Web 3.

0: Concept, Content and Context

Shenghui Cheng

Web 3.0: Concept, Content

and Context
Shenghui Cheng
Westlake University
Sandun, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

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Preface

The Internet is a major revolution in human communication technology and has had
a profound and constant impact on human society over the course of nearly 30 years
of development. Along with the development of information technology, the Internet
is evolving into the next generation Internet. “Web 3.0,” the “big ship”, is coming to
us at a visible speed, and it is likely to be the biggest opportunity of the times on this
planet in the next decade.
Previously, people in real estate, finance, and other traditional investment projects,
have gained a lot of returns. However, there is a certain solidification of interests and
classes, and the world of young people is facing considerable challenges. Web 3.0
opens a crack in the cramped world, from which a new world can be glimpsed. There
it is possible not to play the game with the rules set by the predecessors, but to redefine
the rules and become the new rule makers and game players. Today’s young people
are enthusiastically competing for their own voice through the new narrative of Web
3.0. Web 3.0 is inherently more relevant to the public than the Web 1.0 and Web 2.0
revolutions; Web 3.0 proponents see it as a golden mountain floating in the void but
within reach, touting this round of technological innovation as “the biggest driver of
the future global economy”; Web 3.0 opponents see it as Web 3.0 opponents see it
as a shaky tower, arguing that it is the fastest-generating, largest bubble in history.
The purpose of this book is threefold: first, to introduce Web 3.0 knowledge
systematically and comprehensively from a holistic perspective, so that readers can
establish an initial impression and conceptual framework of Web 3.0; second, to
analyze the inevitability, development necessity, and future possibilities of Web 3.0
from a developmental perspective, and to look forward to the great changes that Web
3.0 will bring; third, to explore Web 3.0 from a comparative analysis perspective
Web 3.0 and the relationship between the meta-universe, and how individuals and
organizations can seize Web 3.0 in the current of the times, so as to write the gorgeous
chapter.
This book first introduces the concept and characteristics of Web 3.0, as well
as the infrastructure, development facilities, and scenario applications of Web 3.0,
and discusses the relationship between Web 3.0 and the metaverse. The book then

v
vi Preface

introduces the basic and extended technology stacks of Web 3.0, which are an indis-
pensable part of Web 3.0. Immediately following, for the ecological construction of
Web 3.0, the book introduces decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO), open
finance (DeFi), cryptocurrencies, token economy and digital markets, digital identity
(DID), creator economy, attention economy, and cyber-physical and human systems
(CPHS). Together, they will contribute to the realization of a “decentralized” Internet
running on top of “blockchain” technology.
The book then introduces industry applications of Web 3.0 (i.e., DApps) and the
relationship between Web 3.0 and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platforms. DApps
are discussed in the context of social networking, data storage, and digital banking,
while SaaS platforms are discussed in the context of NFT, DeFi, and distributed
storage. For Web 3.0 organizational governance issues, this book details the Internet
protocol, digital identity management, network checks and balances, and on-chain
management combined with off-chain management. The book then introduces the
security challenges, development challenges, and legal and regulatory challenges
that Web 3.0 will face, and concludes with a summary and outlook on Web 3.0,
expecting new industry models and business opportunities to emerge in the new
Internet environment.

Hangzhou, China Shenghui Cheng

Contents

1 Big Change: Web 3.0 Era . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.1 Web 3.0 Opens New Era . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1.1 What is Web 3.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1.2 The 3 Characteristics of Web 3.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.2 History of Web 3.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.2.1 Web 1.0 and Static Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.2.2 Web 2.0 and Platform Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.2.3 New World of Web 3.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.3 Infrastructure for Web 3.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
1.3.1 Blockchain: Underlying Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
1.3.2 Smart Contracts: Summary and Guarantee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
1.3.3 DAO: Organizational Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
1.3.4 Token: Equity Vehicle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
1.4 Multi-application of Web 3.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
1.5 Web 3.0 for the Metaverse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2 The Underlying Technology Stack of Web 3.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.1 Machine Learning: A Fundamental Technology for Web 3.0 . . . . . . 31
2.1.1 Robotic Process Automation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2.1.2 Artificial Intelligence Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2.1.3 Differences and Links Between RPA and AI
Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2.2 Edge Computing: A Distributed Architecture for Web 3.0 . . . . . . . . 36
2.2.1 What Is Cloud Computing? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
2.2.2 From Cloud Computing to Edge Computing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
2.2.3 Edge Computing Under Web 3.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
2.3 Distributed Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
2.3.1 The Concept of P2P . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
2.3.2 Development of the Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
2.3.3 Distributed Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

