Not Web3, Not Web2, but Web2.5 is the Next Face of the Internet!
A brief design of new age Internet apps.
On the one hand, we have the traditional applications, which have surged in popularity and gotten their business right down to bone through their 20+ years of experience. On the other hand, we have the Crypto-maniacs and their dApps.
1. Traditional Apps
Traditional Web2 apps serve us well, but they have a lot of drawbacks that are unsolvable in their ecosystems. Web3 provides a solution to these drawbacks.
One such Drawback is a uniform payment system. A traditional app is limited to a few payment providers like PayPal and Stripe. Though exceptional in their task, these services cannot provide an extremely dynamic payment model, where transactions can occur swiftly for the most minor actions.
Moreover, the application is bound to the customers in countries where this external service provides its services—missing out on a massive chunk of humanity due to mere bureaucracy and slow rollout from an external service.
There are so many such Drawbacks—data privacy, Service protection, Hegemony of the platform providers, etc.
No one can stop google from stopping operations, just tomorrow!
Knowing these crucial pitfalls, the internet was forced into using Web2 due to reliability and fast central growth. Decentralized-Crypto protocols had been proposed well in the '90s, but never saw them implemented mainstream. But Web3 today is nowhere near the reliability, efficiency, and presence of Web2 applications.
2. Web3 dApps
In the mind of a crypto-maniac, Every part of an application system should be a decentralized component for it even to be classified as a dApp. In principle, it is the purest way of implementing an idea, but not yet a reality.
“Web3 is the only way we can make the internet totally free and inclusive”
Web3 implementation can give founders a lot of autonomy, as there is less reliance on external company-based services and more open protocol-based services.
Web3 also allows much higher levels of dexterity when it comes to pay-in and pay-outs, thus transforming the internet's economic model. Making it universally accessible and not bound to just adverts and subscriptions.
A fully decentral system, would have virtually 0 downtime. And any attack that happens could take down only a part of the system.
With the massive scalability issues and a total lack of development aid and infrastructure, it is going nowhere! A simple app's core functionality still cannot be implemented in a fully decentralized manner (without having to resort to an entirely ad-hoc architecture.)
Introducing a Web2.5
The only middle-ground possible today
Combining these two ideas and creating a sort of stepping stone before the internet goes all decentralized is necessary. We can create wonders by applying the high efficiency of a traditional backend with the supreme onboarding protocol of a decentralized currency. Though this does not deter all problems associated with Web2, it is a significant start.
Adding an ERC-20 token or any fungible asset to your application can provide a full payment dynamic to your website. Subscriptions, Tips, and Incentive pay-outs all can be handled through your own token which gives the Founders immense control over the monetary services of the app.
Founders can now look to raise capital through ICOs, thus having a wider investor crowd than opting for tough, single-minded VCs.
With NFT's(ERC 721), more products and options can be monetized and improve consumer-creator relations right there on the platform.
A traditional database can handle the complex linking of accounts and data flow. This gives the founders ample leeway to make their product as feature-intensive as possible.
Final Words
We are not there yet with full Decentralized internet. But we can aspire to build a stepping stone to that end goal. Let us move certain core functionality of our apps to decentral protocols and enjoy its freedom.
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