Web 3.0
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Web 3.0 (AKA #web3) is a phrase used to pitch visionary sequels to the popularity of "Web 2.0" to advocate for particular plumbing solutions looking for problems, starting with the "Semantic Web" in the late 2000s, decentralization in the 2010s, and now mostly blockchains & cryptocurrencies; the IndieWeb instead focuses directly on user-centric goals, with technologies only as a means.
Web 3.0 as Semantic Web
The first occurrences of "Web 3.0", occurred during the rise of "Web 2.0" in the mid-2000s, as early as May of 2006, e.g NYT: A 'more revolutionary' Web
Just when the ideas behind "Web 2.0" are starting to enter into the mainstream, the mass of brains behind the World Wide Web is introducing pieces of what may end up being called Web 3.0.
as SVG + Web 2.0 + "Semantic Web":
"… asking what Web 3.0 is," Berners-Lee said. "… maybe when you've got an overlay of scalable vector graphics […] on Web 2.0 and access to a semantic Web integrated across a huge space of data …"
Later in 2007 it was documented as equivalent to "Semantic Web" on various roadmaps, graphs, and articles e.g.:
- https://www.alumniportal-deutschland.org/en/science-research/news-from-science/web-30-semantic-web-metadata/
- http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/10/web-30-semantic-web-web-20.html
- "Web 3.0, in my opinion is best defined as the third-decade of the Web (2010 - 2020), during which time several key technologies will become widely used. Chief among them will be RDF and the technologies of the emerging Semantic Web"
Web 3.0 as Mobile
The "Mobile Web" was briefly pitched as Web 3.0:
- 2012-08-11 TechCrunch: Web 3.0: The Mobile Era
Now we’re entering Web 3.0, which is mobile, and we are in the thick of it.
Although other sources asserted "mobile" as part of the "Web 2.0" era, e.g.:
- https://medium.com/fabric-ventures/what-is-web-3-0-why-it-matters-934eb07f3d2b
The rise of Web 2.0 was largely driven by three core layers of innovation: mobile, social and cloud.
Web 3.0 as Artificial Intelligence
Web 3.0 as A.I. has two variants:
Web 3.0 as ML AI
A.I. meaning Machine Learning (ML): the buzzword hype of Machine Learning in the mid to late 2010s made it sound attractive to lump it into Web 3.0 definitions:
- https://medium.com/fabric-ventures/what-is-web-3-0-why-it-matters-934eb07f3d2b
…Web 3.0 is built largely on three new layers of technological innovation: edge computing, decentralised data networks and artificial intelligence
Emphasis added.Artificial intelligence & Machine learning algorithms have become powerful enough to create useful, indeed sometimes life-saving, predictions and actions.
Web 3.0 as Symbolic AI
A.I. meaning machine "understanding" of conceptually representative symbols and their semantics, and thus an evolution of the "Web 3.0 as Semantic Web" definition, but perhaps with a broader phrase, or a phrase with broader appeal than Semantic Web.
- https://www.gemini.com/cryptopedia/web-3-0-definition-open-internet-decentralized
Artificial Intelligence: Web 3.0’s semantic web will be enabled by advanced artificial intelligence (AI) software capable of decrypting natural language and understanding user intention.
Web 3.0 as Decentralization
- https://gavwood.com/web3lt.html
- "Web 3.0, or as might be termed the "post-Snowden" web, is a reimagination of the sorts of things that we already use the Web for, but with a fundamentally different model for the interactions between parties. Information that we assume to be public, we publish. Information that we assume to be agreed, we place on a consensus-ledger. Information that we assume to be private, we keep secret and never reveal. Communication always takes place over encrypted channels and only with pseudonymous identities as endpoints; never with anything traceable (such as IP addresses). In short, we engineer the system to mathematically enforce our prior assumptions, since no government or organisation can reasonably be trusted."
- https://medium.com/fabric-ventures/what-is-web-3-0-why-it-matters-934eb07f3d2b
- "Web 3.0 enables a future where distributed users and machines are able to interact with data, value and other counterparties via a substrate of peer-to-peer networks without the need for third parties."
