The 28-year-old artist Eva Beylin hit her big break when Elon Musk posted her piece “Love in the Time of Web3.” The cartoon shows a couple lying in bed, looking at the prices of bitcoin and ethereum; the NFT sold for $20,000 that night.
We’re hearing more and more chatter around this Web3. So, what is it, and what does it have to do with crypto?
What is crypto Web3?
Many crypto-nites are dubbing this next phase of the internet as “crypto Web3” because of its possibilities in the digital currency world. To take a walk down memory lane, the world wide web took off in the 1990s; then, the 2000s ushered in Web 2.0, a more user-friendly and user-generated network. During this most recent era of the internet, social media was king. Now, some believe crypto will dethrone it as Web3 emerges. The idea is that this phase of the internet would be based on blockchain and therefore more decentralized, freeing, and *theoretically* secure.
What is Web3 used for?
No one knows the limits of Web3 yet. But cryptocurrency is the No. 1 use of blockchain technology today, so people believe this internet would be more accommodating for the movement of digital money or even goods, such as NFTs. Also, Fast Company reports that users may be able to carry all of their social information with them across site lines: So, Tweets or Facebook posts wouldn’t be restricted to their respective platforms. Lastly, it’s speculated that blockchain-based internet could offer better defenses against cybercrime and “surveillance capitalism.”
Could Web3 tear down Big Tech?
According to Fast Company, the internet was built on an open-source protocol, HTML: “Everybody could use it and nobody owned it.” So, companies such as Meta, Amazon, and Apple were able to offer services and dominate their own little corner of the internet, whether social media, e-commerce, or app stores. This system was the breeding ground for the Big Tech companies we know today. So, the idea behind Web3 is decentralizing the internet.
“Web3 is about the creator economy, where users own the data and the economic rewards associated with the online value they create,” says Matthew Gould, founder and CEO of Unstoppable Domains.
Web3 and the metaverse
Currently, experts say Web 2.0 can’t facilitate a significant part of the metaverse theory: the ability to move freely. So, they believe we need Web3 to experience the entirety of what the metaverse has to offer.
“They’d allow us to move between the metaverse domains of, say, Apple, Meta, and Amazon, and the digital identity, content, and currency we carry with us would be honored at each place,” Fast Company reports.
Not so fast
All of this information is exciting to those on the cutting edge of all things crypto and blockchain. But experts don’t believe even the most prominent blockchains are ready to handle the full force of all of our combined internet roaming. Also, developers are still trying to figure out the hardware behind this new web. (AR/VR glasses are up for discussion.) But besides creating digital and physical infrastructure, we can’t forget the legislative work that goes into the emergence of new technology. We’re still struggling with how to regulate social media.
Experts everywhere are voicing their concerns about Web3. Maciej Cegłowski, founder of the social bookmarking site Pinboard, says the money element of Web3 is “toxic.” He tweeted, “It’s a set of legos where every lego is also an unregulated casino, Ponzi scheme, and ransomware kit.”
People from all corners of the internet are already taking to Reddit to discuss Web3. They want to get in on the ground level, so if this phase of the internet could 1) mess with their current job or 2) prove to be a moneymaker, they’ll be ready. So, what are your thoughts on Web3? Is it all hype, or could it be the next big thing? Keep an eye out.
