What is Web3?


What is Web3?

Web3 shifts the focus from big tech to individuals who can create and own their digital real estate. If trust can be set by code, then people don’t have to rely on middlemen. They:

Don’t have to trust banks to get paid Don’t have to trust lawyers to draft a contract Don’t have to trust social networks to make a living With trust comes ownership. By reducing the middleman tax, people can finally own the upside from their work.

Web3 matters because we're building an internet owned by people instead of middlemen. Web 1, Web2, Web3 Let's compare web3 to web1 and web2. As Eshita writes succinctly: Web1: Read Web2: Read, write Web3: Read, write, own Web1 (1990-early 2000s) was read-only.

People consumed static web pages that they navigated to from directories like Yahoo. Web1 was built on open protocols like HTML. Web2 (early 2000s-today) is read and write. People create and consume content on the social platforms that we're all familiar with.

In web2, tech giants extract value from users by sitting in the middle. Web2 is built on client-server architecture where users are the client, and companies control the servers. Web3 (2020+) is read, write, and own.

People create, consume, and own the upside of their work through tokens. Web3 is built on peer-to-peer networks of computers that talk to each other without middlemen.

What is a token? A token is a record of ownership of an asset. Tokens can be fungible or non-fungible:

Fungible tokens are interchangeable (e.g., the US dollar, bitcoin). Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are unique (e.g., a piece of art). As an example, let’s look at a game like Fortnite or Roblox: Fungible tokens are the game’s virtual currency (e.g., VBucks, Robux).

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are the game’s character skins, emotes, and more. #web3


 

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