- https://www.gemini.com/cryptopedia/web-3-0-definition-open-internet-decentralized
- "Web 3.0’s semantic web will be enabled by advanced artificial intelligence (AI) software capable of decrypting natural language and understanding user intention"
Web 3.0 as Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies
- https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-web-3-0
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2020/01/06/what-is-web-3-0/?sh=fe8083a58dfb
Noting transition from "semantic web" and "decentralization":
- https://twitter.com/fanf42/status/1443470387560525827
- "Sign of our times: web3 used to be used to describe a decentralized, semantic web, where power was retaken by the final user: power on privacy, power on ownership
Now it is a flag put on top of ponzi pyramids whose main observable effect are to ruin people, taldnrs and our planet" @fanf42 September 30, 2021
- "Sign of our times: web3 used to be used to describe a decentralized, semantic web, where power was retaken by the final user: power on privacy, power on ownership
- Transition and how blockchains are worse for lock-in: https://medium.com/@rossstalker_5939/web3-is-not-decentralisation-its-a-ploy-to-put-crypto-bros-in-charge-c791752e2bb6
web3 as a new era
- 2022-01-06 : This is the emergent weirdness of the Internet. If Web3 is dialup, this is Gen Z’s Geocities. There is a lot wrong with this space, but you only get a say in how it’s built if you take part. VC-backed Web3 is bullshit, but nothing not seen in Web 2.0. Ignore the noise and you’ll find a world where VC funding is irrelevant. (archived)
Comparison to IndieWeb
- https://twitter.com/stephenjbell/status/1446590983710388226
"When most people think of decentralizing the Internet, what they really want is to kill Facebook. Honestly, that’s a future I can get behind. #web3 is just the #indieweb."
- https://twitter.com/jaffathecake/status/1460261336169041920
"Right, but Web 2.0 (although the term was a bit of a joke to developers) was describing technologies solving actual problems. Web3 is vague hype.
Folks like https://indieweb.org/ share some of the web3 goals, but without the speculative crypto bro stuff."
- https://twitter.com/Cambridgeport90/status/1466866596207497220
"I totally agree with this... I haven't done my post on this yet... but I plan to. (disclaimer: I am a citizen of the IndieWeb, also called Web 3.)"
- https://twitter.com/Cambridgeport90/status/1466869437571686405
"Web 3.0 belongs to the community of the #Indieweb, not to the blockchain addicts who think that their way is the highway. If anybody wants to kill me for saying that, go right ahead, I’ll just rise, along with my fellows, once more. LOL"
- https://mxb.dev/blog/make-free-stuff/
“Despite what web3 claims, it’s possible to “own” your content without a proof of it on the blockchain (see: IndieWeb). It’s also possible to create things just for the sake of putting them out into the world.”
Criticism
Feed:
grift greed ponzi pyramid schemes
- https://twitter.com/blaine/status/1442549601756614659
- "Yup, this about sums it up. A lot of centralization (re: tech billionaires) exists because "it's easier, and people want it."
That doesn't mean that it's necessary or desirable.
However, in its current instantiation, most of decentralization a la "web3" is just grift & greed." @blaine September 27, 2021
- "Yup, this about sums it up. A lot of centralization (re: tech billionaires) exists because "it's easier, and people want it."
- https://twitter.com/mortenmertner/status/1443597799552126981
- "The term web2 wasn't coined by charlatans cooking up planet-destroying algorithms while pushing crypto pyramid schemes and selling worthless signed pointers to things. Web3 proponents are ridiculed because there is plenty of reason to do so, not because people have changed." @mortenmertner September 30, 2021
- a few get rich, not solving real problems: https://twitter.com/eevee/status/1459920371046490115
- "imo, treat web3, metaverse, blockchain, etc as radioactive. don't validate this crap. they're trying to get rich, not solve real problems
just makes me sad that there's so little interest in a real decentralized web, because (by design) corps couldn't profit off of it" @eevee November 14, 2021
- "imo, treat web3, metaverse, blockchain, etc as radioactive. don't validate this crap. they're trying to get rich, not solve real problems
recreates power disparities with different owners
- https://twitter.com/eevee/status/1459919436702367744
- "yeah i think this nails it
"the REAL problem with feudalism is that *i* should be a lord" https://twitter.com/roysmeding/status/1459919218292539392" @eevee November 14, 2021
- "yeah i think this nails it
- https://twitter.com/roysmeding/status/1459919218292539392
- "their rugged individualism just makes them unable to see any of our current problems as systemic, and so their solution is to just recreate basically the same structures with different people in charge" @roysmeding November 14, 2021
Repeating past mistakes
- https://twitter.com/buzz/status/1442547588184510468
- "My thought on the web3 discussion: there is absolutely something interesting with a lot of positive potential there, but if you buy into a bunch of Techno Utopian ideology that blinds you to the fact that power dynamics exist everywhere, you’re simply repeating past mistakes." @buzz September 27, 2021
Discord cancellations due to NFT pre-announcement
- https://twitter.com/HEYimHeroic/status/1458478611816661003?s=20
- "Discord's Nitro feedback forum has been absolutely FLOODED with people saying they're cancelling their subscription due to the CEO pointing out NFT integration is coming, and honestly, you love to see it" @HEYimHeroic November 10, 2021
Fragile
- Criticism thread: https://twitter.com/Pinboard/status/1448009365173125123
- "There are three non-fraud foundational problems with "web3":
