Web3 (also known as Web 3.0
) is an idea for a new iteration of the
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet.
Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web se ...
which incorporates concepts such as
decentralization
Decentralization or decentralisation is the process by which the activities of an organization, particularly those regarding planning and decision making, are distributed or delegated away from a central, authoritative location or group.
Conce ...
,
blockchain technologies, and token-based economics. Some technologists and journalists have contrasted it with
Web 2.0
Web 2.0 (also known as participative (or participatory) web and social web) refers to websites that emphasize user-generated content, ease of use, participatory culture and interoperability (i.e., compatibility with other products, systems, and ...
, wherein they say data and content are centralized in a small group of companies sometimes referred to as "
Big Tech".
The term "Web3" was coined in 2014 by
Ethereum
Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain with smart contract functionality. Ether (Abbreviation: ETH; sign: Ξ) is the native cryptocurrency of the platform. Among cryptocurrencies, ether is second only to bitcoin in market capita ...
co-founder
Gavin Wood
Gavin James Wood (born 1980) is an English computer scientist, a founder of Ethereum and creator of Polkadot and Kusama.
Early life
Wood was born in Lancaster, England, United Kingdom. He attended the Lancaster Royal Grammar School. He gradua ...
, and the idea gained interest in 2021 from
cryptocurrency
A cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, or crypto is a digital currency designed to work as a medium of exchange through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it. It i ...
enthusiasts, large technology companies, and
venture capital
Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...
firms.
Commentators associated with the
Open Rights Group
The Open Rights Group (ORG) is a UK-based organisation that works to preserve digital rights and freedoms by campaigning on digital rights issues and by fostering a community of grassroots activists. It campaigns on numerous issues including ma ...
argue that Web3 will provide increased
data security
Data security means protecting digital data, such as those in a database, from destructive forces and from the unwanted actions of unauthorized users, such as a cyberattack or a data breach.
Technologies
Disk encryption
Disk encryption refe ...
,
scalability
Scalability is the property of a system to handle a growing amount of work by adding resources to the system.
In an economic context, a scalable business model implies that a company can increase sales given increased resources. For example, a ...
, and
privacy
Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively.
The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of a ...
for users and combat the influence of large technology companies.
They also raise concerns about the
decentralized web
The decentralized web is research program which proposes to reorganize the Internet using peer-to-peer infrastructure rather than centralized data hosting services. Interest in the decentralized web arose due to the lack of trust in network maint ...
component of Web3, citing the potential for low moderation and the proliferation of
harmful content.
Some have expressed concerns over the
centralization of wealth to a small group of investors and individuals,
or a loss of privacy due to more expansive data collection.
Others, such as
Elon Musk
Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc.; founder of The Bori ...
and
Jack Dorsey
Jack Patrick Dorsey (born November 19, 1976) is an American Internet entrepreneur and programmer who is a co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, Inc., as well as a co-founder and the CEO and chairperson of Block, Inc., the developer of the Squa ...
, have argued that Web3 only serves as a
buzzword
A buzzword is a word or phrase, new or already existing, that becomes popular for a period of time. Buzzwords often derive from technical terms yet often have much of the original technical meaning removed through fashionable use, being simply used ...
or marketing term.
Background
Web 1.0
Web 2.0 (also known as participative (or participatory) web and social web) refers to websites that emphasize user-generated content, ease of use, participatory culture and interoperability (i.e., compatibility with other products, systems, and ...
and
Web 2.0
Web 2.0 (also known as participative (or participatory) web and social web) refers to websites that emphasize user-generated content, ease of use, participatory culture and interoperability (i.e., compatibility with other products, systems, and ...
refer to eras in the
history of the World Wide Web
The World Wide Web ("WWW", "W3" or, simply, "the Web") is a global information medium which users can access via computers connected to the Internet. The term is often mistakenly used as a synonym for the Internet, but the Web is a service tha ...
as it evolved through various technologies and formats. Web 1.0 refers roughly to the period from 1991 to 2004, where most sites consisted of
static pages, and the vast majority of users were consumers, not producers of content. Web 2.0 is based around the idea of "the web as platform"
and centers on user-created content uploaded to
forums,
social media
Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...
and networking services,
blogs, and
wikis
A wiki ( ) is an online hypertext publication collaboratively edited and managed by its own audience, using a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages for the subjects or scope of the project, and could be either open to the pub ...
