What exactly is a Web3 browser? Can it pose a threat to Google?

This article is reproduced with permission from "老雅痞laoyapicom"

Are browsers ready for the decentralized web?

Information source: thenextweb, slightly modified, author: Ivan Mehta

Recently, we often see news about Web3 on the Internet.

However, it’s not as common as it sounds. Some Web3 properties and services require you to understand the moving parts involved, such as your cryptocurrency wallet, dApps (decentralized applications like the OpenSea NFT marketplace), and the blockchains they run on.

While this sounds complicated, much of the Web3 experience is still built on open web technologies that you can access with a good browser.

In today's world, when we type in the address of a website, we rely on our browser to handle all the complicated backend stuff and get us to our destination in cyberspace.

While we still use the same applications to access Web3, we have to do quite a bit of work (from having a wallet to accessing the right protocols) to experience the decentralized world. Ideally, all of this should be handled by these browsers, but that’s not the case yet.

To get an insider’s perspective on integrating these technologies, we spoke to people at different companies building Web3 browsers and standards — from the challenges of creating a new paradigm for connecting technologies to what browsing the web will look like in the future.

Before we explore all of this in detail, there are a few terms we’ll use over and over in this article. You might want to take a minute to familiarize yourself with them, so I’ve put together a brief (and probably oversimplified) explanation of some of them here.

Some basic Web3 concepts

Wallet: Your cryptocurrency wallet where you store different tokens like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Matic.

The wallet will show you the tokens you own and allow you to send them to other people.

dApps : Decentralized applications that run on blockchain protocols.

Blockchain: A decentralized protocol used for Web3 projects. Think of it as a public ledger that records all transactions. There are many different blockchain technologies out there, and various types of projects and applications can run on each one.

Smart Contract: A piece of program on the blockchain that executes when the terms set out in the agreement are met. For example, in the analog world, a document between the buyer and seller of a house. In the Web3 world, instead of lawyers, programs check whether all the conditions of the contract are met.

IPFS: InterPlanetary File System is a peer-to-peer storage protocol network. It works in a decentralized way, so you don't have to worry about whether a specific server is working. When you try to access a file, IPFS tries to access its content directly, not the location of the content.

Decentralized wallet: The service provider/browser does not store the keys to your wallet. You must remember your 12-word secret phrase to recover your wallet on another device.

With a custodial service like Gmail or Twitter, you can simply click “Forgot password” and generate a new password to access your account. With a non-custodial wallet like MetaMask, if you forget the phrase, you will never be able to access your account.

A brief history of browsers and Web3

If you view a website on your browser, it's the result of software handling a variety of functions, from parsing the website's address to fetching the content from the server where the website resides.

The idea is that a browser is just a window to the internet. This means you can access websites and apps with minimal data storage and minimal processing on your computer.

A Web3 browser goes beyond that, and in an ideal world it would just be an empty shell, with all the other necessary tools needed for your experience abstracted from the decentralized web.

Fabian Vogelsteller, founder of blockchain infrastructure company Lukso, said in 2015 that the Elthuny Foundation team tried to build a real Web3 browser called Mist. It was just a shell based on Electron.

The idea of ​​a real dApp is to run code on your local machine and pull data from decentralized storage using hash references like IPFS. You can download the source code from a trusted source and execute the program locally. Its backend is made up of smart contracts.

But the problem with this approach is that it runs a full node in the blockchain, so when you start your browser, it needs to sync all the blocks that were created while you were offline. And this slows down the process. As an end user, you definitely don’t want to wait for this process just to access a website.

What the original Mist browser looked like

Issues like these, combined with the insecure nature of the Electron platform, prompted the team to shut down the browser project in 2019. This raises the question of how existing browsers can handle the decentralized web.

Current browser

In their current incarnations, modern browsers are capable of handling Web3 applications, but you may have to do a little work to access them.

For example, if you use the Chrome browser, you will have to install a wallet extension like Metamask to connect to dApps and modify your DNS settings to access some Web3 domains.

There are browsers like Opera and Brave that offer a somewhat native Web3 experience, with built-in wallets and Web3-based domain support. In addition, both browsers have this experience on mobile phones and computers.

