Not to worry, because we’re here to explain what Web3 is and how it involves, NFTs, crypto, and the blockchain. To keep things, simple, Web3 is just an idea, a concept. It’s a term for a larger movement that isn’t exactly scientific and was popularized (or coined, depending on who you ask) by Ethereum founder Gavin Wood in 2014 and has been seeing more usage today. Breaking it down, Web1 (or just the internet) was the first iteration of the internet. Blogs, message boards, forums, and websites in general are all included under this umbrella. Think of Web1 tech as the internet of the early 2000s and before. Google in 2001 is very much Web1. This contrasts Web2 which can be most easily defined as the internet in the social media age. From the mid-2000s onward, sites like YouTube, Myspace, Facebook, etcetera all emphasized user-generated content and social interaction. That’s Web2. Now, Web3 is what that ‘next evolution of the internet’ is being called by some, particularly those in tech or in the cryptocurrency space. Web3 is supposed to include all manner of decentralized tech, including NFTs, cryptocurrency, blockchains, token economies, and more. This umbrella term is used to describe all those kinds of online services and technologies. Because of the reputation of tech like crypto, Web3 has a similar kind of reputation, with some arguing it’s a euphemism for NFTs, and the like, in a climate where actually talking about those things directly is costing companies money more and more as angry consumers respond. In a world where the internet is powered and funded by user data and advertisements, big business controlling payments and big tech controlling social media, a movement towards decentralization is inevitable. Just as we realized that we could use the internet to bring people together and create online communities, we’re realizing we can use the internet to untether a lot of the bureaucracy involved in things like money, banking, payments, artwork, and more. So, these things will come, Web 3 things, but it’s impossible to describe the relevance or impact they’ll have beforehand. Because of the many shady practices often seen done with this kind of tech, people are reluctant to engage with it for very understandable reasons. What’s more is that there are environmental concerns as well as underlying economic concerns that come with these technologies. For example, while cryptocurrency may be, in some ways, a freer, more independent currency than any government-backed dollar, in other ways crypto has nonetheless often funneled money from the many into the hands of the few, the few often being big business and people who are already wealthy. Will NFTs become the de facto way for all digital artists, big or small, to sell their work directly to folks without the need for middlemen and PR budgets, or will crypto become the 21st-century stock market that nobody, except the wealthy few, really understand or can participate in? Well, we’ll have to wait and see on that one, but it’s anybody’s guess at this early time. The simple answer here is yes, but the longer answer, for you, could well be no. See, right now, as cryptocurrency and NFTs, for example, gain more relevance, more and more folks who don’t really understand money or the technology are going to lose their savings investing in what are often predatory opportunities designed to make the rich richer at the expense of the everyday, average person. This is, of course, a concern. However, as long as you and the people you know don’t invest in shady coins or spend way too much on expensive NFTs you think will, surely, only gain value, you don’t really have anything to be worried about yourself. And in fact, there are lots of ways Web3 tech could be used for good. What if, as a response to consumers growing more and more unhappy with the monetization of games today, developers turned microtransactions into NFTs. What if you could get a receipt of what you bought and be able to bring it around with you from game to game? What if there was a universal standard for skins and camos that could be implemented across games, allowing you to do whatever you wanted with the stuff you bought? This kind of technology is all included under the Web3 umbrella just as much as Bitcoin is, but to be fair, there isn’t necessarily much evidence to suggest that we’re headed towards the technology being used in the way described above anytime soon. Though, the larger point is that we just don’t know yet. While it may feel like we’ve been hearing about cryptocurrency and all kinds of Web3 tech forever, this wasn’t even a conversation 10 years ago, so we’re very much at the beginning of all of this.