, among other services. Web 2.0 is generally considered to have begun around 2004 and continues to the current day.
Terminology
Web3 is distinct from
Tim Berners-Lee
Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee (born 8 June 1955), also known as TimBL, is an English computer scientist best known as the inventor of the World Wide Web. He is a Professorial Fellow of Computer Science at the University of Oxford and a profess ...
's 1999 concept for a
semantic web. In 2006, Berners-Lee described the semantic web as a component of Web 3.0, which is different from the meaning of ''Web3'' in blockchain contexts.
The term "Web3" was coined by
Polkadot founder and
Ethereum
Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain with smart contract functionality. Ether (Abbreviation: ETH; sign: Ξ) is the native cryptocurrency of the platform. Among cryptocurrencies, ether is second only to bitcoin in market capita ...
co-founder
Gavin Wood
Gavin James Wood (born 1980) is an English computer scientist, a founder of Ethereum and creator of Polkadot and Kusama.
Early life
Wood was born in Lancaster, England, United Kingdom. He attended the Lancaster Royal Grammar School. He gradua ...
in 2014, referring to a "decentralized online ecosystem based on blockchain."
In 2021, the idea of Web3 gained popularity. Particular interest spiked toward the end of 2021, largely due to interest from
cryptocurrency
A cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, or crypto is a digital currency designed to work as a medium of exchange through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it. It i ...
enthusiasts and investments from high-profile technologists and companies.
Executives from venture capital firm
Andreessen Horowitz
Andreessen Horowitz (also called a16z, legal name AH Capital Management, LLC) is a private American venture capital firm, founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. The company is headquartered in Menlo Park, California.
Andreessen ...
traveled to
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, in October 2021 to lobby for the idea as a potential solution to questions about regulation of the web, with which policymakers have been grappling.
Concept
Specific visions for Web3 differ, and the term has been described by ''Bloomberg'' as "hazy", but they revolve around the idea of decentralization and often incorporate
blockchain technologies, such as various
cryptocurrencies and
non-fungible token
A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unique digital identifier that cannot be copied, substituted, or subdivided, that is recorded in a blockchain, and that is used to certify authenticity and ownership. The ownership of an NFT is recorded in the b ...
s (NFTs).
''Bloomberg'' has described Web3 as an idea that "would build financial assets, in the form of tokens, into the inner workings of almost anything you do online".
A policy brief published by the
Bennett Institute for Public Policy at the
University of Cambridge
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
defined Web3 as "the putative next generation of the web’s technical, legal, and payments infrastructure—including blockchain, smart contracts and cryptocurrencies."
According to Liu, Zhuotao, et al (2021), three fundamental architectural enablers of Web3 were identified as a combination of decentralized or federated platforms, secured
interoperability
Interoperability is a characteristic of a product or system to work with other products or systems. While the term was initially defined for information technology or systems engineering services to allow for information exchange, a broader defi ...
, and verifiable computing through distributed ledger technologies.
Some visions are based around the concept of
decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).
Decentralized finance
Decentralized finance (often stylized as DeFi) offers financial instruments without relying on intermediaries such as brokerages, exchanges, or banks by using smart contracts on a blockchain. DeFi platforms allow people to lend or borrow funds ...
(DeFi) is another key concept; in it, users exchange currency without bank or government involvement.
