what Web 3.0 actually is, it helps to look at how we got here. The internet has gone through some major "phases," and looking at the first phase—Web 1.0—is the perfect place to start.
Web 1.0: The Read-Only Internet
Think of Web 1.0, which lasted roughly from the to the early 2000s, as a giant digital library.
During this era, everyday users were strictly consumers. You would dial up your internet connection, load a static page, read the information, and close the browser. There were no profile pages, no comment sections, and no social media. It was a "read-only" experience where only a few people with technical skills built websites, and everyone else just visited them.
A Web 1.0 read-only webpage on the left connected to a user by a one-way arrow, alongside a locked interactive hub on the right.
If Web 1.0 was a digital library, the next era turned the web into a massive global conversation.
Before we look at how that shift changed everything, does this static "read-only" picture of the early internet make sense to you?