DEV Community: Get Into Web3

Blockchain made simple

PranavUpadhyay7 — Wed, 09 Feb 2022 13:48:38 +0000

In simple terms, a blockchain is just a database. They are databases in which information can only be added, which means you can't delete or edit it once it's been added. This property is referred to as append-only.

Each new entry (also known as a block) is cryptographically connected to the previous one. We can also say that a new block must have the previous one's fingerprint (hash) in order to keep the historic transactions connected and keep the chain growing. Because each new entry is linked to the preceding one, a chain of blocks is formed, which we refer to as a Blockchain.

The fundamentals of Blockchain

The three main ideas in blockchain are Blocks, nodes, and miners.

Blocks

Every chain is made up of several blocks.
When the initial block of a chain is created, the cryptographic hash is generated by a number (nonce). Unless it is mined, the data in the block is regarded as signed and irrevocably linked to that number and hash.

Miners

Miners add new blocks to the chain by the process of mining.
Every block in a blockchain has its own unique nonce and hash, but it also references the previous block's hash, making block mining challenging, especially on large chains.
When a miner mines a block successfully, all the other nodes get changed and network gets notified about it and the miner is rewarded financially.
Making a change to any block earlier in the chain necessitates re-mining not only the affected block, but all subsequent blocks as well. This process is quite complex for large blockchains and that’s why these blockchains are considered to be really secure.

Nodes

One of the most important concepts in blockchain technology is decentralisation. Nodes are the entities that connect the chain and store the blockchain’s data.
A node is any form of technological device that saves copies of the blockchain and keeps the network running. Every node has its own copy of the blockchain, and any freshly mined block must be approved algorithmically by the network in order for the chain to be updated, trusted, and confirmed.
In a nutshell, blockchains are a technology that enables TRUST to SCALE.

How did blockchain come to be?

Blockchain technology was created as a result of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. By registering each blockchain based money transfer onto a publicly available digital ledger, it enabled currency exchange. It was first introduced in 2008 as a way to exchange Bitcoin. However, it has since garnered worldwide prominence as a means of sharing items other than money, such as recordings and contracts.
Some public blockchains that are widely used are- Ethereum, Ripple, and, of course, Bitcoin.

What is the mechanism behind blockchain?

Blockchain employs a distributed ledger and hash function to transmit data.
It's practically impossible to pinpoint the algorithm that generates the hash. A hash has various qualities that make it difficult to fabricate, despite the fact that it is completely random. If one hash is changed, all hashes in the chain must be changed as well.
These hashes are then assembled and delivered to nodes, which are computers located all over the world that monitor and authorise each transaction. Once the majority of nodes agree that the transaction is valid and that the new data matches the prior entries, it is written into a block.

That's it for this quick intro to Blockchains. If you are excited to know more about the technologies associated with Web3, don’t forget to follow and be a part of the Get Into Web3 (GIW3) community for the latest updates. Also, don't forget to follow us on Twitter and join the Discord community to learn more.

Which blockchain is your favourite? Let me know in the comments.

What is EVM?

Ayush Gupta — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 15:22:03 +0000

When a smart contract runs on Ethereum it's executed by the Ethereum virtual machine. In this short article, I will give you a quick intro to the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), the most interesting part of Ethereum. If you are new here, I'm Ayush, a member of the Get Into Web3 community, where we make it easy for people to get started in Web3.

The Ethereum network is composed of computers called nodes. The EVM runs inside each of these Ethereum instances and the role of the EVM is to run smart contracts. The EVM is a state machine. In input, there is the state of the existing blockchain, and in output, the state is updated after a transaction has been applied.

The state of the blockchain is a mapping of accounts identified by the address to four fields-

the nonce that is incremented for each transaction,
the balance of ether owned by this address,
the hash of the smart contract code, and
the hash of the smart contract storage

The last two fields are populated only for smart contracts. For regular addresses called EOA, they are empty. The EVM can be executed in read mode and write mode.
In read mode, a user sends a request to any node of the network and the EVM of this node will process the request. In write mode, users send transactions that are mined by miners in the Ethereum network.

In each mining node, the EVM is going to process all the transactions of the new block. Each transaction is processed sequentially by the EVM in an order decided arbitrarily by each miner. For each transaction, the EVM is going to check if the transaction is valid, compute the new state of the blockchain and persist the state. For example, an address can increase its ether balance or its storage is modified. The process is repeated until all transactions are executed for this block. The miner that wins the block will propagate the new block to the network containing the hash of the new state. One important detail of the EVM is how it processes smart contracts?

Smart Contracts are basically a set of promises, specified in digital form, including protocols within which the party is performing on these promises. It's a reusable snippet of code that a developer publishes into the EVM memory. Smart contracts are often written in a programming language called Solidity. Smart contract languages like Solidity cannot be executed by the EVM directly, instead, they are compiled to a low-level machine language called opcodes. To execute specific tasks in order to efficiently store these occurrences, they are further encoded to bytecodes. Now, anyone can request the smart contract code to be executed by making a transaction request.