Self-sovereign identity
Self-sovereign identity (SSI) is an approach to digital identity that gives individuals control over the information they use to prove who they are to websites, services, and applications across the web. Without SSI, individuals with persistent ...
allows users to identify themselves without relying on an authentication system such as
OAuth
OAuth (short for "Open Authorization") is an open standard for access delegation, commonly used as a way for internet users to grant websites or applications access to their information on other websites but without giving them the passwords. T ...
, in which a trusted party has to be reached in order to assess identity. Technology scholars have argued that Web3 would likely run in tandem with
Web 2.0
Web 2.0 (also known as participative (or participatory) web and social web) refers to websites that emphasize user-generated content, ease of use, participatory culture and interoperability (i.e., compatibility with other products, systems, and ...
sites, with Web 2.0 sites likely adopting Web3 technologies in order to keep their services relevant.
Reception
Technologists and journalists have described Web3 as a possible solution to concerns about the over-centralization of the web in a few "Big Tech" companies.
Some have expressed the notion that Web3 could improve
data security
Data security means protecting digital data, such as those in a database, from destructive forces and from the unwanted actions of unauthorized users, such as a cyberattack or a data breach.
Technologies
Disk encryption
Disk encryption refe ...
,
scalability
Scalability is the property of a system to handle a growing amount of work by adding resources to the system.
In an economic context, a scalable business model implies that a company can increase sales given increased resources. For example, a ...
, and
privacy
Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively.
The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of a ...
beyond what is currently possible with Web 2.0 platforms.
''Bloomberg'' states that skeptics say the idea "is a long way from proving its use beyond niche applications, many of them tools aimed at crypto traders".
''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' reported that several investors are betting $27billion that Web3 "is the future of the internet".
Some
Web 2.0
Web 2.0 (also known as participative (or participatory) web and social web) refers to websites that emphasize user-generated content, ease of use, participatory culture and interoperability (i.e., compatibility with other products, systems, and ...
companies, including
Reddit
Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, images ...
and
Discord
Discord is a VoIP and instant messaging social platform. Users have the ability to communicate with voice calls, video calls, text messaging, media and files in private chats or as part of communities called "servers".The developer documenta ...
, have explored incorporating Web3 technologies into their platforms.
On November 8, 2021, CEO Jason Citron tweeted a screenshot suggesting Discord might be exploring integrating cryptocurrency wallets into their platform. Two days later, and after heavy user backlash,
Discord announced they had no plans to integrate such technologies and that it was an internal-only concept that had been developed in a company-wide
hackathon.
Some legal scholars quoted by ''
The Conversation
''The Conversation'' is a 1974 American mystery thriller film written, produced, and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Cindy Williams, Frederic Forrest, Harrison Ford, Teri Garr, and Rober ...
'' have expressed concerns over the difficulty of regulating a decentralized web, which they reported might make it more difficult to prevent
cybercrime
A cybercrime is a crime that involves a computer or a computer network.Moore, R. (2005) "Cyber crime: Investigating High-Technology Computer Crime," Cleveland, Mississippi: Anderson Publishing. The computer may have been used in committing the ...
,
online harassment
Cyberbullying or cyberharassment is a form of bullying or harassment using Electronic communication network, electronic means. Cyberbullying and cyberharassment are also known as online bullying. It has become increasingly common, especially ...
,
hate speech, and the dissemination of
child abuse images
Child pornography (also called CP, child sexual abuse material, CSAM, child porn, or kiddie porn) is pornography that unlawfully exploits children for sexual stimulation. It may be produced with the direct involvement or sexual assault of a ...
.
But, the news website also states that, "
ecentralized webrepresents the cyber-libertarian views and hopes of the past that the internet can empower ordinary people by breaking down existing power structures". Some other critics of Web3 see the concept as a part of a
cryptocurrency bubble, or as an extension of blockchain-based trends that they see as overhyped or harmful, particularly NFTs.
Some critics have raised concerns about the
environmental impact of cryptocurrencies and NFTs.
