Tag Archives: internet

What is web3? Is it really decentralized?

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Not a long time ago the Internet was all about pages where you could only read information. In contrast, now, people have an opportunity to create and share content online. So how did we get here?

Before we explore the definition of web3, it is worthwhile to break down the history of the Internet into three periods: web1, web2, and web3. Web1 is read-only, web2 is read-write and web3 is read-write-own. Let’s now figure out what it means. 

Web1 was created in 1990 and featured mainly static websites, allowing users to only view information. Any online interactions were limited. The next generation of the Internet arrived in the form of web2. Instead of providing just content to users, companies also began to engage user-to-user interaction by utilizing platforms that allowed people to create content. However, big tech companies got control over the content and used it for monetary gains. For example, Amazon and Facebook collected personal information to facilitate better target marketing. Users became concerned about their data privacy and digital identity. Obviously, a decentralized version of the web with users in control of their data was a necessity. That is how web3 emerged. 

It was aimed to create peer-to-peer network using blockchain technology that enabled users to take away the dominance of tech giants and get a complete ownership of their data. Users could connect with each other, share data and engage in transactions privately without depending on intermediaries. All concepts of web3 significantly contribute to the formation of a decentralized system. It means that no single centralized server can control the data, there is no central authority that governs decision-making and there is no central place to store information. Sounds nice, doesn’t it? But isn’t it too good to be true? 

To answer this question, we can refer to the chart below:

It shows that the top 9% of accounts hold 80% of the whole market value of NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain. Moreover, the chart on the right depicts that only 2% of accounts own 95% of Bitcoin. Summarizing the given data, we can make a conclusion: “The advertised decentralization of power out of the hands of a few has been a re-centralization of power into the hands of fewer”. 

Web3 is also accused of the existence of middlemen. A majority of decentralized applications, so-called dApps, rely on centralized services. Otherwise, it would be extremely time-consuming and capital-intensive for developers to run their own servers. Some platforms, such as Alchemy and Moralis, help build up dApps much faster. 

Despite all contradictions, Web3 is still considered to be a novelty, a young and evolving system, so a lot of developers are continuing working on its improvements. We are on the way to creating a better web. Although web3 currently depends on centralized infrastructure, it takes time to build a high-quality and reliable one.

References:

https://venturebeat.com/datadecisionmakers/the-hard-truths-about-web3-what-no-one-else-is-talking-about/

https://nftnow.com/guides/a-comprehensive-guide-to-web3-the-future-of-the-internet/

https://101blockchains.com/top-web3-features/

https://101blockchains.com/web3-faqs/

https://ethereum.org/ru/web3/

https://www.notboring.co/p/the-web3-debate?s=r

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Outrageous demands posed by websites could soon be a global problem.

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Cookie files have been a controversy for a while now. On one hand, they allow for a better user experience, on the other hand, accepting them is a way of giving up on your internet privacy. It is almost impossible to avoid having a cookies notification pop up when you browse various websites.

I am sure we have all had an instance when we were prompted with an agreement to give our precious data away, the site simultaneously becomes unaccessible to us until we either agree or try our luck elsewhere. I think we all agree that this is a very greedy approach when it comes to our data and none of us likes being monitored or spied on. Unfortunately, the worst is yet to come. Recently it has come to my attention that certain EU websites initiated a new policy where to see the contents without agreeing to their cookie files you will have to pay money. So far, this occurrence was noted only in Germany with the price of free browsing costing us 4.99€ a month. Sites like: T-Online, Bild, and Die Welt, are just a handful of examples. “It’s a win-win for the websites. They get paid with data or they get paid with money,” said Cristiana Santos, an assistant professor of privacy and data protection law at Utrecht University. This totals about 75€ a year for non-invasive browsing.