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2.4 Application Programming Interface: The Basis

for Collaboration in Web 3.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
2.4.1 What is API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
2.4.2 API Across the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
2.4.3 API in the Context of Web 3.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
2.5 3D Rendering Technology: The Web 3.0 Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
2.5.1 Modeling and Rendering in Computer Graphics . . . . . . . . . . 49
2.5.2 Visualization of Data Presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
2.5.3 AI and 3D Reconstruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
3 The Extended Technology Stack of Web 3.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.1 Blockchain Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.1.1 Bitcoin, Ethereum to Blockchain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.1.2 Blockchain Explained . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
3.1.3 Bitcoin and Ethereum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
3.2 Smart Contract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
3.2.1 Smart Contracts: Contract Codification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
3.2.2 Three Main Application Scenarios for Smart Contracts . . . . 67
3.3 Cryptocurrencies and Non-Fungible Tokens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
3.3.1 Cryptocurrencies: Secure Network Tokens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
3.3.2 Is a Non-Fungible Token a “Currency”? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
3.4 Protocol Stack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
3.4.1 What is the Protocol Stack? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
3.4.2 Conception and Construction of the Protocol Stack . . . . . . . 75
3.5 Privacy Computing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
3.5.1 Privacy Computing: Data Sharing After Encryption . . . . . . . 77
3.5.2 Three Main Directions for Privacy Computing . . . . . . . . . . . 79
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
4 Ecological Construction of Web 3.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
4.1 Decentralized Autonomous Organisations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
4.1.1 The DAO Wave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
4.1.2 DAO Rules and Comparisons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
4.1.3 The Three Functions of DAO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
4.2 Decentralized Finance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
4.2.1 From Bitcoin to Decentralized Finance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
4.2.2 What is Decentralized Finance? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
4.2.3 Features of Decentralized Finance and Seven
Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
4.3 A New Economic System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
4.3.1 Cryptocurrency: Removing Third Parties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
4.3.2 Token Economy: A Symbol of Value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
4.3.3 Digital Markets: The Extension of Trading Boundaries . . . . 96
Contents ix

4.4 Distributed Digital Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

4.4.1 Digital Identity: A New Business Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
4.4.2 Digital Identity and Authentication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
4.5 The Creator Economy and the Attention Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
4.5.1 One Hundred Years Ago to the Present . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
4.5.2 The Pattern of the Creator Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
4.5.3 The Attention Economy: A Way to Manage
Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
4.5.4 From the Attention Economy to the Creator Economy . . . . . 103
4.6 Industry in the Web 3.0 Eco-CPHS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
4.6.1 Concept and Background of CPHS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
4.6.2 The Architecture of CPHS and Two Applications . . . . . . . . . 106
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
5 Applications of Web 3.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
5.1 Decentralized Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
5.1.1 DApp Classification and Contracts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
5.1.2 Here’s What you Need to Know About DApps . . . . . . . . . . . 111
5.2 Social Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
5.2.1 Social Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
5.2.2 The Future of Social Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
5.2.3 Social Networks DApp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
5.3 Data Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
5.3.1 Evolution of Data Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
5.3.2 How to Choose A Web 3.0 Storage Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
5.3.3 The Case for DApp in Data Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
5.4 Digital Banking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
5.4.1 Digital Banking: The Automation of Traditional
Banking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
5.4.2 The Market for Digital Banking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
5.4.3 Digital Banking DApp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
5.5 Streaming Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
5.5.1 Blockchain Streaming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
5.5.2 Ethereum and DApp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
5.5.3 Streaming DApp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
5.6 Chain Tour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
5.6.1 Chain Tours and Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
5.6.2 Five Challenges for the GameFi Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
5.6.3 Policy Compliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
5.7 Telecommuting and Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
5.7.1 The Addition of Decentralized Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
5.7.2 Telecommuting DApp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
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5.8 Web 3.0 Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