1. No way to reference anything in the real world (oracle problem)
2. Immutable code makes any smart contract its own bug bounty.
3. Everything breaks (more) unless expensive distributed systems are run in perpetuity." @Pinboard October 12, 2021
- "There are three non-fraud foundational problems with "web3":
Not actually decentralization
- 2021-10-19 Against Web3 and Faux-Decentralization / Despite the hype, Web3 offers fake decentralization and builds upon technology you could build without cryptocurrency.
- 2021-11-11 Web3 is not decentralization
- 2022-03-29 "Web3 promises to put the internet into the hands of the people. Don't believe the hype"
Complex slow expensive and unwanted by users
- Criticism of web3 as "blockchain": 2021-10-04 Web3 Architecture and How It Compares to Traditional Web Apps
… the reality is, there are considerable challenges with blockchains — especially when it comes to developing applications on top of them. The architecture is too complex, there are glaring technical limitations (as pointed out by Dabit), platforms like Ethereum are slow and expensive (not to mention the environmental impacts), and there’s no evidence yet that mainstream users even want blockchain applications.
- inefficient: https://twitter.com/eevee/status/1459918242466578436
- "they are obsessed with running everything, literally everything, on blockchains, and i do not know why. i don't want the entire web to be inefficiently bittorrented around all the time. that sounds like a very silly idea?" @eevee November 14, 2021
Lack of consensus on meaning
- https://twitter.com/samuelgoto/status/1455986355268325376
- "I'll form an opinion on Web3 as long as three different people agree on what it is." @samuelgoto November 3, 2021
Meaning polluted with buy cryptocurrency
- Criticism: term is polluted with "buy cryptocurrency" — https://twitter.com/timbray/status/1466842201766313988
- "Dear world: It is perfectly possible to imagine a radically-decentralized Web and simultaneously disbelieve that basing it on blockchain is necessary or even desirable.
But de facto, the term “Web3” now means “buy my cryptocurrency” and is thus polluted, probably beyond repair." @timbray December 3, 2021
- "Dear world: It is perfectly possible to imagine a radically-decentralized Web and simultaneously disbelieve that basing it on blockchain is necessary or even desirable.
Vaporware
- https://twitter.com/eevee/status/1459910748147093507
- "it is completely wild to me how many people on here are making 100% confident statements about what is made possible by web3, a thing that does not seem to actually exist
and right at the same time as facebook releases an AMV about "the metaverse" and pretends it's a product" @eevee November 14, 2021
- "it is completely wild to me how many people on here are making 100% confident statements about what is made possible by web3, a thing that does not seem to actually exist
Violates one web for all
Web3 or any versioning of the web violates the goal and vision of one web for all, as embraced by W3C.
- https://w3c.social/@w3c/109836177272710553
- "Do you know why you won't find any mention anywhere on the W3C website of #web3? It does not exist. BOOM! There is one web." @w3c February 9, 2023
- https://w3c.social/@w3c/109836177272710553
- ^ also on Twitter: https://twitter.com/w3c/status/1623735796179079169 with very different replies from the Mastodon version
- "Do you know why you won't find any mention anywhere on the W3C website of #web3? It does not exist. BOOM! There is one web." @w3c February 9, 2023
web n
Beyond "web3" or "Web 3.0" there have been a few other numbered web "n" proposals or jokes, most notably.
