What is Web3?
Crypto loves it.
Jack Dorsey hates it.
It's getting a lot of press, and yet
the definition isn't really concrete.
The inventor of the internet, Tim Berners-Lee, already coined the term back in the 90s.
But several decades later,
one of the Ethereum founders Gavin Wood repurposed the term
in light of what the internet has now become
and the problems that have come along with it.
In this video,
we're going to break down what Web3 is,
what came before it,
and what that can mean for the future of the internet and crypto.
Let's get it!
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Trust.
It's what makes the world go round.
Without it, things get expensive.
If countries don't trust each other,
they make things like NATO and start buying and selling tanks and missiles.
You can see trust measured in interest rates.
The higher the risk, or less the trust, the higher rates you pay the bank for a loan.
But it's also the same with everything in life.
You need a car.
But a cheap one?
You don't trust to get you around reliably.
So you opt for the one that's over engineered and bulletproof.
That's why the average price of the Toyota Tacoma and Land Cruiser depreciates far less
than other vehicles in their class.
If you misplace your trust,
it can cost you.
Just ask Nicolas Cage.
It's no different for the internet.
Most businesses put their trust in Amazon Web Services, or AWS,
to host their cloud services.
Other folks use WhatsApp for security and encryption.
WhatsApp users trust Meta when they say there is no backdoor key to the app
that can decrypt their messages.
But we're just taking Meta's word for it.
Definitely trust them, right?
Only they have access to the code for WhatsApp.
This kind of opacity is what gave Gavin Wood the perspective to re-coin the term Web3
in terms of blockchain.
He and others looked back at the history of the internet
and put it into three eras.
Web 1.0,
the early internet,
from 1991 to 2004.
This was the internet most of us grew up on.
It was static and open,
highly decentralized but also rigid in its capabilities.
Anyone else remember how difficult it was to set up a router in 1999?
The other difference between Web 1.0 and now is that users were consumers of content,
not producers of content.
Content creation is what takes us to the next iteration of the internet,
where we are today.
Web 2.0
Starting in 2005 to the current day,
2.0 version of the internet started with MySpace
and evolved the internet into a thing that you use every day
instead of a static hub that you visit in the evenings or at work.
It also ushered in the centralization of tech into a handful of silos
that gather user information and sell it back to them in the form of ads and products.
It changed social media into what we have now---
corporate media.
It's when FAANG stocks became a thing
and how censorship and deplatforming has been able to run rampant and unchecked
for the past few years.
The oligarchs holding the keys to our data are almost fully in control
of what takes place on the mainstream internet.
Is our data safe?
Is it being used in ethical ways?
Can I access all of it?
How is it being used?
Am I being tracked?
All mainstream internet users have to trust these mega corporations
to do what is best for the internet and for freedom.
But as we've seen and always suspected,
they can't be trusted.
The cypherpunks of crypto have known this forever
and have been thinking of ways to make the internet
more open, transparent and trustless.
They knew blockchain could help with that but didn't know how until Bitcoin.
Bitcoin was the first piece of trustless technology that took off.
And from there,
the thought leaders of crypto have been trying to bring trusting less to the mainstream internet.
That's what Web3 is.
It's a more open internet where users and builders have a stake in their data
and the platforms are more open, often tokenized, and above all,
less centralized than Web 2.0.
Take a look at some of the problems with Web 2.0 in the BitBoy special
that you can check out by clicking above.
Moving away from Web 2.0 sounds great.
So great in fact that Gavin Wood made an entire foundation about it---
the Web3 Foundation.
It has given out over 300 grants to Web3 companies since 2019.
If you look at most of the tokens on CoinMarketCap,
the majority would be considered Web3.
They're blockchains that are public, tokenized and decentralized, at least kind of.
It's important to note that Bitcoin itself and other cryptos that don't have native support for NFTs,
like Litecoin,
aren't technically Web3.
I know that's kind of confusing because it's the early days of Web3
and it's still being defined and developed as we speak.
But that confusion is making other tech leaders nervous that Web3 is not what it seems.
Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has spent the last year or so
getting very intimate with Bitcoin and crypto
and without warning, fired off a series of tweets
stating that Web3 was a trendy name for nothing more than a Silicon Valley cash grab
and users should be wary of any promises made by Web3 developers.
Is he right?
Is this all just a gimmick?
Well, I can tell you one thing.
It's convenient for the guy who created one of the most centralized
and censoring corporate media companies on the planet
to be opposed to an open web initiative.
Yes, Jack has been getting into Bitcoin, like I said earlier,
but the timing is too good.
Needless to say,
you know I don't like Jack.
Until he shows more initiative with non-centralized work,
we should remain extremely skeptical of his goals and motivations.
But we can't discount what he says.
After all, he is connected to that world.
So let's take a look at the Web3 Foundation and what they do.
If you look at their GitHub,
it's rows of projects that range from gaming to healthcare to advertising.
It seems legit.
But you'll start to notice something.
A lot of the projects are based on Polkadot,
Gavin's own Web3 project.
Huh! Convenient!
Oh, and the foundation gets equity in the company they give a grant to.
Hmmm.
Level 3 grant members get VC introductions.
Take a look at Acala,
a project we like and are excited about.
The ACA token isn't available to purchase at the time of this recording,
but according to their own website,
more than half of the ACA distribution is going back to backers and team members.
Some of those team members are part of the Web3 Foundation.
Oh, gosh! Is Jack right?
Well, maybe.
But like I said,
these are the early days.
And just because groups of tech bros call themselves Web3
doesn't mean they are Web3.
Do you know how many cryptos in 2011 were saying that they were the best digital currency for the world?
A lot.
But all of them are gone now.
And we have Bitcoin.
In a similar way, Web3 is an idea in blockchain,
and blockchain is its muse,
and no amount of VC cronyism can get in the way of people
taking control of their money, their data and their freedom.
The age of tech monoliths is over.
The more they try to use the old ways of doing business to a new age of technology,
the faster we can finish writing their chapters in history.
Comment below with your favorite Web3 project
and which corporate media company you despise the most.
Also, don't forget to smash that like and subscribe button
and hit the notification bell while you're at it.
That's all I got.
Be blessed.
BitBoy out.