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Why Some See Web 3.0 as the Future of the Internet | WSJ - YouTube
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- [Narrator] Web3 is the newest buzzword
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taking over the tech and
venture capital world.
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And if you've found yourself
wondering what it means,
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you're not alone.
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Web3 is seen as the third
generation of the internet,
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a decentralized online ecosystem
based on the blockchain.
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- Web3 represents kind of a new philosophy
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about how to realize these technologies
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in a more distributed and democratic way.
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- [Narrator] Venture capitalists
have invested billions
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into this vision, but some
tech experts are unconvinced
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that Web3 could scale globally.
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Skeptics like Tesla CEO, Elon Musk,
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have called it a marketing buzzword.
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- A lot of the skepticism about
web 3.0 comes from the fact
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that it's early expressions
are fairly primitive.
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- [Narrator] As experts debate
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whether or not this new version of the web
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can become a reality,
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here are some of the underlying principles
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behind the vision for Web 3.0.
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(keyboard clicking)
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To better understand Web 3.0
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and what sets it apart
from the web we use today,
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you have to go back to the
early days of the internet,
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what experts now refer to as Web 1.0.
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Most of the participants
were content consumers
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who were limited to navigating
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through individual static web pages.
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- Web 1.0, for those who remember,
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was just, you know, raw HTML
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and lots of very simple web pages,
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and it wasn't really
controlled by anybody.
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- [Narrator] This was a
more decentralized version
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of the web, meaning anyone
who knew how to code
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could build on it from
their own computers.
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But at this time only
a small number of users
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had the technical skills to
create and publish content.
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Then came Web 2.0,
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which is the stage of the
internet we're living through now.
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Web technologies like JavaScript and HTML5
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made the internet more interactive,
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allowing startups to build platforms
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like Facebook, Google,
Amazon and many others.
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For the first time, anyone
could publish content online
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even if they couldn't code.
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- Web 2.0 is this modern,
centralized verse of the web.
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You know, we're all sharing
things on social media
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which are owned by, you know,
only two or three companies,
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and we're all using Google Search.
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- [Narrator] These
companies own and manage
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the data collected from their users,
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and they frequently
track and save this data
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and use it for targeted ads.
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- What's at the core of
their business model is data.
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- [Narrator] Olga Mack
is a blockchain lecturer
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at UC Berkeley, and is
optimistic about Web3's potential
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to reshape the internet.
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- The data economy, where
the user generated content,
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whether it's a conversation or a video,
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that is an exchange for services.
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And so there is a perception
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that this monopoly of
data could be abused.
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- [Narrator] Here's where the
vision for Web 3.0 comes in.
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The term Web3 was first
coined by one of the creators
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of the Ethereum blockchain, Gavin Wood.
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In a 2014 blog post, Wood
envisioned Web3 as an open
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and decentralized version of the internet.
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Theoretically, users would be able
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to exchange money and
information on the web
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without the need for a middleman,
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like a bank or a tech company.
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In this vision for a Web3 world,
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people would have more
control over their data
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and be able to sell it if they choose.
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And it would all be operated
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on a decentralized,
distributed ledger technology.
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The most common version of this
is known as the blockchain.
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While still considered
relatively new and unproven,
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it could offer more transparency
and autonomy for users.
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- The computers that are actually
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doing that computing for
you or storing that data,
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anyone could own those computers,
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anyone can become a
part of that blockchain.
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And so it's not Facebook and
Google's computers doing that.
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- [Narrator] With a single,
personalized account,
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users would theoretically
be able to move seamlessly
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from social media to email to shopping,
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creating a public record on the blockchain
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of all that activity.
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But how exactly would
Web3 remain operational
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if it's not controlled by a
central corporation or entity?
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Theoretically, people would
be given virtual tokens,
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or cryptocurrencies, to incentivize them
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to participate in the operation of Web3.
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A central element of the system
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is so called DEFI, or
decentralized finance.
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- And the idea is that
if you can issue a token
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for everything in the universe,
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if you can financialize
every possible interaction
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of computers and software and humans,
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then you can create this vast
ecosystem of cryptocurrencies
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which can be traded,
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which can be valued
relative to one another.
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- [Narrator] Still, it's unclear
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how this decentralized token
system would be regulated,
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how it could operate on a large scale,
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or even how well it would distribute
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control of the internet.
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Critics of the idea like
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey,
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called Web3 "a centralized
entity with a different label."
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- Developers who really dug into this
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think that the underlying
blockchain structures of Web 3.0
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are very insecure, not
decentralized as promised,
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they're actually as centralized
as previous technologies.
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- [Narrator] Some see Web 3.0
as a critical building block
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IN creating the metaverse,
an immersive online world
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where people can use avatars
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to socialize, shop, work, and play.
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But others say Web3 and the metaverse
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are two very different concepts.
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- Because the Metaverse is
being hyped a lot right now
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and Web3 is,
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there are some companies at
the intersection of the two,
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like let's create a metaverse
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that, you know, somehow it's
connected to the blockchain.
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- [Narrator] Right now,
Web3 is still very much
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an abstract concept with
little real-world foundation.
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Skeptics, like engineer
and blogger Stephen Diehl,
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argue that web 3.0, doesn't
have the computing power,
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bandwidth, or storage to
work on any practical level.
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- For skeptics of Web3,
their argument is that,
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you know, tokens and
cryptocurrencies in general
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are just a giant bubble,
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and as soon as it pops, in
their view, all of this nonsense
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about how that's going to
build the next internet
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will go away.
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- [Narrator] While it remains to be seen
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whether or not Web3 will become a reality,
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the philosophy behind it is
driving billions in investments
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in the venture capital world,
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funding a vast ecosystem of
decentralized internet services.
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- So there's so much real-world money
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going into building Web3 startups
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that even if, as a concept,
it proves unworkable,
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we're gonna be hearing about
it for a long time yet to come.
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(gentle music)
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