Web 4.0
- 2006-11-14 early web 3.0 web 4.0 parody (cf novaspivak above)
- 2024-07-05 European Commission: Virtual Worlds and Web 4.0 - Factsheet
- 2024-09-11 European Commission: High Level Conference on Governance for Web 4.0 and Virtual Worlds
web5
- https://twitter.com/jack/status/1535314738078486533
- "this will likely be our most important contribution to the internet. proud of the team. #web5
(RIP web3 VCs 🤫)
https://developer.tbd.website/projects/web5/" @jack June 10, 2022
- "this will likely be our most important contribution to the internet. proud of the team. #web5
Since jack's tweet, the #web5 hashtag on Twitter has become overrun with humor, sarcasm, support, snakeoil etc.
- 2022-06-10 Web5 is here. Goodbye Web3? TBD.
If Web3 wasn't confusing enough already, Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter and Block, just launched 'Web5' with his company, TBD, and all the acronyms and jargon is giving me a nosebleed.
Humor
- https://twitter.com/eleven_ty/status/1442566705360691201
- "it isn’t Web3 unless it comes from the aria live region of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript—otherwise it’s just sparkling blockchain" @eleven_ty September 27, 2021
See Also
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_3.0
- principles
- Semantic Web
- decentralization
- blockchain
- Criticism: No actual novel user-beneficial use-cases (other than crimes like pyramid scheme, ransom, laundering). Thread: https://twitter.com/Pinboard/status/1463564093202313222
- "I think my favorite thing about web3 tooling is how "what is one useful thing you can do with it today?" is treated as a gotcha question, beneath contempt, even though for binary search, asymmetric cryptography, Bloom filters or any other technology it was dirt simple to answer" @Pinboard November 24, 2021
- Web3 is going just great … ...and is definitely not an enormous grift that's pouring lighter fluid on our already-smoldering planet.
- 2021-12-13 Tim O’Reilly: Why it’s too early to get excited about Web3
- 2021-12-15 The Register: Web3: The next generation of the web is here… apparently
- 2021-12-17 The Third Web: “There are parts of your digital life that currently you can’t really sell, but that’s what they want to change. Everything needs to be bought and sold, everything is just a vehicle for more speculation.”
- "(This text is very long. Maybe too long. You can find a PDF and an EPUB of it below.
The current version of this text will always live at https://web3.tante.cc)
- "(This text is very long. Maybe too long. You can find a PDF and an EPUB of it below.
- Criticism: vehicle for cryotofraud: https://www.usenix.org/publications/loginonline/web3-fraud
- Criticism: https://twitter.com/AmScream/status/1473702671689342991
- "Web3 is the latest scheme to distract people in the crypto ponzi sphere from the fact that the previous 27 attempts to "change the world" through "blockchain" failed miserably.
https://reddit.com/r/CryptoReality" @AmScream December 22, 2021
- "Web3 is the latest scheme to distract people in the crypto ponzi sphere from the fact that the previous 27 attempts to "change the world" through "blockchain" failed miserably.
- Criticism: owned by VCs: https://twitter.com/jack/status/1473139010197508098
- "You don’t own “web3.”
The VCs and their LPs do. It will never escape their incentives. It’s ultimately a centralized entity with a different label.
Know what you’re getting into…" @jack December 21, 2021
- "You don’t own “web3.”
- Also applies to web3: 2007-06-04 Why there’s no such thing as Web 2.0
Web 2.0 has been picked up as a term by the entrepreneurial community and its corollaries in venture capital, the press, analysts, large media and Internet companies, and Wall Street to describe a theoretical new category of startup companies.
- Criticism: no technical improvement, thread: https://twitter.com/KardOnIce/status/1476419536995991561
- "No, because I worked in this field and it's nothing but smoke and mirrors. The longer I looked at it, the less anything made sense: there is no technical improvement, it's a solution in search of a problem. Permissioned (private) chains might make sense, but these aren't web3." @KardOnIce December 30, 2021
- https://blog.wesleyac.com/posts/web3-centralized
- Criticism: (yet another) attempt at technical solutions for sociopolitical problems: https://twitter.com/ainmosni/status/1478341113320779776
- "Because the web3 proponents keep saying that we "need" their scamtech to decentralise the web, while that is patently untrue.
We had a decentralised web, and the only reason we don't has nothing to do with the technology in use, and everything to do with socioeconomic reasons." @ainmosni January 4, 2022
- "Because the web3 proponents keep saying that we "need" their scamtech to decentralise the web, while that is patently untrue.
