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Comment by patwolf | Hacker News Reader

I was around for web 2.0, and it felt like a substantial change over how the web worked previously. It was the first glimpse that the web was capable of replacing the desktop apps we were accustomed to, while simultaneously adding new capabilities that didn't exist in desktop apps. There was a lot more to it, but to the casual user that was the most obvious difference.

This was the first thing I've read about web 3, so I didn't need to grep my brain to find and remove any existing notions about it. As someone coming in late to the party, I agree that installing a browser extension seems like a deal breaker. Web 2.0 was about getting rid of browser extensions. It also sounds like web3 is missing a killer app. For web 2.0, Gmail and Google Maps and YouTube were all immediately useful to all web users. Web 3 doesn't sound all that compelling to a lay person.

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That's because "Web 3" is more of a marketing term, whereas "Web 2.0" was a descriptive term coined for something that had already emerged in the preceding years from countless independent implementations, evolving together.

When "Web 2.0" was named, most of the techniques had been used for over a decade, and social networking side of it was well established too. Even "AJAX" was coined years after some sites were already using that technique, without that name.

Web 3 is an attempt to portray p2p, cryptocurrency, IPFS and similar types of networks as on an equal footing to the evolutionary changes that vaguely made up Web 2.0.

In particular, the name implies it's "the" (singular) next version of the Web after 2.0.

But it's too early to be sure of that. Most people aren't using it, most sites aren't using it either and don't plan to. The real successor to Web 2.0 that things evolve to en masse might be quite different than Web 3 proponents are describing at the moment.

metamask has 10MM monthly active users, opensea at half the volume of ebay last month...

anecdotally, people seem to be moving to wallet connect smartphone wallets (eg rainbow) recently as they are nicer than browser extensions + you can use mobile websites/apps with them. Metamask is a bit of a mess tbh.

I've been in the space for a few years now so i find it really hard imagining a non-cryptocurrency/web3 internet at this point. It's such a big part of my use of the internet at this point. Hanging out in various dao chats in discord from chess clubs to running gallery spaces, voting in snapshot is a daily activity. Its basically like being in wow guilds, but with a completely open-ended design space to play in.

Im not sure what people will be satisfied with as a killer app? what is the measure of success? it feels like its already here and successful to me. After a dull period of the internet feeling like it was disappearing under FAANG it feels alive and chaotic and fun again.

What physical products, if any have you purchased with crypto?

I'm not doubting your touting of Web3, it's just....your description just sounds like you found a community of like minded people online. Those things have come and gone on the clear web many times. It's not something that's unique to Web 3.

This is the problem here. What kind of lay people care about this at all? I'm having a hard time being convinced myself, and I could not imagine trying to get 90% of the population remotely excited about this. There's nothing new for them, like you said, no killer app.

The age of worrying about the browser extension hurdle was in 2017. That ship has sailed. Enough people use it that you can launch any viable web 3.0 enabled business with it now for recurring revenues. Also, that user experience has improved such that browser extensions are not necessary. Many people use their mobile phone wallets to authentic mobile and desktop websites.

There is also substantial room for greater improvement. This actually might be a place to focus your energy and you actually might find it fulfilling.

> It also sounds like web3 is missing a killer app.

Sounds unfalsifiable as its not clear what standard there will be if you and your lay grandma aren't both interested in it. From my perspective there are many killer apps which I'm not interested in. Check out any list of "gas guzzlers" to see what people are paying to use any given day. I'm not sure how to gauge the free-er activity on layer 2 systems. But don't forget about other chains. Its a lot of activity.

It's kind of amusing to see them attempting to use Web 3 / 3.0. Web 3.0 was supposed to be the semantic Web, more than a decade ago [1] (an attempt which generally failed to be realized, and was silly vague regardless). I suppose enough time passed that someone decided the term could be repurposed since the last attempt to match the term to a new technology inflection point didn't come to much.

[1] https://www.computer.org/csdl/magazine/co/2009/01/mco2009010...

A lot of activity... from a birds eye view, there is always a lot of activity in the swamp below. Paraphrasing an ancient.

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