I've been noticing this web3 buzzword picking up steam on here for months now. And it all feels very manufactured (much how metaverse has been co-opted and tainted by Facebook). I suspect this web3 push is just cryptobros shoehorning their schemes into relevance.
On the other hand, if you're paying attention, you might have noticed a push back to web1 and even older tech. I hope whatever is next actually springs forth from that movement. Because a platform built around extracting wealth sounds horrible.
For me (Firefox 95 on Ubuntu 20.04), the bars appear to be hanging down from the top of the chart, instead of rising from the bottom; is that intentional?
> On the other hand, if you're paying attention, you might have noticed a push back to web1
Exactly. Quite a few devs are fed up with the unnecessary bloat/performance issues oftentimes associated with web2 and like to stick to the web1 approach when they can. And I think the overall sentiment towards web3 shows well here on hn
At the same time, most internet users don't care about decentralization in the slightest. Many can't even be bothered to adjust their browser's privacy settings or use an adblocker.
So, who really cares about web3? I don't know a single person who does
I think you hit the real point that the VCs gloss over and rationalize as “users don’t know they want it”:
> most internet users don't care about decentralization in the slightest.
Users do care about privacy and (shared?) ownership, but as long as those needs are catered in a “fair” way, decentralization doesn’t matter, esp to non-tech folks.
Now decentralization might be a way to force better fair behavior, but only if you know how to manage the tech. Also, 51% in PoW still makes it not really decentralized, nor is PoS.
Federation, Tor, IPFS, DAT, CDJS, BATMAN, etc are all technologies that are tackling the problem of data/network ownership in some form or another and have been doing it for years. The current and specific uptick in "web3" references appears to come from blockchain projects all vying to be the next big thing.
From the article:
"...the most developed areas of web3, like decentralized finance (aka DeFi) where literally hundreds of financial applications have been built on top of Ethereum..."
There's web3 in a nutshell. Hundreds of applications built with the sole purpose of extracting wealth.
Web 3 is already being commandeered by hyper-growth marketing bullshit, cool ideas or not it will end up being just a slogan to try and hawk technology to people.
If permissionless data provides value it will prosper in spite of the marketing buzz. Same thing happened in Web2.0. There is no real delineation between Web1, 2, 3, it's just marketing.
https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=web3
On the other hand, if you're paying attention, you might have noticed a push back to web1 and even older tech. I hope whatever is next actually springs forth from that movement. Because a platform built around extracting wealth sounds horrible.