Is Web 3.0 just crypto or something more?

It is nothing but a marketing term at this point. Various groups are trying to claim it and normalize their own meaning, but there is little consensus whether it even has a shared meaning.

As I understand it, the gist of web3 is to do away with the need for having centralized organizations who control a particular resource. For example domain names, identities, speech. In the beginning, the web was supposed to be an egalitarian and democratic space. Of course corporations and governments seized as much control as they could. Today we have companies that dictate arbitrary rules. For example, there is nothing you can do to grow your Twitter account. If Youtube decides they don't like you anymore, your audience is gone. Your domain name is not really yours, etc.

Supposedly web 3.0 would fix this problem by making sure decision power is decentralized. Will it deliver? I personally doubt it, because it's easy to create an anonymous oligarchy under an apparent layer of decentralization. Still, I'm sure some applications will succeed.

The only people talking seriously about web 3.0 are selling a crypto product, therefore it is a crypto product marketing term.

As suggested, the core ethos of web 3.0 is truly decentralisation.

Decentralisation of internet was there since the very start of the World Wide Web.

The first internet during era of ARPANET was decentralised and it evolved into giant monolithic cloud to to appease the economies of scale.

In recent times, we have seen a lot of limitations and vulnerabilities of our dependence on the cloud counting from data breaches, hacks to outages. But since Cloud has become a single point of failure.

There are tens of billions of devices on earth having capabilities far exceeding the Great Cloud, yet they are completely wasted because we insist on using the data-centers to do everything.

It is high time that we realize the ceiling and limitations of the Great Cloud and move towards a decentralized cloud where the devices in our hands are the powerhouses.

Decentralization without blockchain has existed and worked for decades.

Web 3.0 utilizes crypto in order to build something more than just the cryptocurrencies built in the past. A blockchain is useful in a decentralized system where a shared ledger is required. There are several different types of projects that are branding themselves Web3 -- and I think they are all correct; Web3 is a totally new web built by the people and controlled by the people.

> encompensate technologies like edge computing which are decentralising ownership of compute and data back to devices.

I've been working on just that [1], and I think many other projects are as well. If you stop focusing on the 'value' of 'coins' in the market and, instead, narrow in on the merits of the underlying technology, I think you'll quickly find that all the building blocks are there to get to this decentralized ownership model we are all seeking so eagerly.

[1] https://github.com/publiusfederalist/federalist

I'm the founder of DNS.xyz, we're a fairly well-known identity platform built on web3. I've been working on IPFS apps since 2016, and talked about web3 at IPFS Camp and DWeb Camp.

It's pretty important to understand that the concept of web3 has been used by people who want to be in the cool trend of the day. As a result, it's definition has become really loose.

To me, and arguably to the people who have been working on web3 all these years, web3 is the application of decentralized technology to the web. It uses concepts such as federated platforms, blockchain, content addressing, to make the web less reliant on the major web players.

It's a mix of technologies, and an ideology that seeks to change the shape of the architecture of web apps.

In that sense, crypto is not part of web3. It is similar in terms of technology and ideals, but crypto isn't specifically a web technology.

“Web 3” is just a giant VC-funded pyramid scheme.

Not an expert in any way, but what I've seen it described more than once is: web3 is the normal web with added payments/finances and decentralized identity, normally via metamask. It theoretically doesn't need blockchain, but I think the term itself is more commonly associated with it though.

You can still just do something that you authenticate using metamask or some other form of DID without using blockchain for anything else and still call your application web3, and I think this is a good distinction to make. Metamask is really good as an identity provider that is always online and doesn't require a centralized party, you can still get value from it without touching the finance part at all.

As a category, most of Web 3.0 is dominated by decentralized finance, which is why it is so closely associated with cryptocurrency and other blockchain products.

Here are my notes as I attempt to wonder about whether there are investment opportunities for an infrastructure investor.

What is a dApp? https://twitter.com/TylerJewell/status/1474468145704280064?s...

What are the investment opptys for an infra investor? https://twitter.com/TylerJewell/status/1474468607295832069?s...

What are various people saying about Web3? https://twitter.com/TylerJewell/status/1474468866101157889?s...

For me, the essential point of web 3.0 apps isn't the use of blockchain as datastore but user-generated keypairs for authentication instead of a `users` table in a database: no more "sign up" buttons, just connect.

This enables composition between services more freely than oauth.

To me the crypto technologies are only one possible application on the Web 3.0.

There are voices, that Web 3.0 is the same as the DWeb - the distributed web. Like IPFS, which might be indeed a solution against DDOS attacks and censoring. [1]

On the other hand, there are people who think that "The promise of a decentralized and trustless future is forever just that: a promise, and in the future." [2]

1) https://decrypt.co/resources/how-to-use-ipfs-the-backbone-of...

2) https://networked.substack.com/p/web3-i-have-my-daots

This is a pretty good post about the question: https://jaygraber.medium.com/web3-is-self-certifying-9dad77f...

My personal running definition is something like: "The Web3 vision is that by leveraging publicly distributed, trustless cryptography, a contract and payment system can be tightly coupled to services, thus enabling truly decentralized coordination, execution, and delivery."... it's pretty dry. I have been writing as an exercise to force my analysis and understanding of this topic as of late. Here is my longwinded version:

https://www.jasonrexilius.com/articles/understanding-web3.ht...

Web3 replaces storing things on webservices which are run by companies like Facebook or Twitter with storing things on blockchains.

So yes, it is a crypto thing in the sense that it uses blockchain technology as the storage medium (sortof). You still need somewhere to store the data, but you can put pointers to those storage locations on chain.

Web2: Twitter knows the URL to your avatar and decided what it is (usually they listen to you).

Web3: The blockchain knows the URL to your avatar. You decide what it is and nobody can (practically) stop you.

Web 3 was invented to pump coins mostly. Crypto coin holders: crypto is evolving the web to the next stage. People buy into the message, they can cash out at a higher price point

Here’s a good explanation from somebody on Twitter that I mostly share.

“Web3: “user-generated authority, enabled by self-certifying web protocols.” A superset of technologies that include blockchains, but are not limited to them.

Or we can just use “Self-Certifying Web Protocols” (SCWP).”

https://twitter.com/arcalinea/status/1474124531895713792?s=2...

In a time when technological progress has peaked, the only "innovation" money can target is marketing innovation. Thus, a preponderance of confidence scams.

This is the absolute worst place to ask that question

It is the new phase of the internet so it might mean different things to different people. To me it's the rise of decentralized and distributed applications on the internet consuming and producing machine readable or semantic data that can be communicated across platforms.

Someone mentioned on HN that web3 is so 2018 because it’s basically just a new word for “on the blockchain”.

I understand how ethereum and dApps work etc. Can someone provide a list of some 'web3' companies?

Web 3.0 is a stock pump.