WTF is Web3?
Web3, blockchain, wtf
9 min read
Right now, in December of 2021, Web3 is just an idea. There's no standards committee or company behind it. Just a lot of excited folks talking about what the future might hold.
In this podcast, Chris Dixson breaks it down like this:
Web 1:
- Early days of the internet
- Think web pages that look like magazines
- Mostly used for reading
- Static websites
Web 2:
- Current version of the web
- Complex UI/UX
- Used for reading/writing
- Dynamic websites/apps
Web 3:
- Built on top of blockchains
- Possible future version of the web
- Not sure what it will look like
- A lot of people love the idea
- A lot of people hate the idea
One reason web3 garners so much support is that it may eliminate the need for central authorities.
- You could use web3 to handle identification instead of using a government.
- You could use web3 to handle financial transactions instead of a bank.
- You could use web3 to handle governance of a company instead of a lawyer.
Reasons why people dislike web3:
- Consumes a lot of energy (BTC alone consumes more than entire countries)
- Has already been tried (block chains have been around since the 80s)
- Its a solution looking for a problem. Not every application needs to run on-chain.
Check this video out for the "blue-pill" take on crypto.
Web3 is a vision, a concept, a set of ideas, a hope, it means different things to different people, its edges are fuzzy, it is not completely defined at the present moment. It just an idea of what the internet might be if blockchain tech becomes ubiquitous.
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