Overall this will not change much for average users who do not value their data nevertheless it creates a dark vision of the internet where no information is free anymore and everything has a cost. That leaves us either paying the fee or chipping in for a VPN. And what is your opinion about this? Comment down below 🙂

Source:

Will Websites Make You Pay To Reject Their Cookies? (gizmodo.com)

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The legend has fallen

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Tom Warren on Twitter: "is Internet Explorer ever truly dead?  https://t.co/KQGndprUxn" / Twitter
https://techyuzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/ie-1536×1518.jpg

Loved by few, hated by many. The legendary browser that enabled us all to view our profiles on Facebook or MySpace is soon to be a thing of the past. The infamous Internet Explorer (IE) has been reportedly shut down and the Microsoft will no longer offer support to this app.

30 Of The Internet's Funniest Reactions To Internet Explorer's Shutdown |  Bored Panda
https://www.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/microsoft-shuts-down-internet-explorer-reactions-memes-54665-62a98a1879817__700.jpg

Developed in 1995 for the upcoming Windows 95 package, and offered as the default browser for all Windows computers, generated a lot of users. By 2003 it had a 95% usage share among all browsers. From there, the usage plummeted, as Google’s Chrome, Mozilla’s Firefox and Opera’s Opera quickly outperformed the good old IE. Windows tried to revive it and keep it living for almost 2 decades more, but the time has come to put it all to an end. The explorer will live on in the form of the Microsoft Edge which will be still offered in Windows products until 2029, and after that the future is unsure.

Internet Explorer is officially dead and the internet is having a field day
https://cdn.supercarblondie.com/wp-content/uploads/internet-explorer-meme-3.jpeg

We all remember the years of pain the poor performance gave us and the time spent waiting for a website to load, which would usually end in code 404 provided by the great IE. Still, we can thank it for the memories of our younger years and for being a good meme material.

It sadly is the sign of an era coming to an end, and let us raise one last glass to our good pal, Internet Explorer. Our task is to tell our children about this ancient app, that did not work and caused us so much trouble, and remind them how lucky those bastards are with good internet speeds and browsers that let them do whatever they want.

Share your best memories about the Intenet Explorer in the comment down below?

References:

https://www.theverge.com/2022/6/15/23167121/microsoft-internet-explorer-end-of-support-retirement

Yes, Internet Explorer Is Dead, But Will Microsoft Edge Take Over?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Explorer

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PWA – the future of mobile development?

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Source: https://medium.com/tecnolog%C3%ADa/what-is-a-pwa-and-how-to-create-one-5e4c182682bd

Introduction       

When you saw the title of this article, you probably started thinking about what PWA means. I am not surprised because it is not a widely present concept. However, it is worthy of being familiar with the idea due to its potential to shift the mobile applications market. PWA stands for Progressive Web Applications, and it relates to applications that we can use through an internet browser instead of downloading them on our phones or tablets.

Advantages

Referring to my sources, PWAs have several adavnatages over native apps. I want to mention the most significant in my opinion:

  1. You do not have to download it and, as a result to wait until an app is installed
  2. There is no necessity to contact Google Play or App Store to tweak or change your application.
  3. PWAs are independent of the operating system

Potential   

According to Comscore research monthly a half of smartphone users do not download any new app. It illustrates that it is really difficult to convince a prospective customer to download an app before using your services nowadays. Apart from these statistics, several success stories prove that PWAs work out in everyday business.  Here you have some of them.

  1. By developing a PWA, Tinder managed to reduce the loading time from 11.91 seconds to 4.68 seconds.
  2. Trivago witnessed an upsurge in adding its progressive web application to the home screen by 150% and 97% more click-outs to hotel offers.
  3. Twitter managed to achieve 75% more tweets accompanied by slashing the size of its app to only 3%.
Trivago PWA

A possible danger

Apple and Google, which currently are in a monopolistic position regarding the distribution of mobile apps, will be reluctant to lose the money that they derive from this channel. Primarily, it relates to Appel, which takes 30% of the price of each sold app in their marketplace. I should also mention that Safari does not keep up with most novelties in web development, so as a result, Apple can lose twice.

Summary

In my opinion, WPAs will be on the rise in the upcoming years. The most significant factors that convinced me to this statement are the record of success stories and lower development costs thanks to their cross-platform nature.

Sources:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/progressive-web-apps-chromium/

https://www.iqvis.com/blog/progressive-web-app-development/

https://web.dev/what-are-pwas/

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Digital taxes toughening

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Amazon, Google and Facebook will pay more taxes if EU implements new digital tax propolsals.

