🍪 W46 - 💻 What is web 3.0?
What is all the buzz about Web 3.0?, The backbone of the success of Netflix & We need to get rid of cars completely
Hi,
and welcome to the 15th edition of your favourite Wednesday bite, with again some bite-sized knowledge to make you popular at dinner conversations and bar chats.
In this edition:
What is all the buzz about Web 3.0?
The backbone of the success of Netflix
We need to get rid of cars completely
And some additional 🍞 Crumbs & 🧠 Brain game
Happy reading.
Regards,
Steven
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① 💻 What is all the buzz about Web 3.0?
While browsing online, you might have run into the term “Web 3.0”, referring to a third generation of the internet. But what is Web3 exactly?
In the 1990s and early 2000s, you had Web 1.0, no Big Tech companies so a more decentralized set-up with a focus on open-source protocols. Mostly the websites were static, you consumed content but did not interact with it. See it as read-only.
From the early 2000s to today, you have Web 2.0 where things got more centralized but also owned by Big Tech companies, where you would interact with their product. So we go to read and write. But important to know, you don’t own what you create as everything goes through those Big Tech companies. In many cases, they own the rights to what you create and can block or stop you when necessary.
Web 3.0 refers to a potential new iteration of the internet that runs on public blockchains (the technology behind Bitcoin etc), where you would not rely on Google, Apple, or Facebook anymore, but you yourself would own and control pieces of the internet.
See also:
Web 3.0 does not require “permission,” meaning that central authorities don’t dictate who uses what services. It would also protect user privacy better as well because it’s these authorities and intermediaries that are doing most of the data collection.
Why the hype around Web 3.0 now?
Much of the excitement seems to be coming from the cryptocurrency community, where we would benefit from an internet that’s more reliant on their technology.
But large companies and venture capital firms are already investing huge sums to build Web 3.0, where one element is already gaining a lot of traction: decentralized finance (DeFi) which involves transactions on the blockchain without assistance from banks or the government.
NFTs are also another cornerstone of Web 3.0, to provide proof of ownership of virtual objects like artwork, collectables and in-game objects (skins,…). And while it may look like a gimmick, more and more NFT’s are being sold, with one recently for $3.4 million.
See also:
Will Web 3.0 become reality?
With more and more companies jumping on Web 3.0 and even Mark Zuckerberg saying how the metaverse won’t “be created by one company” and will establish “a massively larger creative economy than the one constrained by today’s platforms and their policies”, all signs point to it.
However, how the actual execution will be is to be seen.
I can also recommend listening to the Tim Ferris podcast with Chris Dixon and Naval Ravikant — The Wonders of Web3, How to Pick the Right Hill to Climb, Finding the Right Amount of Crypto Regulation, Friends with Benefits, and the Untapped Potential of NFTs.
Source: Slate - 5 min read
② 📽️ The backbone of the success of Netflix
You might have watched Netflix’s Squid Game, alongside hundreds of thousands of households worldwide, not knowing the great power behind Netflix ensuring your binging went smoothly.
Often streaming platforms experience issues, like freezes, controls that don’t work, or the service that crashes entirely.
Disney Plus crashed its very first day because its software couldn’t handle the demand and HBO Max is so fundamentally broken that its own leadership has admitted that the app is a mess.
But not Netflix.
Netflix has spent the last 10 years building out an expansive server network called Open Connect in order to avoid many modern streaming headaches.
“We knew that we needed to build some level of infrastructure technology that would sustain the anticipated traffic that we knew success would look like.”
Open Connect is Netflix’s in-house content distribution network specifically built to deliver its TV shows and movies. It already has 17,000 servers spread across 158 countries (but closest to its majority of users) with the vision to continuously expand.
The program involves Netflix giving internet service providers physical appliances that allow them to localize traffic and store copies of Netflix content to create less strain on networks.
In theory, Open Connect is just a content delivery network or CDN, like others exist, but it operates in a different way. For starters, while other content delivery networks manage multiple requests from many companies, Open Connect only distributes Netflix content.
Secondly, knowing how bad internet speed might be, movies and tv shows are already “saved” onto the servers, to ensure quick and easy access when needed. It even goes so far that they ship three copies of each of its titles to its servers with different quality, but also do this based on popularity.
All of this, ensuring all users have the best viewing experience wherever they are.
And besides its infrastructure, Netflix is constantly looking into improvements, like video and audio encoding initiatives or just plain UI, to remain best in class.
Source: The Verge - 8 min read
③ 🚗 We need to get rid of cars completely
More than 15% of greenhouse gas emissions in the US comes from passenger vehicles. Electric vehicles are one piece of a strategy to cut emissions, but they tend to receive far more attention than proposals to cut car use.
Just replacing every personal vehicle with a battery-powered equivalent will produce an environmental disaster of its own.
The biggest concern is the minerals that are required to make the batteries that power electric vehicles and the mining that has to happen to extract them. Achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 will require six times more minerals by mid-century than is necessary today. And these minerals need to be mined.
Mines harm the surrounding environment, use excess amounts of water, and create significant amounts of waste, but they also have consequences for workers and nearby communities.
Electric vehicles are better for the climate, but particulate matter created from tire, brake, and road wear, as well as the dust kicked up by cars on the road, does create air pollution that's harmful to human health, causing an increase in premature deaths each year.
They also have a significant footprint of their own that primarily occurs in the production stage rather than during their use.
Continuing to have communities built around the assumption that everyone will drive simply isn't sustainable.
The automotive industry wants us to replace the vehicle fleet with battery-powered alternatives because they'll make a lot of money in the process, but it's not the best path for the environment, nor for our communities.
Therefore a network of mayors and the International Transport Workers' Federation released a report arguing that public transit use needs to double by 2030 in order to meet emissions targets.
Making transit available within a 10-minute walk of people's homes would not only encourage its use and create tens of millions of jobs but could begin to transform our relationship to mobility.
We should seize this opportunity to challenge the past century of auto-oriented planning and emphasize walking, cycling, and transit use over driving.
Source: Business insider - 4 min read
🍞 Crumbs
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The top 25% most active Twitter users produce 97% of all tweets
18 of the funniest photos from the 2021 Comedy Wildlife Awards
💤 How daylight saving time affects our bodies and minds
Sleep scientist Matt Walker shares the surprising consequences of daylight saving time, and what they can teach us about improving our sleep health in this 1m30s video.
🧠 Brain game
Do you know which country and also, which regions consume the most alcohol per capita?
Country: Cook islands
Regions: Central Europa and South Pacific
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