- Web3 is going just great ... and is definitely not an enormous grift that's pouring lighter fluid on our already-smoldering planet.
- Criticism in poem form: https://twitter.com/brucel/status/1478360184137338892
- "Web 3: A poem.
I’d rather have a tiger come to tea /
Than hear more crap about web 3. /
I’d rather have a walrus jizz in the butter /
than listen to another crypto nutter. /
I'd rather have Ann Widdicombe haunt my dreams /
Than read more about batshit blockchain Ponzi schemes." @brucel January 4, 2022
- "Web 3: A poem.
- Criticism: “Web3 is like a combination of pyramid schemes, scientology and Tamagotchi.” https://www.kooslooijesteijn.net/blog/web3
- https://seldo.com/posts/crypto-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly
- Criticism: 2022-01-05 Washed Up
The term "web3" is a transparent attempt to associate technologies diametrically opposed to the web with its success; an effort to launder the reputation of systems that have most effectively served as vehicles for money laundering, fraud, and the acceleration of ransomware…
- 2022-01-14 The Onion: The Onion’s Guide To Web3 / Web3 is being called the future of the internet. But what is Web3, exactly? The Onion explains.
- Criticism: fraud, recognizable by ".eth" usernames systems: https://twitter.com/triagegirl/status/1482455899885080576
- "I'm terrified by these '.eth' user names popping up in Twitter like a virus ripping through people.
What the hell is wrong with you all? Web3 is fraud. Crypto is money laundering for fascists." @triagegirl January 15, 2022
- "I'm terrified by these '.eth' user names popping up in Twitter like a virus ripping through people.
- ^ more criticism of .eth usernames: https://twitter.com/theRSSfeeds/status/1482429177760346118
- "I'm getting sadder every time I see a friend add ".eth" to the end of their display name.
The current damage being done does not outweigh the potential gains, and feeding into that system just feels like a bigger and bigger grift on society." @theRSSfeeds January 15, 2022
- "I'm getting sadder every time I see a friend add ".eth" to the end of their display name.
- Blog chronicaling daily "web3" missteps/grifts/scams/thefts etc.: https://web3isgoinggreat.com/web1
- 2022-01-07 : My first impressions of web3 (archived) where Moxie has build some projects on web3 technology and finds some of the same problems as exist with the current web platforms.
- Quote from the finale:
I don’t think it’s on a trajectory to deliver us from centralized platforms, I don’t think it will fundamentally change our relationship to technology, and I think the privacy story is already below par for the internet (which is a pretty low bar!), but I also understand why nerds like me are excited to build for it. […] I’m hopeful that the creativity and exploration we’re seeing will have positive outcomes, but I’m not sure if it’s enough to prevent all the same dynamics of the internet from unfolding again.
- 2022-01-08 : In Response to My first impressions of web3 (archived) where a personal blog has been used to reply and link to tech that is trying to solve multiple of the problems that Moxie brings up.
- 2022-01-09 : On Web3 Infrastructure (archived) where a web3 platform has been used to reply (link to HTTP mirror), again agreeing with many of Moxie’s points but also pointing out what the crypto-web community is doing to fix it.
- Quote from the finale:
- Criticism: 2022-01-24 Web3 and crypto skepticism is growing and people are finally starting to listen / Crypto skeptics have been trying to warn the public that cryptocurrency is a Ponzi scheme and Web3 is fake decentralization that can't fix a web that isn't broken.
- https://twitter.com/bazscott/status/1485517221837553668
- "The tech trend I have found most dispiriting over the last year is many people who I would consider thoughtful, intelligent, humans being taken in by the web3 grift so completely they pop up with their stupid avatars and Jehovas Witness-style in-your-face evangelism. So sad." @bazscott January 24, 2022
- Criticism: 2022-01-18 NYTimes: Tales From Crypto: A Billionaire Meme Feud Threatens Industry Unity / A dispute over “web3” in the cryptocurrency industry was publicly exposed in a Twitter spat between Jack Dorsey and Marc Andreessen.
- Criticism: (^ seed of that NYT article) https://twitter.com/jack/status/1473139010197508098
- "You don’t own “web3.”
The VCs and their LPs do. It will never escape their incentives. It’s ultimately a centralized entity with a different label.
