What is Web4.0 mentioned in the EU "Initiative" document? What is the relationship with Web3.0?

"Open and permissionless blockchains will play a key role in the open virtual world... We are at the beginning of a major technological transformation, Web 4.0 will revolutionize people's daily lives."

——EU "Initiative" document

On July 12, a policy message began to circulate in the crypto world. Documents disclosed by the European Union show that the European Commission has adopted a new strategy on Web 4.0 and the virtual world. The strategy aims to guide the next technological transformation and ensure an open, secure, trustworthy, fair and inclusive digital environment for EU citizens, businesses and public administrations.

While the crypto world is still stuck in the Web 3.0 narrative, the EU has advanced to Web 4.0? Finally one day, the traditional world is no longer a follower of the narrative, and one step ahead of schedule opens the next mainstream narrative for the encrypted world.

Whether you have a thorough understanding of Web 3.0 or not, Odaily Planet Daily will take you one step ahead and give you a quick overview of the EU's Web 4.0 plan.

What is Web 4.0?

Before looking forward to Web 4.0, let's review Web 3.0 first. The relevant definition of Web 3.0 is also given in the EU document: "The main features of the third-generation Internet Web 3.0 are openness, decentralization, and complete user sovereignty." It can be seen that the EU has accepted the encryption world and advocated it for several years. Decentralized Web 3.0 concept.

As for the future Web 4.0, the EU disclosure document explained that "Web 4.0 refers to the expected fourth generation of the World Wide Web." Specifically, this generation of Internet uses a variety of advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence and environmental intelligence. , IoT, trusted blockchain transactions, virtual worlds and XR capabilities. **

In the fourth-generation Internet, digital entities, real-world entities, and environments will be fully integrated and communicate with each other,** enabling a truly intuitive and immersive experience that seamlessly merges the physical and digital worlds. **

It is worth mentioning that although the European Union has also listed blockchain as one of the technological cornerstones of Web 4.0, the wording of the initiative manuscript is trusted (trusted) blockchain, not the original and supported by the encrypted world. Trustless blockchain.

Is Web 4.0 far from encryption?

As a long-term development strategy and future prospect, the technology of Web 4.0 seems too far away for the encryption market. Even though the blockchain is one of the cornerstones of its technology, the trusted blockchain is far away from the encrypted world. Under such a strategic plan, what is the relevance of Web 4.0 and the encryption market?

The Commission believes that this technological transformation is extremely important, because its concept of openness and freedom reflects the values, principles and fundamental rights of the European Union from the beginning. The strategy aims to ensure that European citizens can use the virtual world safely and confidently, and to enable European companies to develop world-leading applications.

"Web 4.0 should be driven by open technologies and standards to ensure interoperability between platforms and networks, and to safeguard freedom of choice for users."

This sounds like it is compatible with the spiritual core of the encryption world, but what about specific use cases and usage scenarios?

In terms of specific implementation, the EU has also given certain specific prospects. For example, digital twins help to test and optimize the production process, which is of great significance to the manufacturing industry. The virtual world provides new ways to create, promote, distribute content and interact with audiences, which is crucial to the cultural and creative industry.

Unfortunately, none of this has much to do with the crypto market.

Which sectors of the crypto market are poised to benefit?

Although this strategy is too ambitious, it is difficult for us to find the focus that will help the encryption market in the first place. But the Web 4.0 initiative still has a long section on cryptography.

The European Union believes that the blockchain is the key to realizing the virtual world, and its trustless nature can support a large number of people and organizations to permanently record relevant information without trust, and does not require a third-party authority.

The initiative mentions that Blockchain technology can be used to manage assets in the virtual world, such as virtual currency or virtual real estate, and allow safe and transparent transactions within the virtual world.

This may be good for Metaverse and other sectors. After all, "virtual world" is one of the most important future directions of this initiative. In addition, the initiative makes reference to virtual real estate. (Perhaps future Metaverse lands will be deployed in real-world Europe?)

NFT is another area that this initiative focuses on. **The document states that NFTs are being widely used in various applications. ** "NFTs facilitate innovation in content creation and provide opportunities for artists (and creators). NFT platforms connect artists (and creators) directly with potential buyers, directly at a lower cost." This part of the description seems overly clichéd and its narrative has been adopted in the last bull market.

Fortunately, the EU is still giving their insights on the landing scenario: "In fact, NFT has been introduced into new business models. NFT can also be used for sales in specific use cases such as sports, fashion, games, music, etc. and event ticketing."

At present, NFT is combined with traditional business, although its narrative is also too old. But at least its use case development has not yet been perfected, and there is still the possibility of further development in the future, which also leaves plenty of room for imagination for NFT.

Finally, the importance of blockchain to Web 4.0 in terms of security and privacy protection, cross-border payments, and international trade is also mentioned, but not discussed in detail. This may bring potential growth points to the popular zk technology in the encryption market and payment applications that are not yet popular.

Interesting fact: In the 113-page initiative document, “Blockchain” was mentioned 31 times, “Crypto” 7 times, “Bitcoin” and “Ethereum” were both 0 times, but “NFT” was mentioned 40 times.