There’s a plethora of web3 things out there that we can start talking about. While I don’t know enough to have an opinion about them, I do know that when there’s a lot of noise, it’s crucial to get to the heart of the matter.

So, what’s the real question? What’s the question whose answer will help us intuitively answer every other question? Exploring the technology and discussing NFTs & DAOs is great (if you don’t know what those are, you’re in the right place) but the real question perhaps isn’t technology related, but more human related.

Why should we care about web3? Let’s attempt to answer that.

The one term that seems pretty prevalent, when discussing this question, is ownership. That is- web3 will enable us to own our data and assets. Hmm, but then what’s so great about decentralization? Well, to answer that let’s look at what’s not so great about centralization?

The first thing that comes to mind when talking about why centralization isn’t great is the fact that centralized platforms sell the data that we give them, for profit. And sure, ads are annoying af, but is that really the only problem with centralized platforms? Are we really discussing a new revolution of technology because we hate ads? There’s another, perhaps more inspiring David & Goliath battle that decentralization helps address - one of innovation and fair competition.

Let’s imagine that you make the best pancakes in your town. Everyone who lives in your town absolutely loves your pancakes. It gives you a sense of freedom knowing that you’re spending your time doing what you love, and getting paid for it. Now, what happens if I move into your town and coincidentally I also know a thing or two about making pancakes? Well, to a greater extent we peacefully coexist. I run my shop and you run yours. Who benefits? The people of the town. They now get two choices, plus, you and I keep innovating new flavors and recipes to compete with each other.

Now, imagine if you owned every commercial property in town. Or at least the ones where pancake restaurants can be built. Sure, I would pay you rent. But now what happens if your pancake shop isn’t doing that well? You do have the option of increasing my monthly rent (that could be illegal lol but I’m getting to the point I promise), or altogether sending me an eviction notice.

You have leverage because you own the land where I sell my pancakes.

Now let’s swap pancakes to services and apps that we use everyday and towns to the everyday social media/ marketplace platforms we’re all so familiar with. You utilize these platforms because they provide services which can be hard to build and figure out on your own, and, they have a wider reach so more eyes for your service. What happens if one of these platforms decides to take a larger percentage of the revenue you’ve made? You’re forced to comply. Worse, what happens if these platforms start competing with your product? Sure, more competition is great for the end-user, but eventually, you start loosing your audience to them because it’s easier for the user to stay in an ecosystem than branch out.

They have leverage because they own the platform you’re selling your services on. Overtime, our dependence on these juggernauts grows even when there are multiple alternatives out there. Whether it’s emails or cloud services, over-time, individuals who are trying to innovate get punished for not being a part of the juggernaut.

So, this is one reason why you should care about web3- because web3 enables fair competition, it gives everyone who has an idea and the means to translate that to technology, a chance to do what they love and contribute their passions to society.

We’ve been learning, time and time again, that humans cannot be trusted with power, especially if doing what’s right jeopardizes their own wallets. Web3 helps dampen down/ eradicate the leverage juggernauts have, so everyone, despite their economic status, can get rightful access to a saner life.

Big banks can no longer charge convenience fucking fees because smart contracts can do what they’re charging you for (dw if you don’t know wtf smart contracts are, we’ll get to it together), what’s better is that as web3 develops, you no longer need to be living in close proximity to a bank, or, need half as many documents as banks need today to get access to basic financial services.

You can get access to services because that is a human right.

How exactly does Web3 do that? I have no f*** clue, but we’ll find out, together.