Know what you’re getting into…" @jack December 21, 2021
- "You don’t own “web3.”
- Comparison to IndieWeb: https://twitter.com/johnjohnston/status/1486817984299552772
- "Liked https://mxb.dev/blog/make-free-stuff/ (http://mxb.dev)
Despite what web3 claims, it’s possible to “own” your content without a proof of it on the blockchain (see: IndieWeb). It’s also possible to create things just for the sake of putting them out into the world." @johnjohnston January 27, 2022
- "Liked https://mxb.dev/blog/make-free-stuff/ (http://mxb.dev)
- Keep the web free, say no to Web3: https://yesterweb.org/no-to-web3/index.html
- Humor: https://twitter.com/vcstarterkit/status/1472624115450212354
- "Leaked footage of a Web3 company pitch:
https://t.co/nBFI2GXZvR" @vcstarterkit December 19, 2021
- "Leaked footage of a Web3 company pitch:
- Comparison to indieweb: https://twitter.com/whitingdev/status/1495223641746784258
- "fediverse gives me hope, as does indieweb, or just good old self hosting
anything blockchain or web3 depresses me" @whitingdev February 20, 2022
- "fediverse gives me hope, as does indieweb, or just good old self hosting
- Criticism re: tying web3 to blockchain: https://twitter.com/ttiurani/status/1464113423403343872
- "Web3 should be decentralized and that's what I'm working on too. But decentralization does not need blockchains. To try to equate the two is a libertarian ploy. We can have decentralized private data ownership and break big tech's stranglehold on us without blockchains." @ttiurani November 26, 2021
- ^ cont'd: https://twitter.com/ttiurani/status/1464118057455005697
- "The reason blockchain web3 gets hype is because there is no getting rich with actual topological decentralization. You need one big ledger to be able to reap wealth from exponential growth.
In sum: when you see excitement, make sure it isn't actually thinly veiled greed." @ttiurani November 26, 2021
- "The reason blockchain web3 gets hype is because there is no getting rich with actual topological decentralization. You need one big ledger to be able to reap wealth from exponential growth.
- Criticism: VC fueled marketing hype: 2022-03-18 Vice: At SXSW, A Pathetic Tech Future Struggles to Be Born / The first SXSW in three years was taken over by crypto-mania fueled by marketing hype.
Most of the hype around crypto, NFTs, web3, and metaverse is being generated, after all, by already wealthy participants eager to bring fresh blood to the casino.
- Comparison with IndieWeb: https://twitter.com/retronav/status/1507204188136124418
- "fyi such things are in existence since years https://indieweb.org
web3 with all the crypto stuff? eh, not for me" @retronav March 25, 2022
- "fyi such things are in existence since years https://indieweb.org
- Criticism: https://twitter.com/KardOnIce/status/1476419536995991561
- "No, because I worked in this field and it's nothing but smoke and mirrors. The longer I looked at it, the less anything made sense: there is no technical improvement, it's a solution in search of a problem. Permissioned (private) chains might make sense, but these aren't web3." @KardOnIce December 30, 2021
- Criticism: https://twitter.com/SaphireLattice/status/1476654330304466948
- "The impression I get, speaking as a side observer of this all, is that "web3" tried its best to reinvent the wheel on every step. And it just becomes a horrifying clisterfuck of dozen tiny but"mandatory" things that bleed you with hundreds of fees for smallest things like 2+2" @SaphireLattice December 30, 2021
- https://web3.lifeitself.us/claims
- Notable criticism: https://twitter.com/gvanrossum/status/1508959260905918465
- "Let web3 die in a flaming ball of fire." @gvanrossum March 30, 2022
- Notable snark: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1473165434518224896
- "Has anyone seen web3? I can’t find it." @elonmusk December 21, 2021
- Comparison with Indie Web: 2022-03-15 ▶ You Should Check Out the Indie Web (YouTube, 17:29)
In this ramble video, I talk about the indie web - also known as the small web or old web - how it's better than web3, and why I think you should make a website.
- Criticism: 2021-12-21 Keep the web free, say no to Web3
- Criticism: laundering of cryptocurrency in an "inevitable" framing: https://twitter.com/_benui/status/1516919678655901696
- "Not really. The whole point of #web3 as a term is to launder blockchain's tarnished reputation and turn it into something "inevitable". Like it's some kind of natural evolution of the web.
