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Comment by discardedrefuse | Hacker News Reader

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.

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.

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What a nice use-case for my recent web1* project, google trends for hackernews! Here's a comparison of "metaverse" vs "web3" over the past several months: https://jacksonkearl.github.io/HackerTrends/?query=%22web3%2...

* Not technically web1. It uses `fetch`, but it's a single 100 line HTML file. Web 1.5?

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?

Yep. (better on mobile where the bottom can get cut off)

Cool project.

> 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.

web3.js is the name of the Ethereum API since 2017.

First commit in this repo is 2014:

https://github.com/ethereumproject/web3.js/commits/develop?a...

It didnt become a marketing term until last year. At least, in public perception.

And the way "web3" is used by marketers today is disconnected from ethereum's api

It won't stay long. `web` marks a generally available, free stuff, which ETH isn't. Let's just stick with `crypto`, it suits better.

People are right that Ethereum has used the web3 term for a while. The recent uptick is from Chris Dixon and other VCs doing a marketing push on it.

what you are noticing is increased interest in permissionless data. But sure, reframe everything you think of as bad thought as manufactured.

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.

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