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What exactly is a Web3 browser?

老雅痞

2022-03-17 10:00

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原文标题：《 Web3 浏览器到底是什么？它能否对谷歌造成威胁？》

Source: ThenextWeb

Originally by Ivan Mehta

This article is from wechat official account:Old yuppie

Web3 is often mentioned on the Internet these days.

Yet it is 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, most of the Web3 experience is still built on open Web technologies that you can access through a good browser.

In today's world, when we type in the address of a website, we rely on the browser to handle all the complicated back-end 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 yet the case.

To get industry insiders' views on integrating these technologies, we interviewed people building Web3 browsers and standards at various companies -- from the challenges of creating a new paradigm for connectivity to what browsing the Web will look like in the future.

Before exploring all of this in detail, we'll use a few terms over and over again in this article. It might take you a minute to get familiar with them, so I've explained some of them briefly (and possibly oversimplified) here.

Some basic Web3 concepts

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

钱包会显示你所拥有的 Token ，让你把它们发给其他人。

DApps: Decentralized applications that run on the blockchain protocol.

Blockchain: Decentralized protocol for Web3 projects. Think of it as a public ledger of all transactions. There are many different blockchain technologies, and various types of projects and applications can run on each of them.

Smart contract: A piece of program on a blockchain that executes when the terms specified in the agreement are met. For example, in the simulation world, a file between a buyer and seller of a house. In the Web3 world it is not a lawyer, but a program that checks that all conditions of a contract are met.

IPFS: The 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 particular server is working or not. When you try to access a file, IPFS tries to access its contents directly, not the location of the contents.

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

With hosting services like Gmail or Twitter, you can simply click "Forget password" to generate a new password to access your account. With unmanaged wallets like MetaMask, if you forget this phrase, you'll never be able to access your account.

A brief history of browsers and Web3

If you look at a web site in a browser, this is the result of software that handles everything from resolving the site's address to extracting content from the server on which the site is located.

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.

The Web3 browser goes beyond this, being an empty shell in an ideal world, while all the other necessary tools for your experience are drawn from the decentralized web.

Fabian Vogelsteller, founder of block-chain infrastructure company Lukso, said in 2015 that the Elthuny Foundation team was trying to build a true Web3 browser called Mist. It's just a shell based on Electron.

The idea of a true dApp is to run code on a local machine and extract data from scattered storage using ipFs-like hash references. You can download the source code from a trusted source and execute the program locally. Its back end is made up of smart contracts.

But the problem with this approach is that it runs an entire node in the blockchain, so when you launch the browser, it needs to synchronize all the block data that was created while you were offline. And that slows things down. As an end user, you don't want to have to wait for this process in order to visit a website.

What was the original Mist browser like

Problems like these, coupled 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 handle decentralized networks.

Current browser

In their current incarnation, modern browsers are capable of handling Web3 applications, but you may need to do some work to access them.

For example, if you use Chrome, you'll have to install a wallet extension like Metamask to connect to dApps and change 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 wallet and Web3-based domain name support. In addition, both browsers have this experience on both phones and computers.

Brave 提供了一个内置的加密货币钱包，允许你轻松交换 Token 。

They even tried to simplify the process. For example, during the setup process Opera asks you to create a @opera username associated with your wallet (such as sing@opera) so that you can use it instead of a 42-character string to identify yourself across applications.

今年早些时候，Opera 甚至发布了一个加密浏览器，将 dApps 目录、加密货币交易所、即将到来的 Token 空投、新闻和关于 Web3 空间的教育内容放在了最前面。

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

You may not want to use this version as your primary browser. But it's a good starting point to familiarize yourself with all things decentralized.

Jrgen Arnesen, Opera's executive vice president of mobile and Web3, said the company felt obligated to make the browser the gateway to these new protocols. Arnesen explains:

We have a few key values in mind when it comes to Web3 browsing: ease of use, smooth user experience, transparency, and security.

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

该公司首席技术官 Brian Bondy 表示，由于该公司与支付技术公司 Wyre 的合作，该公司的钱包提供了便捷的 Token 购买和信用卡交换服务。

"Our wallet works on all platforms," Bondy said. "But for now dApp support is limited to computers. We plan to release mobile integration by the end of the quarter."

作为一种差异化手段，Brave 为用户提供 BAT (Brave Attention Tokens) 作为观看广告的奖励。通过这些 Token ，你有可能赚到一些钱 (尽管回报不是很高)，或者为网站或创作者的内容提供打赏。

Brave offers Brave "BATs" as a reward for watching ads.

Bondy says today's major browsers put users at risk of downloading the wrong extensions, which may not work properly or contain malicious software. In addition, these are additional processes running on the browser that take up some processing power.

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

The challenges of building Web3

访问 Web3 属性的最大挑战之一是，你应该知道你使用的是什么 Token ，以及一个特定的应用程序在什么区块链协议上运行。

For example, if you're using Chrome, MetaMask works with all Ethereum-based blockchains and apps. But to use solana-enabled apps, you'll need a Phantom Wallet.

Brave is trying to bridge that gap by slowly integrating more standards into the browser, so you don't have to worry about the back end, Bondy says.

There is also a security issue. In the early days of Web3, many criminals used phishing to lure users to fraudulent sites and steal their assets. Arnesen wants to develop a tool to prevent people from falling for these attacks. Opera already offers a central hub with shortcuts that can easily direct you to legitimate sites.

According to Vogelsteller, there are two big barriers to a Web3 experience. The first is to memorize the 12-word phrase and understand the security reasons behind this authentication method.

Second is the need for Ether to do everything, which is not cheap considering the price of cryptocurrencies and the fuel and transaction fees involved.

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

Vogelsteller addresses these issues in a product he is developing called Universal Profiles. The idea is to merge different parts of Web3 identity, such as wallets, NFT authoring, and collections.

Common profiles can point to traditional social networks as well as your Web3 assets.

The profile will also secure your assets by adding passwords, physical keys, mobile applications for authentication, and your 12-word password.

这些基于智能合约的通用配置文件还可以为交易提供一些检查和平衡，这样你就不会最终将 Token 发送到错误的地址。

The way forward

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

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

然后还有一些问题，比如「我应该在这里使用什么 Token ?」，「这个应用程序在哪个区块链上工作?」、「它们是否相互配合?」想象一下，仅仅为了发送一条推特，就要打开 20 个旋钮和设置。这就是 Web3 现在的感觉。

Standards such as Web3 browsers and common profiles will need to work together in the future to simplify these processes. Users don't have to worry about the world of back-end protocols, with easier to remember usernames and parsable information associated with each identity.