The web has the potential to evolve into a new era beyond our current understanding. The first era of the internet (Web1) was simple. We shared documents using HTML in a read only format. In essence the original internet was uni-directional. Today we are immersed in a by-directional internet (Web2) where we don't only read content online we write it.
Whole businesses are built around the Web2 internet and produce data on a massive scale that is hard to comprehend. We have so much data in fact, that it has become cumbersome to the point where people have trouble understanding what is true and what is false and the grey area in between.
Anyone can post on this massive database of information and they are not held accountable to what they post. This has resulted in a growth of false information that everyday citizens need to sift through in order to find legitimate sources. Unfortunately, most people know how to look for legitimate sources of information or don't have the time to. This can be easily manipulated by large organizations to spread false information to skew voting polls etc.
Over the last several years, there has been a new technology that has emerged called blockchain that is leading the push to a new era of the internet named Web3. This revolution in technology is aiming to create decentralized internet quite different from our current centralized internet. It a shift in mindset toward how information is collected, stored and shared.
Most people when they hear blockchain they think Bitcoin or cryptocurrency. Bitcoin being one of these cryptocurrencies. In fact Bitcoin was the first successful implementation of a cryptocurrency. However, cryptocurrency is not the only way blockchain can be used.
Blockchain is more than simply a currency it is a collection of tools for distributing information and value. It does this by creating a tamper proof distributed ledger of information across the globe. This is achieved through storing information on multiple computers with specialized software that arrive at a consensus. These computers are run by individual volunteers and large server farms. Those who run these computers are rewarded through the process of validating transactions. In the case of cryptocurrencies these transactions are the movement of funds between accounts also known as wallets. One of the biggest misconceptions of blockchain is it is only applicable to cryptocurrency.
Blockchain has unlimited potential in the era of information. A practical use case would be to store the citizen votes during a election. Each citizen would have the ability to vote from their phone which would send a transaction to the network of computers. Each vote would pass through this distributed blockchain system and would be stored permanently. Each vote would be time-stamped. On election day, all votes would be aggregated. This would make an election completely auditable and would eliminate any attempt at tempering. This is because each computer in the network would need to individually hacked at the same time which is basically impossible. If anything a blockchain voting system is multiple order of magnitudes more secure then our current voting system. Of course there are many issues that need to be addressed before such a system could be implemented, especially around regulation.
If you would like to learn more about this technology, I encourage you to take a look at my projects page. I have created a voting system that uses blockchain technology. If you'd like to learn more about how blockchain works, I highly recommend reading Blockchain Revolution.