As we all know, currently tax system is not perfect, because it has lots of pitfalls and such big corporations as Google, Uber, Amazon, ect. use it without shame. For instance, Facebook, is the largest social networking service in the world, earned £1.3bn in UK and paid only £15.8m in tax in 2017. That is even less then 1% of their revenue. So that, to the opinion of EU commision the tax system must be revised.

They suggest implementing taxes based on not only staff presence, but also company’s “digital presence”. The Guardian says that “digital presence” means that a company has more than 100 000 users or more than £6m income per year, or it will have more than 3000 signed contracts. Moreover, thay want to take 3% out of selling of advertising space to companies that have more than €750m revenues worldwide and €50m in EU.

I think it is a good trend for two main reasons:

  1. The taxes will generate €5bn for EU every year.
  2. It will make things right, because traditional companies pay 23.2% from their revenue compared with avarege 9.5% of digital ones.

As for me, I totally agree with EU and think that it is not fair when such enterprises make thousands of millions dollars and pay less than traditional corporations. Despite the fact, that they don’t have physical presence, they still make signficant impact on it via huge communication flow. Digital space must be controlled, because it can influence people’s behaviour and purchase intent that can bring additional money to traditional corporations that are physically exist.

 

 

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Net neutrality breach

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We are living in the world, where the rights of a human are valued at highest level. Freedom has always been a very controversial issue and discrimination has been persecuted for ages. Such ideas had impacted the state of our modern life, where everybody is willing to have the equal rights and the people struggle to get it at most. Today, in the time of massive digitalization, such notion does not only come along with the real life, but also is expected to cover the virtual reality, hence, the Internet. Therefore, as the Internet grows and boundaries of it are unimaginable, certain restrictions had to be made in order to control the flow of the data. Nevertheless, the right to access the data is crucial and should stay untouched.

In fact, the notion of net neutrality had been introduced in early 2000th by Tim Wu, as the main principle of the Internet operations through which “Internet service providers treat all data transmitted and accessed on the Internet equally, regardless of its size, type or origin”, says Smithsonian.com. This means that any breach to the net neutrality concept is an issue, where your Internet Service Providers restrict certain content providers from getting the equal access to their data.

According to Fortune.com, in 2015, the USA Federal Communications Commission had signed the regulation upon which “the Internet providers cannot block or slow down your access to any (legal) online content”. For example, the service provider cannot slow down your connection, when you are visiting the competitor website or different business are not allowed to pay the service provider to speed up the transfer of data, when visiting their Internet page.

In fact, the notion of net neutrality, soon, might become the issue of the past. Recently, in USA the question of net neutrality has arose again, as the current chairman of US FCC Ajit Pai is going to review and, in fact, upend the decision of the equal access on December, 14.

The principle of work of the Internet is that it allows to create the content and provides an equal access to it (until the access is limited by the providers, itself). However, if the Internet service providers would have enough rights to control the data flow and Internet traffic, it might create the imbalance. In fact, it would influence the market, where the competition would not be open and not equal. According to Fortune.com, the major content providers (like CBS in USA) might win from such change, as the service providers would be more interested to get the content from the most reliable sources.  Though, the major Internet stores, like Amazon, Ebay might lose, due to slowing down the traffic while visiting their websites, as the additional fee to enter it might be introduced. As a result, the minor content providers – small online stores, minor Internet magazines, would suffer at most due to inability to pay enough to have the faster traffic transmission. This would create a situation, where the rights of various small and local businesses that operate on the Internet would be discriminated, because of their size and low power in the market.

Why it matters to us?

For now, this issue has arisen in USA. However, we have already witnessed various countries restricting the data flow on the Internet and most of them are actively implemented today. In result, this might mean that this subject might come along the European countries, where the net neutrality seems to be valued a lot right now. Therefore, as this issue impacts the businesses, as well, it might also become the first step to the breach of the individuals’ right for freedom of speech, as social media is having one of the largest traffic and data flow on the Internet. Internet Service Providers would hunt for them at most, which would lead to introduction of additional fees, while using the social media to express the voice of individual.