Cryptocurrencies vary in efficiency, with
proof of stake
Proof-of-stake (PoS) protocols are a class of consensus mechanisms for blockchains that work by selecting validators in proportion to their quantity of holdings in the associated cryptocurrency. This is done to avoid the computational cost of ...
having been designed to be less energy intensive than the more widely used
proof of work
Proof of work (PoW) is a form of Cryptography, cryptographic proof (truth), proof in which one party (the ''prover'') proves to others (the ''verifiers'') that a certain amount of a specific computational effort has been expended. Verifiers can s ...
, although there is disagreement about how secure and decentralized this is in practice. Others have expressed beliefs that Web3 and the associated technologies are a
pyramid scheme
A pyramid scheme is a business model that recruits members via a promise of payments or services for enrolling others into the scheme, rather than supplying investments or sale of products. As recruiting multiplies, recruiting becomes quickly im ...
.
Jack Dorsey
Jack Patrick Dorsey (born November 19, 1976) is an American Internet entrepreneur and programmer who is a co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, Inc., as well as a co-founder and the CEO and chairperson of Block, Inc., the developer of the Squa ...
, co-founder and former CEO of
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
, dismissed Web3 as a "venture capitalists' plaything".
Dorsey opined that Web3 will not democratize the internet, but it will shift
power
Power most often refers to:
* Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work"
** Engine power, the power put out by an engine
** Electric power
* Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events
** Abusive power
Power may a ...
from players like Facebook to venture capital funds like
Andreessen Horowitz
Andreessen Horowitz (also called a16z, legal name AH Capital Management, LLC) is a private American venture capital firm, founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. The company is headquartered in Menlo Park, California.
Andreessen ...
.
On December 14, 2021,
software engineer
Software engineering is a systematic engineering approach to software development.
A software engineer is a person who applies the principles of software engineering to design, develop, maintain, test, and evaluate computer software. The term ''p ...
Molly White launched ''Web3 Is Going Just Great'', a website that documents "prominent scams, schemes, and rug pulls" involving cryptocurrency and Web3.
Buzzword
Liam Proven, writing for ''
The Register
''The Register'' is a British technology news website co-founded in 1994 by Mike Magee, John Lettice and Ross Alderson. The online newspaper's masthead sublogo is "''Biting the hand that feeds IT''." Their primary focus is information tec ...
'', concludes that Web3 is "a myth, a fairy story. It's what parents tell their kids about at night if they want them to grow up to become economists".
In 2021,
SpaceX
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal of ...
and
Tesla CEO
Elon Musk
Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc.; founder of The Bori ...
expressed skepticism about Web3 in a tweet, saying that Web3 "seems more marketing buzzword than reality right now".
In November 2021, James Grimmelmann of
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
referred to Web3 as
vaporware
In the computer industry, vaporware (or vapourware) is a product, typically computer hardware or software, that is announced to the general public but is late or never actually manufactured nor officially cancelled. Use of the word has broade ...
, calling it "a promised future internet that fixes all the things people don't like about the current internet, even when it's contradictory". Grimmelmann also argued that moving the internet toward a blockchain-focused infrastructure would centralize and cause more
data collection
Data collection or data gathering is the process of gathering and measuring information on targeted variables in an established system, which then enables one to answer relevant questions and evaluate outcomes. Data collection is a research com ...
compared to the current internet.
Software engineer Stephen Diehl described Web3 in a blog post as a "vapid marketing campaign that attempts to reframe the public’s negative associations of crypto assets into a false narrative about disruption of legacy tech company hegemony".
Not decentralised
Kevin Werbach
Kevin Werbach is an American academic, businessman and author. In 2002, he founded the Supernova Group, a technology analysis and consulting firm. Since 2004, Werbach is an Associate Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics at The Wharton Sch ...
