What are the Web4 technologies proposed by the European Commission?

Text reference: Alessandro Adami《European Commission looks to the future and proposes development of Web4 technologies》

On 11 July, the European Commission adopted a new strategy on Web4 and virtual worlds to guide the next technological transformation and ensure open, secure, trustworthy, fair and inclusive solutions for EU citizens, businesses and public administrations. digital environment.

According to the introduction, the so-called Web4, which echoes and covers the Web3 term, will be part of a new Internet vision where virtual experiences, the Internet of Things and blockchain converge.

Web3 has not been figured out yet, and Web4 is coming again. Today, let us know what is the Web4 technology proposed by the European Commission?

European Commission and Web4: Thinking about the future of technology

The Internet is developing at breakneck speed, says the strategy background, published on July 11. **In addition to Web3, the third generation of the Internet currently under development, whose main characteristics are openness, decentralization and full empowerment of users, the next generation of Web4 will allow integration between digital and real objects and environments, and enhance Interaction between humans and machines. **

In the "EU Economic Outlook after 2030" released by the European Union in March, it emphasized that digitalization is one of its key drivers, and Web4 is a major technological transformation that will bring a seamlessly connected, intelligent and immersive world.

What is Web4?

**Based on the description of this strategy report, we can understand it as the evolution of the concept of Web3, where IoT, Blockchain, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality converge. **

While this sounds very promising, no details have yet been provided to explain how all the technical facts came together to give birth to this innovative concept.

It’s no secret that the European Commission, having opened the door to cryptocurrencies and blockchain with MiCA (Markets in Cryptoassets) approval in April, now wants to go a step further and try to compete with technological innovations from the United States.

A number of new initiatives were also revealed in the same announcement of the just-released Web4 strategy.

For example, the agency has proposed a Horizon Europe initiative called the "Virtual World Partnership" with an expected launch date of 2025.

The goal of the initiative is** to develop an "Industrial and Technology Roadmap for Virtual Worlds" by helping developers, creators, and companies that make extensive use of the Internet understand this new trend. **

Furthermore, this will require testing new solutions with all EU member states.

As a second idea part of the technology expansion plan, ** envisioned a project called "CitiVerse", described as an urban virtual universe for managing and planning urban work and activities in alternative ways, but did not elaborate its target audience. **

Finally, another idea put forward by the committee involves virtual replicas of human bodies called "European virtual human twins" that could help doctors study disease outbreaks and treatments.

Regarding the introduction of the new Web4 technology frontier, EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton commented:

**Europe not yet ready for Web3? **

The European Commission even introduced the term Web4, which represents a completely new concept in the tech world.

While Europe’s regulatory framework is on the verge of becoming one of the world’s most permissive in the world of cryptocurrencies and is willing to let the continent stand out in the context of new technologies, it seems too early to talk about Web4.

According to a June survey by Consensys, only 8% of people across the Alliance believe they are familiar with the concept of Web3. **

On the other hand, terms like blockchain, cryptocurrency, and DeFi are still foreign to the uninitiated and not yet understood by most. **

For a large number of people who are not familiar with the basics of virtual currency, understanding Web3 or Web4 still presents a serious barrier to entry.

**Many European centers such as Berlin, London, and Lisbon are becoming centers of very high levels of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, but the rest of the continent doesn’t even know what the word “cryptocurrency” means. **

According to some data surveys, in 2021, in the United Kingdom, France, Germany and other countries, the adoption rate of the Bitcoin standard is much lower than that of the United States, where cryptocurrencies are more "famous".

Source: triple-a.io

In recent years, we have seen positive initiatives and trends that will lead to the expansion of the use of blockchain technology in Europe.

**For example, in the first quarter of 2023, the number of investments in crypto projects by venture capitalists came from 50% of startups in Europe. **

However, despite the data showing growing interest from investors, entrepreneurs and developers across the continent, there is, unfortunately, global concern that the term "Web4" introduced by the European Commission remains a completely worthless concept. **The so-called Web4 is a "gimmick" or a real "gimmick". Perhaps, everything needs to be handed over to time.