There comes the concept of Gas. In Ethereum, gas is essentially the fuel that allows the Ethereum network to operate. They have a market price determined by the demand for resources on the network. The amount of gas you need depends on how complex of a smart contract function you are trying to execute and how fast you want to execute it. The gas fee keeps the Ethereum network secure, preventing actors from scamming the network.

The potential use case of the EVM and decentralized apps are huge and developers are working every day to make the entire ecosystem better.

That's it for this quick intro to the Ethereum virtual machine (EVM). Going forward, if you want to know more about the technologies associated with Web3, don’t forget to follow and be a part of the Get Into Web3 (GIW3) community for the latest updates. Also, don't forget to follow us on Twitter and join the Discord community to learn more.

See you soon reading my next blog :)

The Metaverse

PranavUpadhyay7 — Fri, 14 Jan 2022 07:52:39 +0000

You might be hearing the word “Metaverse” these days a lot and probably wondering what it actually is.

In brief, it's a combination of multiple elements of technology, including virtual reality(VR), augmented reality(AR), and video where users "live" within a digital universe.

What exactly is the Metaverse?

There is no clear definition for the Metaverse as of yet. Some call it a virtual world, some call it a video game while some term it an internet server with human bots which are managed online.

Many large, centralised organisations, such as Meta, place a premium on connecting a virtual world through a server that is active 24 hours a day. There have been multiple successful attempts at this project, and some servers remain operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week, even if they have not yet been made public. "The next platform will be even more immersive – an embodied internet where you're in the experience, not just looking at it. We call this the Metaverse, and it will touch every product we build.", says Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

How long would it take the Metaverse to take command?

The word "Metaverse" was coined by author Neal Stephenson in his 1992 science fiction novel "Snow Crash," in which he imagined lifelike avatars meeting in realistic 3D buildings and other virtual reality scenarios, so it's safe to assume that the concept has been around for a while. Despite having the notion of the Metaverse but being unable to implement it due to a lack of technology, the work to achieve it began a few years ago, and at current rate, it does not appear that we will be entering the period of the Metaverse anytime soon.

Since then, a number of advancements have paved the road toward a true Metaverse, an online virtual environment that combines augmented reality, virtual reality, 3D holographic avatars, video, and other forms of communication. As the Metaverse grows, it will provide you with a hyper-real alternative universe in which to coexist.

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of the newly renamed Meta (previously Facebook), predicts that the Metaverse's primary capabilities will take five to ten years to become ubiquitous. However, some features of the Metaverse are currently visible. Even if they aren't available to everyone, ultra-fast broadband rates, virtual reality headgear, and persistent always-on online worlds are already available.

What will we be able to do in the Metaverse?

Things like attending a virtual performance, spending a virtual vacation, viewing or making artwork, and trying on or purchasing digital apparel are just a few examples.

Imagine a world where you could meet someone and spend a day with them without ever meeting them in the real world; isn't that fascinating?

Yes, it can be termed a miracle, but these are all predictions, and predictions always have a small chance of going wrong, so none of these things can be guaranteed.

Will it be as efficient as said?

We cannot ignore the issues that the Metaverse can generate, despite all of the benefits it can provide. Imagine someone spending a day off in virtual reality with his family and friends when his connection (internet server) suddenly goes down; the turmoil would be enormous!

Some tech experts believe that the Metaverse will be able to solve a wide range of problems, but because it will be an online web server, we cannot entirely rely on it. Although the Metaverse would be extremely useful for the next generation of technology, it would unlock numerous features of the web that are currently ignored or unusable.

The Metaverse is coming!

The Metaverse has evolved over the last few years from a fantasy future envisioned in numerous works of fiction to an actual reality that exists now, albeit in an early stage of development. The stage has been prepared for the next wave of immersive metaverse applications to emerge, and the underlying technologies are progressing at a rapid pace.

It's impossible to predict whether we'll see a dismal reality such to that depicted in Snow Crash and the Matrix, or a gamified virtual world replete with nostalgic references like Ready Player One. Perhaps the metaverse will manifest in ways we haven't yet imagined. With the metaverse's future state yet unknown, builders, artists, users, and visionaries must work together to create a user-owned digital realm characterised by decentralisation, immersion, and connectedness.

What ideas do you have for the Metaverse?

Let us know in the comment section. We'd love to hear your thoughts.

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What exactly is Web3?

Pushpit — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 16:14:58 +0000

Besides a continual pandemic, work from home, and inflation, 2021 will be remembered for the mainstreaming of the phrase Web3. The web we are experiencing today is much different than what it was 10 years ago. This has not been a sudden paradigm shift but rather a gradual one.

In this article, we'll go through what Web 3.0 is, how cryptocurrency concepts fit into the growth of the internet, and what it means for you as a user.