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An Overview of the Ecommerce Market Globally

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What could we expect until 2021

Our markets have been transformed digitally in every sense. Life has become much easier, compared to a decade back. People prefer to buy a product online as it helps them save their time, avoid traffic and your product is there at your doorstep. So this is a very serious market, and everyone, be it a Major company or a startup has the access to reach across their targets with ease. Its more of an equal opportunity that makes the digital world a step ahead compared to offline sales or marketing.

The eccomerce market is in a state of expansion and consolidation. There are even more consumers who are going digitally, which means worldwide retail ecommerce is sales are rising. This also means that the big fishes, that are Amazon and Alibaba are expanding their kingdom to smaller and secondary markets by buying local companies.

 

   It is said that the retail ecommerce markets are shooting up in 2017, rising by 23.2 %, i.e  $2.290 trillion. It is estimated that by the end of 2021,  equating to 16.1% of their total sales.

On a global level, Amazon and Alibaba are leading the market, around the world. Accoridng to Deloitte, report in January 2017, the sales for Amazon reached $79.27 billion, which is nearly triple of the second  largest digital retailer, China based JD.com ($ 26.99 billion). This ranking is followed by Apple on the third with $24.37 billion and Wallmart ($ 13.70 billion).

 

              

 

Alibaba is not featured on Deloitte’s list, likely because the data excludes consumer-to-consumer (C2C) sales and sales from third-party sellers, both of which make up a large part of Alibaba’s business. When those are included, however, Alibaba is likely on par, if not ahead, of Amazon.

  • Retail ecommerce sales worldwide will increase at four times the rate of retail sales this year, jumping 23.2% to $2.290 trillion. Ecommerce sales growth will stay in the double digits throughout the forecast period.
  • China and the US will combine for $1.584 trillion in ecommerce sales this year, representing 69.1% of global ecommerce.
  • In 2017, mobile commerce will account for more than 70% of ecommerce sales in both China and India, and 59.0% in South Korea. In Germany, the UK and US, mcommerce will comprise at least one-third of total retail ecommerce sales.

   Our markets are growing at a high scale everyday, and in time, we realize that the development is so high that we can’t even imagine how better the digital market can come up with a better idea, that helps lead in the competition ladder. Our future is bright, its getting smarter and faster by day.

Sources:
https://www.emarketer.com/Report/Worldwide-Retail-Ecommerce-Sales-eMarketers-Estimates-20162021/2002090
https://retail.emarketer.com/article/brief-overview-of-global-ecommerce-market/59690010ebd40005284d5cc5

 

 

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Global Digital Marketplace (G2A.com Limited)

Reading Time: 2 minutesGlobal Digital Marketplace (G2A.com Limited)

Let’s think for a second and try to imagine a market which is completely digital. Back in 2010, a company called go2arena was founded by Bartosz Skwarczek and Dawid Rożek in Rzeszów, Poland as an online game retailer. The main aim of the market was the young gamers with a lack of disposable income.

A Polish company that aimed mainly to objective of the company to sell cheaper games than normal market. Selling video games at the place where it is the lowest possible price got attractive customers suddenly. The CEO of the company Skywarcze set the goal to approach as large as possible game developers to make them sell their games on the platform. Skywarcze achieved this goal by joining various events such as Gamescom, E3 and G-Star by reaching and securing as many partnership deals as possible in order to become an official seller of the games. This decision and deals changed the company’s business model from retailer to marketplace. The company allowed people or small companies to sell video games through the platform.

The hay-day of the company happened in 2016, it began to focus on the technological innovation by investing money into development of Virtual Reality and Customer Services for its customers. G2A pay, G2a direct and G2A shield made the company to became bigger and bigger.

G2A pay, launched back in January 2015, The company introduced its online payment system through the platform in order to make the customers pay easily. With the integration of global payment methods thought the system such as PayPal, Skrill, Webmoney and financial services such as Maestro, Visa, MasterCard and American Express. Also integrating chargeback production availability to system to protect the customers and sellers through the system against the illegal refunds which is called Chargeback Fraud which was a big issue on the digital market place.