Brave offers a built-in cryptocurrency wallet that allows you to easily exchange tokens.

They’ve even tried to simplify things: During the setup process, for example, Opera asks you to create an @opera username (like sing@opera) that’s linked to your wallet, so you can use it instead of the 42-character string that identifies you across apps.

Earlier this year, Opera even released a crypto browser that front-loads a directory of dApps, cryptocurrency exchanges, upcoming token airdrops, news, and educational content about the Web3 space.

Opera has a cryptocurrency-specific browser with tighter wallet integration.

You probably don’t want to use this version as your primary browser. But it’s a good starting point to get familiar with all things decentralized.

Opera’s Executive Vice President of Mobile and Web3, Jørgen Arnesen, said the company felt an obligation to make the browser a gateway to these new protocols. Arnesen explained:

When it comes to Web3 browsing, we have several key values ​​in mind: ease of use, smooth user experience, transparency, and security.

The privacy-focused Brave browser offers a slightly different experience. It doesn’t have a dedicated cryptocurrency browser or content hub, but it does have a cryptocurrency wallet.

The company’s wallet offers easy token purchases and credit card exchange, thanks to its partnership with payment technology company Wyre, Chief Technology Officer Brian Bondy said.

“Our wallet is available on all platforms. But dApp support is currently limited to desktop only. We plan to release mobile integration by the end of this quarter,” Bondy said.

As a means of differentiation, Brave offers users BAT (Brave Attention Tokens) as a reward for watching ads. With these tokens, you can potentially earn some money (although the returns are not very high) or provide tips for content on websites or creators.

Brave offers Brave “BATs” as rewards for watching ads.

Bondy said that currently, mainstream browsers put users at risk of downloading the wrong extensions, which may not work properly or contain malware. In addition, these are additional processes running on the browser, taking up some processing power.

On the other hand, if there is a built-in wallet, you can go to the NFT marketplace and buy digital art seamlessly, or vote on proposals from the cryptocurrency community on Snapshot.org.

The Challenges of Building Web3

One of the biggest challenges of accessing Web3 properties is that you should know what token you are using and what blockchain protocol a particular application runs on.

For example, if you’re using Chrome, MetaMask works with all Ethereum-based blockchains and applications. But to use Solana-powered applications, you’ll need to use the Phantom wallet.

Bondy said Brave is trying to bridge that gap by slowly integrating more standards on the browser so you don’t have to worry about the backend.

There’s also the issue of security. In the early days of Web3, many bad actors used phishing to lure users to fraudulent websites and steal their assets. Arnesen wanted to develop a tool to prevent people from falling for these attacks. Opera already offers a centralized hub with shortcuts that can easily direct you to legitimate websites.

According to Vogelsteller, there are two major hurdles before Web3 can be experienced. The first is memorizing the 12-word phrase and understanding the security reasons behind this authentication method.

The second is that you need Ether to do anything, which isn’t cheap considering the price of the cryptocurrency and the gas and transaction fees involved.

Browsers can solve the first problem by working with different partners, but the second problem still exists.

Vogelsteller addresses these issues in a product he’s developing called Universal Profiles. The idea is to merge the different parts of a Web3 identity, like wallets, NFT creation, and collections.

Universal profiles can point to traditional social networks as well as your web3 assets.

The profile will also keep your assets safe by adding a passcode, a physical key, a mobile app for authentication, and your 12-word password.

These smart contract-based generic profiles can also provide some checks and balances for transactions so that you don’t end up sending tokens to the wrong address.

The road ahead

Currently, accessing Web3 properties is complex and the average user needs to deal with a steep learning curve. After all, your primary access point wallet is a 42-character address.

These addresses also make it difficult to learn the reputation and identity of the owner. While anonymity is great in some cases, it also makes it difficult to establish trust in this structure.

Then there are questions like, “What token should I use here?”, “Which blockchain does this application work on?”, “Do they work with each other?” Imagine turning on 20 knobs and settings just to send a tweet. That’s what Web3 feels like right now.

In the future, standards like web3 browsers and universal profiles will need to work together to simplify these processes. Users don’t have to worry about a world of backend protocols, where there are easier to remember usernames, and resolvable information associated with each identity.