5.8.1 Web 3.0 Browsers: Interaction Medium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
5.8.2 Inventory of Different Web 3.0 Browsers and Their
Characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
5.8.3 Osiris Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
5.8.4 Opera Web3 Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
5.8.5 Puma Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
5.8.6 Opera Encrypted Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
5.9 Digital Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
5.9.1 Patient Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
5.9.2 Drug Control and Surgery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
5.9.3 Patient Medical Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
5.9.4 Medical Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
5.9.5 Healthcare DApps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
6 Web 3.0 and SaaS Platform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
6.1 What is SaaS Platform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
6.1.1 SaaS Software Versus Traditional Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
6.1.2 Horizontal SaaS Versus Vertical SaaS—How
to Choose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
6.2 Classification and Application of SaaS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
6.2.1 Maturity Model for SaaS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
6.2.2 The “Four Brothers” of SaaS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
6.2.3 The Four Main Applications of SaaS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
6.3 SaaS Services in Web 3.0 Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
6.3.1 SaaS Helps Build Web 3.0 Communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
6.3.2 Web 3.0 Fuels the Growth of SaaS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
6.4 SaaS in the Web 3.0 Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
6.4.1 SaaS and NFT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
6.4.2 SaaS and Cryptocurrencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
6.4.3 SaaS and DeFi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
6.4.4 SaaS and Distributed Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
7 Code of Conduct for Web 3.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
7.1 Changes in the Code of Conduct for Network Information
Interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
7.1.1 Web 3.0 and Web 2.0 Network Protocol Similarities
and Difference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
7.1.2 Three Important Applications of Internet Protocol . . . . . . . . 167
7.1.3 Web 3.0 Information Interaction Prospect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
7.2 Authentication Code of Conduct Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
7.2.1 DID Changes the Authentication Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
7.2.2 DID is a Long Way to Go . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Contents xi

7.3 Up-Chain and Down-Chain Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

7.3.1 The Controversy Between On-Chain and Off-Chain
Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
7.3.2 Comparison of Up-Chain Versus Down-Chain
Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
7.3.3 Difficulties in Chain Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
8 Application Challenges of Web 3.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
8.1 Is Data Secure in the Web 3.0 Era? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
8.1.1 Problems with Data Credibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
8.1.2 Problems of Data Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
8.1.3 The Problem of User Privacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
8.2 Are we Ready to Enter the Web 3.0 Era? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
8.2.1 The Challenge of Talent Pooling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
8.2.2 Limitations of Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
8.3 Legal Regulation Ready for Web 3.0? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
8.3.1 Legal and Regulatory Significance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
8.3.2 Legal and Regulatory Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
8.3.3 Legal and Regulatory Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
9 Future of Web 3.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
9.1 Industrial Innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
9.1.1 Semantic Web Helps Human-Computer Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . 195
9.1.2 IoT Toward the Internet of Everything . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
9.2 Business Shift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
9.2.1 Web 3.0 Leads the Business Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
9.2.2 Web 3.0 Enhances User Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
9.2.3 Web 3.0 Helps Enterprise Brand Building . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
9.3 Digital Immortality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
9.3.1 From Death to Immortality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
9.3.2 The Portal to Digital Immortality: Brain-Computer
Interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
9.3.3 Advancement of Digital Immortality: Consciousness
Upload . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
9.3.4 Digital Immortality in the Present: Eclecticism . . . . . . . . . . . 211
9.3.5 The Future of Digital Immortality: Beyond Death . . . . . . . . . 212
9.4 Opportunity and Prospect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
9.4.1 The Hot Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
9.4.2 Layout of the Enterprise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
9.4.3 Future Trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
About the Author

Dr. Shenghui Cheng is a Westlake fellow and the director of the Intelligent Visu-
alization Lab, Westlake University, China. He obtained a Ph.D. in computer science
from the State University of New York at Stony Brook (Stony Brook University)
and conducted research at Brookhaven National Laboratory and Harvard Medical
School, US. He also served as a consultant for the World Bank, a mentor of the
Stanford Artificial Intelligence Global Executive Leadership Program, the executive
chairman of the CSIG-VIS Big Data Summit Forum, and the program committee
member of the IEEE VIS, IEEE Pacific Vis, and Chinavis, etc.

xiii
Acronyms

API Application Programming Interface

BAAS Brands as a Service
BCI Brain Computer Interface
BTC Bitcoin
CPHS Cyber-Physical Human Systems
CRPA Cognitive Robotic Process Automation
DAO Decentralized Autonomous Organization
DApp Decentralized Application
DeFi Decentralized Finance
DHT Distributed Hash Table
DID Decentralized Identity
DLT Distributed Ledger Technology
DNS Domain Name System
DPKI Distributed Public Key Infrastructure
ETH Ethereum
FL Federated Learning
FTP File Transfer Protocol
GameFi Gaming and Decentralized Finance
HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol
IAs Intelligent Agents
IP Internet Protocol
IPFS Interplanetary File System
NFT Non-Fungible Token
NLP Natural Language Processing
RDF Resource Description Framework
RPA Robotic Process Automation
SaaS Software as a Service
SBT Soul Bound
SSII Self-Sovereign Identity
SW Semantic Web
TCP Transmission Control Protocol