It's crypto people who lost out on the Amazon/Google bubble trying to make their billions." @_benui April 20, 2022
- "Not really. The whole point of #web3 as a term is to launder blockchain's tarnished reputation and turn it into something "inevitable". Like it's some kind of natural evolution of the web.
- https://indieweb.social/@web3isgreat
- Sarcasms: https://twitter.com/nikitabier/status/1522740949616529409
- "web3 is a beautiful thing. instead of designing & engineering a product, you just make a landing page that takes people’s money and tweet about it.
literally eliminates 99% of the risk of starting up. you’re an idiot if you try to make money on the internet in any other way." @nikitabier May 7, 2022
- "web3 is a beautiful thing. instead of designing & engineering a product, you just make a landing page that takes people’s money and tweet about it.
- Criticism: 2022-05-16 Web3 is just expensive P2P / Web3 claims to be the only way to save us from commercial entities defining what we can see and what not. Yet, it does exactly this: It results in commercialized entities defining what we can see and what not.
- https://twitter.com/yayalexisgay/status/1526261574255656960
- "when you're really excited about web3" @yayalexisgay May 16, 2022
- Criticism: naïve reinvention of Web1
and comparison to IndieWeb: https://twitter.com/person72443/status/1531312351558807552Web3 so far feels like people who only know Web2 trying to build Web1 from scratch.
- "Web3 so far feels like people who only know Web2 trying to build Web1 from scratch. I truly feel we'd benefit if more Web3 folks researched existing decentralized projects: IndieWeb, IndieAuth, RSS, ActivityPub, Federated web, etc. We should be using these existing tools imo." @person72443 May 30, 2022
- Contrast with IndieWeb: https://twitter.com/GeoffreyHuntley/status/1534306710558490631
- "Start the journey here https://indieweb.org/principles. IndieWeb has been around for a long time but there isn’t enough awareness. Folks say web3 is about taking power back from tech but indieweb started that 10+ years ago heh" @GeoffreyHuntley June 7, 2022
- Criticism video: https://twitter.com/GeoffreyHuntley/status/1534313971758424064
- "Web 3 is stupid.
"In order to keep a network that is 10 times larger profitable for its owners, customers would need to pay 10 times as much to use it. How likely do you think such a service is to succeed. Clearly, we have a problem."
Words of wisdom from @sharifaly" @GeoffreyHuntley June 7, 2022
- "Web 3 is stupid.
- Comparison with IndieWeb: https://twitter.com/GeoffreyHuntley/status/1534426221391491072
- "The true web3 - https://indieweb.org/POSSE https://twitter.com/kevinmarks/status/1534073938824814593" @GeoffreyHuntley June 8, 2022
- Comparison to IndieWeb: https://twitter.com/dam/status/1535419065044348928
- "So basically indieweb but made into a pyramid scheme.
Hardest of hard pass Captain Shillhard.
https://indieweb.org/" @dam June 11, 2022
- "So basically indieweb but made into a pyramid scheme.
- Criticism: web3 advocates commonly misrepresent "Web 2.0" (revisionist history), and supposed goals are YAGNI blockchain as well: 2022-05-24 Don’t Lie To Me About Web 2.0
- https://alistapart.com/article/web3point0/ Zeldman mocking the Web 2.0 hype in 2006 and pointing out the Web 3.0 playbook
- Criticism: 2022-01-05 Alex Russell: Washed Up /
The rhetorical "web3" land-grab by various VCs, their shills, and folks genuinely confused about legal jurisdiction may appear to be a done deal.
VCs planted the flag with sufficient force and cash (of dubious origin) to cause even sceptical outlets to report on it as though "web3" is a real thing.
