The main hurdle I am personally experiencing is the fact that when you enter the space people tend to call WEB3, there are some onboarding issues that make it less attractive to start. WEB3 is not friendly to its users because its spaces and moving elements are in flux. It is very much like the wild Wild West in the time of the American Fronteer where cowboys are stacking their claims and where its inhabitants are creating new communities who, like in any new human interactive space, need to figure things out before they can start to work together and build villages. This time of exploration is very much like the start of the WEB1, where people were just getting used to interacting with screens and websites.

In order to Start wrapping my head around what web3 might mean for me, I had to follow the trail back to the Web (WEB1) and Web2.0 …like all those before me… to help me understand the differences of these different deals.

The introduction of the World Wide Web brought us hours of staring at heavy big new Desktop Computers (at least here in the Netherlands), which showed us information on static webpages. I guess at the time we were sharing webpages that contained coherent or entertaining information. The conversation was dominated by the question: “Did you see that webpage?”. We were getting our heads around general information being shared through the medium of the scrolling page in something new we called a browser. Most used the Microsoft Internet explorer that came with their computer, some used Netscape for its security features and the selected few who were actively aware of what the internet was going to become opted for the open source Mozilla variant.

The low bandwidth need of the static web1.0 was blown away by the high speed internet offers that promised you ACCESS to a world where YOU could express YOURSELF. Web2.0 was (and I guess still is) all about “look@ME!”. Web2.0 sucked us into a world of social interaction and continuous posting of what we now can call rich messaging. The daily interaction we had with the old web where now accessible through a High speed MOBILE pipeline to the everybody will a mobile device through SOCIAL platforms like Facebook and Twitter. The revolution was SOCIAL. Everybody could participate on any platform, giving rise to new rules of engagement and I guess right around 2018 the real activation of diversity and inclusion. Everybody has a voice… and they can use that voice ONLINE.

Now in 2020-22, in COVID times, we get to the efforts of a select group of tech-nerds who are prototyping a new world through the amazing new technology called BlockChain… when the heck did that happen???

The space of opportunity we call WEB3 does not have a simplification yet… because, like I said before it is in FLUX. In a state of change or flow. Where the introduction of web1.0 was all about “look@that!” and web2.0 was about #look@me!, WEB3 still needs to go through the motions in order to be classified as a “look@….!”.

The realm currently ranges from the volatile world of creating and trading of Art (by use of NFT’s) to defining shared digital governance in Decentralised communities (DAO’s) of people who think that WEB3 will truly be the great equalizer. It houses a unrelenting shared effort to decentralise currency (BITCOIN)to reprogram the economy and offers Self learning intelligent clouds that offer a variety of new business models (from using the information in your refrigerator to airport lavatory cleaning schedules). This makes it a wonderful new world to explore for some, but and extremely difficult chaotic 1Gbytes/sec mega space that blows up you senses the first time you engage with it. Depending on where you enter WEB3, people need to be onboarded in their own way using simple (not simplistic) clear steps to get you going.

And this is where it starts to get interesting for me and my new friend Joshua. The one Thing I have learned about this space is that you are nothing to it if you are not part of, or connected to, a COMMUNITY.

Starting up in this space on MIRROR.XYZ for the right reasons (to be defined later…;), is all about creating trust, sharing proof of work and unique Collaboration. If you ask me… it sounds like the perfect learning space to explore the in-betweens that are leading us to a better world.

In the following entries, I will try to share some of the SHIFT-thinking of Joshua and myself. Our shared connection is that of Curiosity and spotting opportunity to connect and create. Maybe creating something that will get people to join this journey.

Denace73