xv
xvi Acronyms

TEE Trusted Execution Environment

WBE Whole Brain Emulation
SC Smart Contract
List of Figures

Fig. 1.1 Web 3.0 related concept word cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Fig. 1.2 Labels given to Web 3.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Fig. 1.3 Various ways to enable user autonomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Fig. 1.4 Technologies needed to build a secure and trusted internet
of value and the problems it solves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Fig. 1.5 Comparison of the size of the digital economy for
Web 1.0, Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 (Source Folius venture) . . . . . . . . 8
Fig. 1.6 Internet iterative evolutionary trajectory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Fig. 1.7 The 3 main features of Web 3.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Fig. 1.8 History of the world wide web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Fig. 1.9 Web 1.0 Era . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Fig. 1.10 Web 2.0 Era . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Fig. 1.11 Web 3.0 Era . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Fig. 1.12 Comparison of Web 1.0, Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Fig. 1.13 Examples of decentralization from high to low: public
chains, federated chains and private chains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Fig. 1.14 Traditional organizational structure and decentralized
autonomous organization (DAO) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Fig. 1.15 Classification and application of asset-based tokens . . . . . . . . . . 22
Fig. 1.16 2022 Web 3.0 functional category companies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Fig. 1.17 2022 Web 3.0 finance category companies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Fig. 1.18 Technologies of Web 3.0 versus metaverse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Fig. 1.19 The relationship between Web 3.0 and metaverse . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Fig. 2.1 Six levels of web 3.0 technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Fig. 2.2 The RPA implementation process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Fig. 2.3 Semantic recognition for cognitive robot process
automation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Fig. 2.4 Cloud computing features and types of providers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Fig. 2.5 Cloud and edge computing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Fig. 2.6 Hierarchical model database and mesh model database . . . . . . . . 42
Fig. 2.7 Query principles for distributed databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

xvii
xviii List of Figures

Fig. 2.8 The workflow of API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Fig. 2.9 Common APIs and their features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Fig. 2.10 Several common 3D rendering techniques and their
applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Fig. 2.11 Visualizing a corner of the virginia campus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Fig. 3.1 Changing in focus of blockchain applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Fig. 3.2 Schematic representation of the data structure
of the blockchain (shown here for Bitcoin) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Fig. 3.3 Bitcoin versus ethereum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Fig. 3.4 Application scenarios for smart contracts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Fig. 3.5 Comparison of cryptocurrencies and non-Fungible tokens . . . . . 70
Fig. 3.6 Comparison of NFT, cryptocurrencies and central bank
digital currencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Fig. 3.7 Protocol stack example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Fig. 3.8 Examples of privacy computing application areas . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Fig. 4.1 DAO versus traditional companies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Fig. 4.2 Comparison of DAO organisation and traditional
organisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Fig. 4.3 The five functions of DAO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Fig. 4.4 Traditional finance versus decentralized finance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Fig. 4.5 Characteristics of decentralized finance, centralized
finance and traditional finance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Fig. 4.6 Seven applications of decentralized finance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Fig. 4.7 Advantages and disadvantages of cryptocurrencies . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Fig. 4.8 Token incentives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Fig. 4.9 The process of digital identity authentication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Fig. 4.10 The evolution of the economic model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Fig. 4.11 Attention economy keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Fig. 4.12 Some issues of web 2.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Fig. 4.13 System-level CPHS applications and smart industry . . . . . . . . . . 107
Fig. 5.1 Application categories for DApps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Fig. 5.2 Small world phenomenon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Fig. 5.3 Storage network configuration parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Fig. 5.4 Key functions and features of digital banking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Fig. 5.5 Trends in streaming media platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Fig. 5.6 Challenges for the GameFi industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Fig. 5.7 The direction of change brought about by decentralized
technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Fig. 5.8 Web 3.0 browsers and their features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Fig. 5.9 Overview of digital health development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Fig. 6.1 SaaS service model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Fig. 6.2 Advantages and disadvantages of SaaS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Fig. 6.3 Cloud computing service model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Fig. 6.4 The process of NFT transaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
List of Figures xix

Fig. 6.5 NFTSaaS platform support system (With digital collections

as an example) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Fig. 7.1 Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 network protocol differences show . . . . . . 166
Fig. 7.2 DID generation diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Fig. 7.3 Off-chain management of fiat currencies versus on-chain
management of virtual currencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Fig. 8.1 Data security-related issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Fig. 8.2 Data sharing on web operation platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Fig. 8.3 Some of the Blockchain education in China’s universities . . . . . . 185
Fig. 8.4 Technical challenges summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Fig. 8.5 Various laws and regulations related to NFT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Fig. 9.1 Web 3.0 business model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Fig. 9.2 Web 3.0 user experience upgrade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
Fig. 9.3 Percentage of consumers who have experienced web
3.0-related activities in the past year (Source Kantar survey) . . . 213
Fig. 9.4 The concept of web 3.0 will radiate and apply to more areas . . . 215