Qortal, The Normal Internet, And Web3

Have you ever come across the term “Web3”, and how it is associated with a brand new internet, and stared at it in confusion, thinking the internet you were currently using to browse your favorite website was definitive, and had no room for improvement?

It’s understandable! The current internet as we know it, also called Web2, is extremely complex, grandiose and has been around since 2004.¹

Its utility and mass adoption has had a profound ripple effect across every human endeavor, from economics, to arts, to engineering and even political governance methods.

But as with every great technological leap, progress and improvement are inevitable, especially when problems with the existing solution become more and more apparent, or worse when they are taken advantage of for the benefit of the few in favour of the many.

The internet has many evolutions since its inception in 1983²

These problems, which can be summarized as a concentration of data in Big Tech companies’ servers, has led many Web3 projects to spring up since 2014, when the term was first coined by Gavin Wood of Ethereum.³

Qortal, which launched in June 2020⁴, was one of these projects, which promised a new way to transfer data, without the need for intermediaries and where users are much more empowered with how their information is used.⁵

Indeed, in Web2, a server hosted by companies like Google Cloud or Amazon Web Services houses the backend code that drives apps. This arrangement concentrates power, allowing these corporations—collectively known as Big Tech—to obstruct access to anyone, or trade users’ sensitive data for cash.⁶

MAMAA (Microsoft, Apple, Meta, Amazon and Alphabet) corporations have a vertiginous grasp of the data on the normal internet⁷

Web3 projects leverage blockchain technology to enable peer-to-peer data transfer between users, without the need for an intermediary. In other words, the need for big centralized servers to serve and deploy data on any network becomes obsolete.

Instead, in the case of Qortal for example, it utilizes a data layer known as the Qortal Data Network (QDN), to store the data being transferred between peers in the network. Instead of placing data directly on the blockchain, which can lead to bloating and decreased performance over time, QDN utilizes the blockchain merely for securing the data. The actual data is stored off-chain, and is both encrypted and divided into chunks while being relayed across peers on the network.⁸

This architectural advantage makes Qortal an attractive alternative to the existing internet, especially given its low transaction fees, and that QDN is completely encrypted and chunked, meaning that the data transmitted from node-to-node is completely encrypted, and unable to be seen at all by any third parties.⁹

There are many reasons to think Qortal is the future of the internet¹⁰

Furthermore, Qortal also boasts its own coin called “QORT” which is used as a cryptocurrency within the decentralized infrastructure. This means that any transaction fees can be used to reward the minters supporting the blockchain. Additionally, Q-App creators can crowdfund their own app ideas directly inside Qortal using an application known as Q-Fund. This is just the tip of the iceberg in regards to the capabilities of the QORT coin.

QORT being an integral part of the Qortal network cements Qortal as a serious contender to the normal internet, given that it would be decoupled from any centralized server, and now from any centralized government fiat currency as well. In other words, it has the potential to transform itself into a complete parallel economy, one far more secure and decentralized to the one found on the current internet.

If reading this article has sparked your curiosity about Qortal, and you want to learn more, the best way to get involved is to dive in directly, and install the Qortal Browser Extension on the Chrome store found here.¹¹ You can also download the open-source code on Github here¹² and load it manually on any Chromium browser of your choice.

If not, join our Discord¹³ or Telegram¹⁴ and start chatting with existing Qortal members directly. We will be glad to welcome you into the community and answer any questions you may have! Dive into a brand new internet with Qortal!

Join the Web3 project that is taking the internet by storm¹⁵

References

1. O'Reilly, T. (2005, September 30). What is Web 2.0: Design patterns and business models for the next generation of software. O'Reilly Media. https://www.oreilly.com/pub/a/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html

2. Impact Millions. (2023). Group of people in a business setting [Image]. Impact Millions. https://impactmillions.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Group-2-1170x620.webp

3. Deltec Bank & Trust. (2022, July 26). A brief history of Web 3.0. Deltec Bank & Trust. https://www.deltecbank.com/news-and-insights/a-brief-history-of-web-3-0/

4. Qortal. (n.d.). Qortal 101. Qortal Wiki. https://wiki.qortal.org/doku.php?id=qortal_101

5. McKinsey & Company. (n.d.). What is Web3? McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-is-web3

6. Prestmit. (2023, February 2). How Web3 resolves critical problems in Web2. Prestmit. https://prestmit.io/blog/how-web3-resolves-critical-problems-in-web2

7. Inside Telecom. (2023). The path of big tech and world domination [Image]. Inside Telecom. https://insidetelecom.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/the-path-of-big-tech-and-world-domination-1024x597.jpg

8. Dodgers Design. (2023, August 10). Qortal vs Web3 hosting: A comparative study of decentralized web hosting platforms. Medium. https://medium.com/@dodgersdesign/qortal-vs-web3-hosting-a-comparative-study-of-decentralized-web-hosting-platforms-1131b2a36ae8

9. Qortal. (n.d.). Qortal data network (QDN). Qortal Wiki. https://wiki.qortal.org/doku.php?id=qortal_data_network_qdn

10. Ferrari, J. (2024). Infographic on the Reasons Why Qortal is the Future of the Internet [Image created using Canva]. Canva.

11. https://bit.ly/qortal-chrome-extension

12. https://github.com/Qortal/chrome-extension

13. https://discord.gg/tDkjMDJRgu

14. https://t.me/qortal_official

15. Ferrari, J. (2024). Image on QORT Taking the Internet By Storm [Image created using Canva]. Canva.