Web3 is a collective term for the next evolution of the digital economy, which incorporates many of the emerging technologies we are working with today. This should not be confused with Web 3.0 or the Semantic Web. Web 3.0 is an extension of the World Wide Web through standards set by the World Wide Web Consortium, to make internet data machine-readable.
Web3 is expected to be organised as a series of interconnected networks — answering to no centralised authority — underpinned by blockchain technology. This enables the provision of decentralised finance or DeFi, where trust resides in the technology underpinning the networks and not with a central regulatory authority. This also includes smart contracts, which are established in code on a blockchain that cannot be altered, as well as digital assets and tokens such as cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, central bank digital currencies and non-fungible tokens.