Which it is not — at least not in any useful sense
- Videos: https://twitter.com/slightlylate/status/1502529043043794946
- "4 must-watch videos about blockchains, cryptocurrencies NFTs, and "web3":
#1, @molly0xFFF on "Abuse on the blockchain":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXBZ-BXfCSY" @slightlylate March 12, 2022
- "4 must-watch videos about blockchains, cryptocurrencies NFTs, and "web3":
- Until we have a separate page for Web 2.0: What Is Web 2.0 / Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software
- https://twitter.com/_/status/1557773748274483200
- "The evolution of the internet:
Web 1.0: static content
Web 2.0: dynamic user generated content
Web 3.0: scams" @existentialcoms August 11, 2022
- "The evolution of the internet:
- Criticism in similar tweet format: https://twitter.com/I_heart_lies/status/1557783377796706304
- "Web 1.0 lol omfg rotflmao
Web 2.0 surveillance capitalism selling all user interaction data
Web 3.0 Pachinko" @I_heart_lies August 11, 2022
- "Web 1.0 lol omfg rotflmao
- Comparison to IndieWeb: https://twitter.com/MineBoomGaming/status/1570669165664669698
- "If you come to me comparing the indie web to Web3, I'm blocking you on the spot. Fuck you, keep that crypto dogshit far away from us." @MineBoomGaming September 16, 2022
- ^ cont'd: https://twitter.com/MineBoomGaming/status/1570673953005514753
- "Indie web is exactly what it sounds like. Personal websites, blogs, that kind of stuff. Basically the internet before sites like Facebook came and ruined everything.
Web3? It's NFT/crypto bullshit under a different name, that's all you need to know." @MineBoomGaming September 16, 2022
- "Indie web is exactly what it sounds like. Personal websites, blogs, that kind of stuff. Basically the internet before sites like Facebook came and ruined everything.
- Criticism: can't even build something simple like decentralized Twitter: https://twitter.com/samuelgoto/status/1587469033883910144
- "So much money poured into web3 and you all weren't ready with a decentralized version of twitter?" @samuelgoto November 1, 2022
- Criticism: Slow, expensive, YAGNI, etc.: 2022-11-04 CNBC: Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee wants us to 'ignore' Web3: 'Web3 is not the web at all'
- Criticism: Lack any actual innovation: 2022-11-20 Web3, the Metaverse, and the Lack of Useful Innovation
Indeed, vague terms like Web3 and the Metaverse seem designed to fool people, to convince them that companies using this marketing have come up with something new that hasn’t been tried before.
- Criticism: 2022-11-24 Web3 Doesn't exist
Web 3 really just feels like a bunch of extremely confused anarcho-capitalist libertarians stumbled across socialism and are now trying to re-draw it from memory. The technology faces all the same problems as Web2 did (plus many new ones), but is being sold to us as a complete and total solution to human nature.
- Criticism: 2022-11-04 Molly White: Is web3 bullshit? (Transcript)
- Criticism: web3 is not decentralization. 2022-11-08 Who Is “Web3” For? - Strange Matters /
web3 is less a technology project for decentralizing the internet, and more an economic project for a select few to profit from: those who acquire crypto-assets early…
- https://flic.kr/p/ZT3xE
- 2021-11-21 NPR: People are talking about Web3. Is it the Internet of the future or just a buzzword?
- 2021-12-28 ComputerWorld: You can safely ignore Web3
- 2022-02-01 Vox: Web3 is the future, or a scam, or both
- 2022-03-26 WaPo: Will Web3 Ever Go Mainstream?
- 2022-04-28 web3 is not a thing
- https://mastodon.cloud/@anildash/109299991009836007
- "When it came time to reckon with social media’s failings, nobody ran to the “web3” platforms. Nobody asked “can I get paid per message”? Nobody asked about the blockchain. The community of people who’ve been quietly doing this work for years (decades!) ended up being the ones who welcomed everyone over, as always." @anildash November 7, 2022
- 2023-02-18 WSJ: AI Becomes Silicon Valley’s Next Buzzy Bandwagon as Crypto Boom Fizzles / Trend-hoppers have moved from Web3 and blockchain to artificial intelligence. ‘The Venn diagram is a circle.’
- ^ image in case there’s a page for AI or ChatGPT or generative AI or something similar:
- https://twitter.com/smdiehl/status/1635926567145619456
- "At this point I've literally heard every single argument for crypto, and I've not heard a single one that holds up to any scrutiny. There is a large wiki in which every thesis is deconstructed intellectually, but crypto is more about faith than reason.
https://web3.lifeitself.org/guide" @smdiehl March 15, 2023
- "At this point I've literally heard every single argument for crypto, and I've not heard a single one that holds up to any scrutiny. There is a large wiki in which every thesis is deconstructed intellectually, but crypto is more about faith than reason.
- https://mastodon.social/@mhoye/111213628237303314
- "A slide from a presentation I just finished."
@mhoye October 11, 2023