Let’s begin with a small exercise: did you know if you go on twitter right now and search for the term “web3”, you are guaranteed to find one or more of these four horsemen:
1. some tech nerd yapping about the significance of web3
2. a VC investor talking about how it opens frontiers for a new economy
3. crypto bros sharing their thoughts on why it’s the next big thing and
4. random people asking “what is web3?”
It’s a pretty interesting thing that has got everyone talking; believers, unbelievers, side-liners and the ones who are there simply to reap benefits and move on. A while back Jack Dorsey and Elon Musk alongside a host of other people riled up tech and investor twitter by asking “where is web3?”. I’m not a billionaire so it’s definitely not my place to speak because I don’t know what they know. What I do know, however is that it made me see some new perspective—
why does everyone think web3 will save the world?
I understand that decentralized technology is the foundation of web3 in and of itself, with the core of its products and services being built on the blockchains. Same blockchains that consume tons of energy to maintain, with chains like Bitcoin eat up just as much energy as entire countries like Finland! You’d think this was solved when Ethereum (which is where most web3 products are situated) transitioned its blockchain technology from proof-of-work (having one person validate a transaction on the chain) to proof-of-stake (where code validates a transaction), in order to minimize cost.
That’s already a red flag—energy and climate change problems. But let’s move on.
Onto the next one, which is how everything is getting broken. I wrote about this in a previous article where I touched briefly on how DeFi is getting hacked quicker than axes know how to swing onto logs of wood. . One would argue that “yes, web3 is still young, it has so much potential”. Though it is evident that to support this, web2 is getting bashed and some are calling for boycotts, lol, yeah but are we forgetting that alienating web2 completely is dangerous? Because let’s be honest, it screams ungrateful. You use web2 products to learn about web3; to build web3 products; to bash web3; to synchronize with web3… so why the hate?
Web3 “fanboys” who understand the relationship between what they call the “new internet” and the “old one” understand that it’s a symbiotic relationship. One that most definitely will not fade out soon. Why? Because I will be honest with you, one cannot do without the other. The number of people who use crypto is barely at its peak point yet, so that means web3 adoption is merely a dream—yes, you shall hereby be called Joseph. Dreams do come true don’t get me wrong, what I find amusing however is the fact that you would even think because web3 is the future, it automatically is the savior of all things internet.
Far, far from it.
First of all, futures occur in a thousand and one ways at a time. Blackberry for instance, had the hottest phones in the world during the early 2010s. Now they’re a cybersecurity company making much more revenue than when they were selling phones. Funny story, innit?
Second of all, regulation will find its way into web3. It may be just like it is now, it may be better, it may be worse. I don’t know. What I do know is that the U.K seized NFTs recently.
But web3 will be decentralized meaning no one has control
Well, yes and no. History has taught us what happens when you give human beings free reign, just as it has taught us what happens when everyone has a choice/vote. The moral lesson here is that systems are like products and they will need iteration—which is why I support VCs going into the space because projects are what makes web3 what it is, and projects need funding. In the same vein, our new internet order can only get better with time, collaborations, and a little reality check from time to time.
So on a final note, please understand that web3 right now is much more like a coin toss than it is a “Jesus the Christ”, this means that messiah complex should die a violent death in 2022.
Cheers!