Introducing G2A Direct which allowed developers to join the program in July, 2016. Selling developer’s games and charging the customers became much easier. G2A was only getting small commission from those sales from the customers and developers. By joining the program, G2A allowed developers to ranked higher on the market place of G2A platform.

G2A Shield which is a paid membership service for the customer. It offers additional protection to customer who are buying the game thought platform and enjoy the games by playing. Thanks to its customer services, if customer has any problem from the buyer perspective, G2A has 24 hours to solve this issue with the seller. Also G2A including G2A coin transfer, up to 10% cashback, priority pre-order games receive by the customer. With 24/7 live chat in customer service, customer is buying the games without any problem.

Poland is a developing country which is an European Union member state, that’s why companies such as G2A gets a lot of free space to develop and grow in this country.

Let me know about what is your thinking for buying games or anything online. Do you think, it is a good idea to start a business online such as G2A?

 

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Haters and fake convent provided via social media.

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Dear Readers

Today in the wake of the huge popularity of sharing the content via social media, when people felt much more anonymous, they basically means as much as their signs, emoji or nicknames, which identify them. It caused that they are feeling much more free in providing their posts, which very often are offended or fake. Facebook representative still tries to reduce this kind of problem, but its scale is huge and difficult to control. They mostly concentrated on fake ads, which sometimes we can notice during opening fb web or in the message folder called “ different”. As written in techcrunch.com Mark Zuckerberg said that the fake news are in the minority of the general content provided via Facebook, but as we can easily notice false information takes place pretty often. I am one of the moderator of the music band fun-page, where people are able to provide their opinions, comments, adds. What I observed is the fact, that minimum once per week what happened is sharing the negative, even as I mentioned above offended and fake comments. 99 percent of them are sending from the unreal accounts, which used strange names or pics taken from google- graphs or someone’s Instagram ,what is basically under the law. How we are fighting with that?

Well, the solution is pretty simple and for now that is the only solution, which is coming into my minds. It  is basically blocking, cause every critiques, (of course best if it is constructive criticism) are welcomed, but the curse or racist comments are not allowed. Probably many of us met, with this kind of negative experience in our life, especially if we are giving something publicly.

You re more than welcome to share Your feedback and opinions, how You are dealing with haters in the social media, or other platforms, where You re sharing Your content, ideas of simply Yourself.

If You are more interested in the issue, how Facebook currently is dealing with that staff check the link

https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/19/zuckerberg-reveals-plans-to-address-misinformation-on-facebook/

Thanks for reading and see You soon.

Magda Skorodzień.

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A farewell to the Middleman

Reading Time: 2 minutesThe typical business model, supply chain used to be quite straight forward; There is a manufacturer that sources the materials and creates a product. A wholesaler would buy the product from the manufacturer and resell it for a small margin to the retailer, which the again sells the product to the end customer. On every step of the way, a little extra margin is added to the original price of the item so that everybody gets its share. The internet has changed that.

middlemanFrom TechCrunch, to New York Times or WSJ, everybody has proclaimed “The Death of The Middleman”. The internet has made it possible for manufacturers to reach customers directly via a website. Thus creating a better offer for both ends as the intermediary does not receive its share anymore. The supply chain is getting shorter, as manufacturers started to sell directly to costumer, at times even via their own mobile application, which even allows customers to personalize their purchased goods according to their needs.

The middleman is redefining itself and we see him again as concierge service and the like. Offering that extra service the modern customer of today is asking for. But how sustainable is that? In a highly technologized world, will it not be only a question of time until manufacturers than again are able to offer state of the art service by themselves via an App for example?

Amazon may be one of the most extreme examples. Not only does amazon.com offer the largest product range on the web for the end consumer, they increasingly start to offer own products. We see products like “amazon basics”, which are sold under the amazon brand and cover products all across the categories. Amazon knows its customers and it knows them well. How can any concierge service compete with amazon offering tailor made products?

Amazon does it, Netflix does it too. Increasingly becoming a competition to Hollywood, by offering their customers their own productions, often financed with gigantic budgets that make Hollywood productions seem small.

What’s the value of a middleman in modern eCommerce?

 

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