Paper 8: Web 3.0
The next stage of the web's development
Throughout history it is probably fair to say that what smart people do in their free time has a meaningful bearing on our future.
Right now it seems that “Web 3.0” has captured the imaginations of some of our brightest minds.
In addition, the rising adoption of cryptocurrencies and the surging interest in NFTs gives further credence to the increasing significance of “Web 3.0”.
It is then important to understand what is Web 3.0 - and why it holds so much potential for our future.
In this article, I articulate the key points from Tim Ferriss’ podcast with Chris Dixon and Naval - both of whom are considered experts in this area - on the vision and benefits of Web 3.0 (which I summarised in this thread).
What is Web 3.0 and how did we get here?
Web 3.0 can be simply understood as the “ownership” layer of the web. This makes sense when considered in the context of previous iterations of the web.
Web 1.0: Read
Web 1.0 was built on top of the internet in approximately 1990 and lasted until approximately 2005.
This was dominated by open protocols, meaning that there were no gatekeepers.
It was a golden period of innovation, though the products were limited in the sense that we very much took our physical world and its products and placed them onto the web (as opposed to creating any products or experiences which were uniquely digital).
In this way, we were “read-only” - consuming the web as it was delivered to us.
Web 2.0 : Read and Write
Web 2.0 roughly started with the social networks in approximately 2005 and continues in many aspects to this day.
It is dominated by many closed protocols, like Facebook or Twitter, whose services can be used to produce content on the web.
As such, the technology exists for users of Web 2.0 to be significantly more creative and interactive, but it does not allow users a high degree of agency or ownership of their content.
Whilst some value (and sometimes a great deal of value) is earned by creators, the vast majority of the value is captured by the closed protocols themselves.
Web 3.0: Read and Write and Own
Web 3.0 is an internet owned by its users and builders and orchestrated/incentivised with tokens.
(For some foundational knowledge on “ownership” in Web 3.0, I’d recommend going back and reading my Papers on Why NFTs can be so valuable and Blockchain basics.)
It is not just a product, but an idea that rallies directly against the worst aspects of Web 2.0:
where Web 2.0 was CLOSED code, Web 3.0 is OPEN code;
where Web 2.0 was CORPORATION-owned platforms, Web 3.0 is CONTRIBUTOR-owned platforms;
where Web 2.0 had users BE the data, Web 3.0 has users OWN their data.
Naval put it strongly here:
"Denying the Metaverse is saying “we're not going to have a collectively owned future - we're going to have a corporation owned future.” A capitalist society which denies crypto or NFTs is saying to its artists “no you can't own your output and deal directly with fans…you need to be serfs working on Spotify's farm."
Source: Naval on https://tim.blog/2021/10/28/chris-dixon-naval-ravikant/
Why is the Web 3.0 vision of the future better than the past?
Ownership - it is better that the users of a network can participate more in the value creation and governance of the network because they are the ones most attuned to the needs of the network;
Incentives - incentivising users with tokens makes them have skin in the game, which in turn makes them more loyal and likely to evangelise about the network;
Fun - active participation is more enjoyable than passive acceptance of instructions;
Composability - because Web 3.0 is all open source it means that you only need to solve a certain problem once, and because it is open code it functions very much like digital lego ie. different applications can plug into each other and you can build on top of each other.
“Composability is to software what compound interest is to finance.”
Source: Chris Dixon on https://tim.blog/2021/10/28/chris-dixon-naval-ravikant/
Final thoughts
Web 3.0 really got to me at the start of last year - to such an extent that I left my corporate role as a lawyer in the city of London to pursue this full-time.
There is clearly something going on here: something revolutionary, something intellectually stimulating and technologically interesting, something combative, something lucrative.
That being said, there are security concerns, socialist undercurrents, governance questions, wildly speculative behaviours, and bad-faith actors.
Web 3.0 is the bleeding edge of the future - but in many ways its greatest challenges come from addressing age-old concerns.
Together we usually have a way of figuring those out.
Please do leave me any questions or thoughts here - I respond to every one!
And if you thought this was interesting, please consider subscribing to this Substack here and following me @BCheque1 on Twitter for more on NFTs and Web 3.0.
Have a great day,
B
Disclaimer: The content covered in this newsletter is not to be considered as investment advice. It is for informational and educational purposes only.
I hold some of the NFTs mentioned in these newsletters.
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