Much of what we’ll be doing here in the early days of Crypto Classroom is simply learning the language of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, and today we’re talking about Web3, also called Web 3.0.
First, if you don’t want to stick with me for this whole post, here’s the oversimplified definition:
Web3 is a new phase of the internet during which power will be sucked away from big institutions like Facebook and Google, and handed back in the hands of everyday users like you and me.
You can see we’ve got some work to do unpacking Web3 because even the oversimplified definition is abstract. So let’s start unpacking.
The only reason there’s a web 3.0 is because there was first a web 1.0 and web 2.0.
Web 1.0 was the very early, pioneer days of the internet. This was when the internet was what they call “read-only” meaning exactly that: reading was the only thing you could do.
During the Web 1.0 days, the internet was more like a big kiosk full of brochures. The brochures were new and exciting, but if you wanted to take action based on what you saw in the brochure, you were still picking up a phone to call, sending snail mail, or going someplace in person.
When the second phase of the internet came along, which we call web 2.0, we could interact with what we saw online for the first time. We could watch videos, add comments, share articles, and even start to do things like write blogs and post on Twitter and Facebook.
Web 2.0 is when the internet became social, and as a result, it’s when your Aunt Linda became an absolute menace online. It’s also during this time that big internet companies like Facebook and Google realized they could track what we’re doing online, and then sell that information to advertisers to line their pockets.
Put a little differently, the web 2.0 era is when you and I (and especially our browsing habits) turned into products that advertisers could target.
Now, there are pros and cons to targeted advertising, but there are plenty of people these days who believe that Google and Facebook know too much about us, and what they know about us makes us susceptible to manipulation, deception, and fraud.
Anyway, the internet we’ve known for the last 15 years or so is the web 2.0 internet.
The allure of what people are calling web 3.0 is that this newest version of the internet may undo some of the naughtiness that’s happened during web 2.0.
Instead of having our browsing habits, our identities, and the content we produce tracked and sold for the enrichment of Facebook and Google, in the web 3.0 era, nearly everything will be decentralized.
We’re not going to tackle decentralization in this post, but for the sake of our discussion today think of decentralization like this:
Instead of existing on Facebook’s servers and Google’s servers, your content will live on thousands (or millions) of servers spread throughout the world, and those servers won’t be controlled by a creepy billionaire. You’ll own your content, your identity, and your money…and it will all exist outside of the big tech companies who own us today.
That’s the million dollar question, and that’s what we’ll always come back to here in the Crypto Classroom. At the end of the day, we’re here to equip you and your business to leap into the world of web 3.0 and crypto, so let’s talk about how this might land with you.
Ownership is a big buzzword in the web 3.0 community. People are tired of Facebook, Google, Instagram, and LinkedIn calling the shots about who gets see their content. People like you and me are sick of algorithms.
In the web 3.0 era, you can own your audience and your message directly. You can use non-Facebook tools like Mighty Networks and Discord to have conversations with your following. You can use Substack and Mirror (where you’re reading this right now) to share your ideas. And you can use Twitter to meet new people and level up your learning.
Going a little deeper, we’re already seeing web 3.0 impact the way some businesses govern themselves and interact with their customers, primarily through tokenized communities.
“Tokenized communities” is a nonsensical buzzword if I’ve ever heard one, so let’s help it make sense. A tokenized community is a group of people who have come together for some purpose, and there’s a special currency that only works inside that community.
Let’s use a local gym as an example. And let’s say this gym uses sweatbands as its special currency.
Anyone can join the gym, and as you hit certain goals you get earn sweatbands. Refer a new member? Boom, you earned a sweatband. Hit an attendance goal? Sweatband. Did you stay after class to wipe down equipment? Extra sweatbands for you!
But what happens after you earn some sweatbands? That’s where things start to get interesting. The gym owners could give special privileges to the people with sweatbands.
Maybe the sweatband holders get to decide what new equipment the gym buys, or what time slot a new class should fit in. Maybe a bunch of sweatbands earns you a week of one-on-one training, or a month’s worth of clean meals.
In short, Web 3.0 will allow business owners like you and me to create incentives and rewards for our customers/audience that change our operations in ways I’m still trying to imagine.
Recap
Web 1.0 was the read-only (digital brochure) era
Web 2.0 was the interative (or social) era
Web 3.0 is the decentralized era