Can someone explain what Web3 is in 50 words or less to a layman?
Blockchain has only one real use - storing tokens. Someone needs to pay real money for the tokens for the token creators to cash out. So they keep cooking up new ways to attract unsuspecting common people into the cryptoverse. Web3 is that.
Or, less sarcastically, it's a collection of technologies that attempt to link the blockchain with the "real world", supposedly bringing back decentralization to the web in the process. I'd like to elaborate but there's really nothing more to elaborate on, the entire thing is a vague collection of ideas (such as "maybe users could use blockchain-based microtransactions to pay for the sites they use instead of being served adverts") that nobody's actually figured out what to do with. Why exactly blockchain is required for these ideas, or exactly what ideas constitute "web 3.0" is still an unanswered question...
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The door refused to open. It said, "Five cents, please." He searched his pockets. No more coins; nothing. "I'll pay you tomorrow," he told the door. Again it remained locked tight. "What I pay you," he informed it, "is in the nature of a gratuity; I don't have to pay you."
"I think otherwise," the door said. "Look in the purchase contract you signed when you bought this conapt."
...he found the contract. Sure enough; payment to his door for opening and shutting constituted a mandatory fee. Not a tip.
"You discover I'm right," the door said. It sounded smug.
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65 words, but still ...
Web2 is Read+Write (all interactive apps - email travel booking, stock trading etc. However, the content of these are owned by mega or small corp)
Web3 is Read+Write &'Own' your data. By virtue of blockchain tech you can take your data/content and use some other service. You have your NFTs, you have your Bitcoins, you can use any service to manage those.
These terms are meaningless and arbitrary. I've never heard of popularized "read only" websites, even in the late 90s websites had things like guest books where you could leave a comment.
I'm also not sure about the legal ownership one might derive from the blockchain. Going by legal standards, I don't think you own anything unless you sign a sales agreement that says the cryptocurrency exchange means something related to ownership.
I know its 'unsocial' and 'nasty' , it has to be said, we should feeding the jerks.
> "Web3 is an idea for a new iteration of the World Wide Web based on blockchain technology, which incorporate concepts such as decentralization and token-based economics. Some technologists and journalists have contrasted it with Web 2.0, wherein they say data and content are centralized in a small group of companies sometimes referred to as 'Big Tech'."
The first sentence is vague. The existing Web also incorporates concepts such as decentralization and token-based economics.
The second sentence is a social/political characteristic, not a technical one. There is no reason the Web must be an oligopoly.
Similarly, there's no reason "web3" must not be one.
So we're still left without a 50-word description of web3. The above is a vague statement followed by an aspirational (rather than descriptive) statement.
web2 - read/write/contribute to centralized servers, who moderate ownership
web3 - anyone can read, write, host. Consume for free(termed gasless), but contribution costs. Trustless, so self attesting of ownership.
Content in web2 was free because of an ad supported model.
I think it's important to note that content is free in the web3 world. Which means that anything can bubble up. And when it does - ownership is important.
Proving ownership needs gas but doesn't need anyone. Contribution needs gas.
Time will tell if contributing to blockchains will remain gas-supported or if consumers will be willing to settle for X, to contribute for free. X could be be rev share or loss of control via some centralization or custody.
There always will and rightly should always continue to exist - opportunities to bring mass adoption via better UX. This may lead to a centralized service who identifies and fixes this gap eg- metamask. Good for them to identify and execute something that people wanted. It's all about finding opportunities in a market eventually.
The internet was not designed to be centralized. It become centralized because everybody realized centralization was a way easier way to do everything.
Web2: pay someone else to run a server "in the cloud". They save the content.
Web3: run a server with all your own content. Other people run clients that index and let you search other peoples' content.
Concisely: Web3 is the same as Web1, but with client-server the other way around.
web 2 = write
web 3 = own
1. How would this work for me as a user? Are web 3 "websites" (or whatever constitutes a service or company) not able to retain a copy of my data? Or phrased in another way, what prevents websites from also /owning/ my data?
2. How would this work for me as a service? Aside from my service's domain and internet address which are annoyingly hard to "own", what else is there to own that I don't already own?
I don't share hn's irrational hatred towards crypto so I'm not against joining whatever web3 is supposed to be (in principle) but I've yet to be shown a single benefit in doing so.
Give me a single clear benefit to using or offering a web3 service.
The user can update their own social graph completely separate from the site with them having no control over who are are/aren't friends with. Now parts of the site are still centralized meaning that they could ignore whatever is on chain, but in that case its a lot easier for a competitor to start up, the users go over there with their web wallet sign on and boom the social graph is fully imported for them. Can even have parts of their profile/nft profile picture and ENS name come over as well.
I hope that gets the gist of it, and it is still a long way from fully being realized but there are already beginnings with ENS profiles and avatars easily used between sites and lens protocol trying to make the social graph aspect. https://lens.dev/
Web 1 = amateur
Web 2 = commercialized
Web 3 = financialized