Revisiting Web 3.0

It's interesting to reread this 14-year-old Tim O'Reilly blog post about Web 3.0 and contrast it to today's conversations around "web3."

I've been energized by following the web3 conversations going on right now but can't help but think the crypto folks coopted a term loosely coined by O'Reilly during the resurgence of the web after the bust of the late '90s. I'll reference "Web 3.0" as the Tim O'Reilly version and "web3" as the current crypto-focused concept.

I think Web 3.0, Web 3, web3 (no one seems to agree) all mean the same thing as they're trying to describe a successor to the current Web 2.0 world. However, a successor is probably overstating it as it is not a clean transition but more like an addition that coexists with previous conceptual web versions. It pays to mention that Web #.0 is somewhat arbitrary and an imprecise way to discuss significant conceptual technology shifts.

Back when Web 2.0 was coined, there was much speculation about what Web 3.0 could be, but most agreed it was something about ambient computing and a machine-readable web. Tim Berners-Lee talked about Semantic Web, and there was a lot of debate about it.

Today's conversation about web3 primarily frames itself as a contrast against the giants of Web 2.0, namely the Googles and Facebooks of the world, which owns and centralizes data. In Web 2.0, they profit off the individual's data, while in web3, the individual would profit off their data and skills, perhaps even anonymously.

web3 aims to provide a decentralized, permissionless tomorrow where individuals are empowered and incentivized through smart contracts on the blockchain. This technology enables decentralized applications (DApps), decentralized autonomous companies (DACs), and a subset of DACs called decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).

One thing O'Reilly was adamant about was that Web 3.0 shouldn't be attached to any single technology. That's where the current iteration of Web3 from the crypto world may be shooting itself in the foot. Honestly, I feel like it's a solution in search of a problem.

That said, I really like the idea of a decentralized web, and the amount of energy behind this new movement is pretty remarkable. However, even with all that energy, it will be years before the web3 concept is feasible and widely adopted. In addition, Crypto has a lot of environmental issues to figure out, not to mention a profound lack of usability. It will remain niche until those barriers are removed.

I've been a passive participant in the crypto world up to this point, but I am excited to dive in, learn more, and see where I can help. I have many thoughts on using design to improve the user experience and a paradigm shift in how user interfaces could be used in a decentralized web.