Is Web3 real or marketing hype?

Probably both at first. There are valid use cases where we could use a decentralized web (email, photo sharing, social networking) but there are a lot of issues that need to be worked out. And of course the incumbents will resist...governments will want to control it, companies won't want to lose their control.

Probably a bit of both. That said, I think it could be huge. The web we know now was created via protocols that enabled what we all experience today in terms of connectivity, social media, ecommerce, apps etc (Web2). Blockchain technology and the associated protocols bring a new overlay that will enable us to build really interesting businesses, experiences etc that are enabled by trust / logic etc being built into the code. Altering and in some cases eliminating the role of many intermediaries while creating opportunities to build innovative / new business models. Feels a lot like it did 20 or so years ago when people were super excited about the possibilities of the Internet but we didn't really know what was going to work out vs flame out etc. Safe to say this will be something that will take 10+ years to play itself out.

Part of the thing that moves terms from "hype" to "real" is: money.

Take the example of a singer.

v1: "I'm an aspiring singer."

"Oh cool. What experience do you have?"

"So far I've played at home & family gatherings..." (<- not real)

v2: "I'm an aspiring singer."

"What experience do you have?"

"I have a 10 million dollar contract with Interscope." (<- real)

By that standard, one of the reasons that web3 is 'real' is because so much money has been poured into it.

At this point, there are enough highly skilled (Google-quality) engineers, working on web3 things, who are funded for years, that real profit-earning web3 companies will result.

So web3 will end being judged a success, on its own terms, purely because of that.

You know. I can guarantee that for most, it is getting more difficult to ignore this to the point that questions like this pop up every now and then.

So their 'worst nightmare' of Web 3 is becoming more real everytime it is talked about. If you believe it is a fad or a hype, just ignore it.

We all know it won't be the last time we will discuss about it (again) and the same people will come here and comment and talk about it once again.

As far as I know blockchain/crypto/... projects are not structured in a graph-like way like our much loved web.

So web3 is more tree0

IMO web3 is real.

Web3 is introducing new ways in which we will use the internet. Existing technologies and platforms will remain as is IMO, it just represents a new phase of application development on the internet. By that definition it will allow a lot of new players to build the companies that will be the FAANGs of the next decade or so.