Web3: The breakthrough

We live in interesting times because we're at the tipping point of Web 3.0, a decentralized but secure internet where people can exchange money and information without the need for a bank or a tech company that serves as an unnecessary intermediary.

The goal is to build a decentralized network in which consumers may move their data from service to service without being hindered by corporate walled gardens.

Just to make things clear, there is not yet a strict definition of what Web3 is, so instead, we are going to give you a rough definition of what the internet says Web 1.0 is, what a lot of people are saying Web 2.0 is, and then we will explain this new phenomenon that a lot of people are calling Web 3.0.

What is Web 1.0?

Web 1.0 was an information superhighway of documents connected together by hyperlinks and it was good. The internet was largely made up of static sites, which meant that when we loaded them, they merely displayed some information. Some called it read-only as there wasn't any logging in or interacting with posts.

What is Web 2.0?

Web 2.0, which evolved from Web1, saw the rise of social media platforms like Facebook, businesses like Uber and Venmo, and, well, pretty much everything that exists online today. Around 2004 we saw the emergence of Web 2.0 where more people started participating in the web through platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and many others.

All this resulted in the creation of giant centralized tech businesses that now control the flow of information and money on the internet. During this period, the internet underwent several changes, but one of the most significant was the increase in interaction. This meant that, in addition to receiving information from pages, the web pages began receiving information from us.

These centralized firms began gathering data about us while we used Facebook and YouTube, as well as Google searches so that they could show us better material and keep us on their websites longer. This meant more money for them but eventually, they realised that they could package up all the data they had collected on us and sell it to advertisers.

Web 2.0 is the era of targeted advertising and the erosion of consumers' privacy. To be fair, we knowingly traded our privacy for interesting Web 2.0 tools like Facebook and Twitter.

What is Web 3.0?

Web3 is the next evolution of the internet. It's predicated on the premise that blockchain technology and digital tokens might create a decentralized internet. We were the product in Web 2.0 as we browsed social networks, but some predict that in Web 3.0, we will be the owners of our material and the things we publish online.

Uncensored material on Web3 also means that a lot of unlawful and terrible things will be posted, but it will be in the name of freedom, and users of the networks will most likely settle on a mechanism to limit that harmful content (eg. DAOs). Experts predict that in Web 3.0, we will reach a stage on the internet when every organisation is managed by a decentralized group known as a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization).

If you want to learn more about what those big words mean, look out for more blogs from us!

However, DAOs eliminate the need to please CEOs or Presidents. Those with the most tokens have a say in how the firm evolves, with no restrictions imposed by some ultra-rich people or a family tradition. There will be no censorship of social media sites like Facebook or Twitter in Web 3.0. It cannot be shut down by a single governing authority.

Lastly, one of the biggest things in Web 3.0 is that our digital identity is not 100% connected to our real-world identity. This means we can view pages, download things, make purchases and do any other activity on the internet without being traced to the real us.

What Web 3.0 truly implies for us is that in the next decade, we could be able to use Metamask to buy Amazon gift cards and pay with Ethereum, or we might be able to anonymously like one of our friends' posts using one of our secret wallets. It won't be a slew of life-altering events all at once. It'll most likely be a collection of thoughts that develop into something bigger.

Where are we headed now?

Web 2.0 gave us the internet as we know it, but it also came with a lot of baggage. Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, and Facebook are just a few of the massive corporations that rule the internet, and they're glad to keep it that way.

Web3 proponents claim that the concept will become the dominant form of the internet in the future. Web3 has already attracted the attention of major technology corporations. Do you believe that the trillion-dollar firms that make up a large part of the internet ecosystem will give up their control? Come on.

We adore the idea of putting the web back in people's hands, but the fact is that venture capitalists and Silicon Valley elites control many of these firms and the cryptocurrencies they issue. That isn't always the case, but much of the sector is fueled by FOMO, and there are plenty of frauds and shady stuff to be aware of.

There are also smart individuals out there arguing that Web3 lacks the computational power, bandwidth, and storage to grow on any practical level, but every new technology comes with its own set of problems and we will surely develop new technologies to overcome these challenges.

The fact is that Web3 isn't some new version of the internet to which we'll have to migrate. It's a result of the present internet's growth. And it'll most likely be a gradual shift that you’ll hardly notice. After all, you don't recall when we switched from Web1 to Web2, right?

Closing thoughts

People from all political stripes now agree that the current status of the internet isn't ideal, with so much power concentrated in the hands of a few corporations. Web3, a group of protocols driven by blockchain, aims to redefine how the Internet is connected and focuses on eradicating the problem of centralization.
It is still in its infancy at the moment, but will undoubtedly gain traction in the coming years!

Do you know of a successful blockchain-based project that is not reliant on people trading actual money for tokens?

Let us know in the comment section. We'd love to hear your thoughts.

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