Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey, and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen can’t seem to agree on what Web3 is and whether it’s even happening. In late 2021, as blockchain companies started calling themselves the “This of Web3” and the “That of Web3,” Musk asked, “Has anyone seen web3? I can’t find it.”
Though the term isn’t long enough to be a Wordle guess, it’s constantly being redefined to include more and more. Web3 is built on the idea that there are two distinct stages of the internet, and that we’re entering a third.
Web3 could mean that users no longer rely on banks of servers run by companies like Amazon. Instead, all web experiences could run on blockchains that users directly interact with. Because blockchains are stored as encrypted bits of code spread across thousands of personal computers, “Web3 servers can’t go down,” per Ethereum’s website. Considering how many AWS-caused shutdowns major sites like Ticketmaster and Tinder have experienced, that would be a BFD.
Continue reading: https://www.morningbrew.com/daily/stories/2022/08/22/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-web3
Though the term isn’t long enough to be a Wordle guess, it’s constantly being redefined to include more and more. Web3 is built on the idea that there are two distinct stages of the internet, and that we’re entering a third.
- Web1. The internet started out as a tool for government agencies and evolved into a civilian compendium of text-and-image web pages mostly used for research. (Millennials might remember making book reports based on what they could find on 50states.com.)
- Web2. Companies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon rode in on their unicorns to centralize the web and give creators platforms to easily produce online content.
- Web3. In its ideal form, this iteration of the internet will be a mix of its predecessors: decentralized, user-friendly, accessible, and owned by its creators rather than big tech companies.
Web3 could mean that users no longer rely on banks of servers run by companies like Amazon. Instead, all web experiences could run on blockchains that users directly interact with. Because blockchains are stored as encrypted bits of code spread across thousands of personal computers, “Web3 servers can’t go down,” per Ethereum’s website. Considering how many AWS-caused shutdowns major sites like Ticketmaster and Tinder have experienced, that would be a BFD.
Continue reading: https://www.morningbrew.com/daily/stories/2022/08/22/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-web3
