Notes on Web3
I really hope that the hype around web3 from techies and developers translates into it becoming a reincarnation of the &quot;old web&quot;.<p>AKA I don&#x27;t see the general public moving away from centralized web2, but I do think it would be nice if developers created a decentralized alternative to Facebook, YouTube, Reddit, etc. which being made by individuals and mostly comprised of other developers, is very similar to old-school message boards.<p>I don&#x27;t think this decentralized platform will necessarily involve blockchain, just peer-to-peer interactions. The &quot;web3 movement&quot; could simply be getting more people to join a decentralized network like the Fediverse, and improving said network, so it becomes a common peer-to-peer developer version of Twitter, Youtube, etc. Blockchain makes it easy to pay people for being part of the network, but you could do the exact same thing with stablecoins or Stripe payments.<p>Right now most techies and developers use YouTube and Reddit and Twitter even though they publicly loath and complain about these platforms (ironically on the platforms themselves). Because it&#x27;s impossible for a small group to create anything remotely competing with a large centralized platform. But a decentralized platform, just maybe, could attract enough people and produce enough content to not be obscure.<p>Ultimately, I think most of the interest in web3 comes from nostalgia. Old-school developers look at the rise of &quot;Web 1.0&quot; (the original Internet) and &quot;Web 2.0&quot; (Google, Facebook, YouTube). They remember everything being so new and exciting, and recognize how much opportunity they missed. Well, in the past few years the internet hasn&#x27;t &quot;really&quot; changed much, supposedly it&#x27;s been much more boring. People want more novelty and excitement and opportunity, and they think and hope it&#x27;s going to happen again in something they will call &quot;web3&quot;.