How Web 3.0 apps must adapt to become next-gen of tech, explained

Unlike Web 2.0 applications, offerings built on Web 3.0 are enabling users with true data ownership.

Web 2.0 brought about a major change to how the world views the internet, introducing online platforms like TikTok, Twitter, Meta (former Facebook) and Instagram, among others.

Although valuable in the number of opportunities made available, Web 2.0 has brought concerns about data ownership. With users spending more time online, their data, including what they like, the content they create and other details about themselves, are being shared with big tech companies, many of which have been caught in data scandals in the past and paid their way out of it.

Web 3.0 addresses these concerns by presenting a new reality for application usage. Leveraging verifiable, trustless, self-governing, permissionless, distributed and robust technology, application users can gain true ownership over their data.

Unfortunately, before this becomes a reality, developers must consider how to create apps that can be deployed to run on multiple servers as a decentralized application (DApp) while still maintaining the same user experience expected in 2022.

When it comes to a user's experience (UX), people now seek convenience first.

Amazon, for instance, set a new standard for online shopping by making purchasing convenient and eliminating the time and effort needed to make a purchase.

With users coming to expect simplicity in their online interactions, the sleek user experience common in modern websites and apps must continue into Web 3.0 developments. Among these features are push notifications and real-time alerts, which keep a user informed without opening an application itself. This way, users can get a basic overview of what information should remain top of mind without repeatedly refreshing an app to see an incoming message.

Push notifications are now becoming so commonplace that the world has started to take these features for granted. Currently, applications that don't offer these features are viewed as too primitive to even consider using.

Implementing features considered standard today is no easy task for the blockchain.

At present, there is no unified system that enables the notification of users in real-time on most blockchains. This lack of well-developed user experience on Web 3.0 has delayed end-user adoption, giving little incentive for Web 2.0 users to make the transition.

To address this gap, solutions have been developed for Ethereum (ETH) that work as third-party notification applications. Unfortunately, these separate services are not available as built-in features or as a standard developer tool.

Some blockchain development platforms allow creators to set up webhooks for Ethereum as an alternative. But many of these are still complicated to implement and require the creator to set up a series of alerts for each event and filter them manually.

While webhooks present a step in the right direction, these solutions still don’t account for the other blockchains where push notifications are largely non-existent and difficult to implement without a significantly knowledgeable developer. Deploying custom real-time alert systems is extremely complicated and can take weeks of development time on any blockchain. As a result, Web 3.0 applications, which were once positioned as the next generation of technology, exist without push notifications making them look like a step back on the internet rather than one forward.

New blockchain development offerings are making it simple for Web 3.0 applications to implement push notifications.

A practical solution to these UX issues would need to be simple to implement and enable applications to monitor any address for incoming and outgoing token transactions (cryptocurrency, NFT or otherwise). Developers need to be able to set up push notifications in their own applications quickly and easily across multiple blockchains without learning code for each.

Tatum has emerged as a leading blockchain development platform, offering an answer to address these user experience concerns. With their new Notification Station feature, users can take advantage of a simple and effective way to implement push notifications into Web 3.0 apps for over 10 blockchains, including Celo (CELO), Solana (SOL), Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Dogecoin (DOGE) and Terra (LUNA).

The feature can be implemented seamlessly into any app with one API call to monitor any address on any supported blockchain. This way, applications can easily send instant alerts to end-users about any transaction.

With offerings like Notification Station, developers now have tools to build user-friendly and intuitive blockchain applications and bring users a Web 3.0 experience expected in 2022. The feature is planned to be expanded to over 50 blockchains, bringing a simple, effective and unified notification system to a multitude of decentralized networks.