, author of ''The Blockchain and the New Architecture of Trust'',
has said that "many so-called 'Web 3.0' solutions are not as decentralized as they seem, while others have yet to show they are scalable, secure and accessible enough for the mass market", adding that this "may change, but it's not a given that all these limitations will be overcome".
In early 2022,
Moxie Marlinspike
Moxie Marlinspike is an American entrepreneur, cryptographer, and computer security researcher. Marlinspike is the creator of Signal, co-founder of the Signal Technology Foundation, and served as the first CEO of Signal Messenger LLC. He is als ...
, creator of
Signal
In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The '' IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing' ...
, articulated how Web3 is not as decentralized as it appears to be, mainly due to consolidation in the cryptocurrency field, including in blockchain
application programming interfaces
An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how ...
which is currently mainly controlled by the companies
Alchemy
Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, ...
and
Infura,
cryptocurrency exchanges
A cryptocurrency exchange, or a digital currency exchange (DCE), is a business that allows customers to trade cryptocurrencies or digital currencies for other assets, such as conventional fiat money or other digital currencies. Exchanges may acce ...
which is mainly dominated by
Binance
Binance is a cryptocurrency exchange which is the largest exchange in the world in terms of daily trading volume of cryptocurrencies. It was founded in 2017 and is registered in the Cayman Islands.
Binance was founded by Changpeng Zhao, a d ...
,
Coinbase
Coinbase Global, Inc., branded Coinbase, is an American publicly traded company that operates a cryptocurrency exchange platform. Coinbase is a distributed company; all employees operate via remote work and the company lacks a physical headq ...
,
MetaMask
MetaMask is a software cryptocurrency wallet used to interact with the Ethereum blockchain. It allows users to access their Ethereum wallet through a browser extension or mobile app, which can then be used to interact with decentralized applica ...
, and
OpenSea
OpenSea is an American online non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace headquartered in New York City. The company was founded by Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah in 2017.
OpenSea offers a marketplace allowing for non-fungible tokens to be sold directly ...
, and the
stablecoin
Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies where the price is supposed to be pegged to a reference asset, which is either fiat money, exchange-traded commodities (such as precious metals or industrial metals), or another cryptocurrency.
In theory, the p ...
market which is currently dominated by
Tether
A tether is a cord, fixture, or flexible attachment that characteristically anchors something movable to something fixed; it also maybe used to connect two movable objects, such as an item being towed by its tow.
Applications for tethers includ ...
. Marlinspike also remarked that the new web resembles the old web.
An ''
Ad Age
''Ad Age'' (known as ''Advertising Age'' until 2017) is a global media brand that publishes news, analysis, and data on marketing and media. Its namesake magazine was started as a broadsheet newspaper in Chicago in 1930. ''Ad Age'' appears in mul ...
'' article from 2022 stated "early adopters want to make a new internet that alleviates the problems of the old one" but said if companies put the same type people in charge as on the earlier version, and those people had similar attitudes, the same problems would happen.
[ Another article in the same issue of the magazine quoted Alex Smeele, co-founder of Non-Fungible Labs, who said companies that wanted to participate in Web3 were "actually going to have to rethink their entire business model."]
Ana Constantino, founder of meetup platform Nowhere, said the metaverse did not really welcome everyone, because owners of NFT real estate on sites such as Decentraland could keep people out who did not have the assets.
See also
* Distributed social network
A distributed social network or federated social network is an Internet social networking service that is decentralized and distributed across distinct service providers (similar to email, but for social networks), such as the Fediverse or the I ...
* InterPlanetary File System
The InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) is a protocol, hypermedia and file sharing peer-to-peer network for storing and sharing data in a distributed file system. IPFS uses content-addressing to uniquely identify each file in a global namespace ...
– Web3 user-made cloud
References
External links
Official website
for Web3 Foundation
Web3 Is Going Just Great
{{Cryptocurrencies
2020s in Internet culture
Blockchains
Decentralization
Internet ages
2014 neologisms
Web3