Empower and Protect People with Web 3.0 Says Patrick Nielsen

By Chetna Phour

In a recent Web3 Summit in Berlin, more than a thousand coders gathered to discuss Web 3.0. The coders discussed the restructuring of internet infrastructures with an emphasis on decentralization.

At the Summit, an early Bitcoin developer Amir Taaki said that:

“Maybe the technological proposals that people are talking about are not very well grounded, but I do see a huge amount of young, idealistic people with a lot of capital. If we can form a vision and direct that energy, it could be an extremely powerful force.”

The concept of Web 3.0 was originated from Gavin Wood, the co-founder of Ethereum and founder of Parity Technologies. Web 2.0 is a tech base which encompasses a wide range of decentralized technologies including Ethereum. Web 3.0 is trying to replace the existing online infrastructure with decentralized software. Developers believe that with the right combination of technology and vision, Web 3.0 can usher in a new era of digital emancipation.

At the event the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Web 3.0, Patrick Nielsen said that:

“It’s different this time around, and we have a chance to use these tools in a way that empowers and protects people. But it won’t build itself, and just because the tools exist does not mean it’s going to get used.”

According to the Ethereum developer, Lane Retting the Web 3.0 community is at a crucial turning point where the community has to choose between classic rich get richer dynamics or the uncharted path of permission-less innovation. Lane believes that for the technological development the community needs careful coordination and awareness of history like the failure of recent technological movements.

Privacy was one of the critical issues which were discussed in the summit. Harry Halpin, the former chairperson of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), said that privacy protection is one of the most significant technological tasks which the Web 3.0 community is facing. Harry believes that the blockchain and peer-to-peer technologies are very hostile to privacy. The use of blockchain and peer-to-peer technologies could result in a new surveillance machine. The primary concern is technologies such as Ethereum reveal transactional data and expose subtler computational activity as it relates to smart contracts which deal with sensitive tasks such as voting, identity, location data, and social media.