Tim O'Reilly, who once defined Web2.0, reviewed various events in web2. For example, there have been several decentralization / centralization tugs of war in web2, which makes him uncertain whether this Web3 is just another one. He also pointed out that the current Web3 is full of hype and financial foam, but also mentioned that the foam can also bring infrastructure development to innovation. Finally, he believes that we should all focus on how to create real value, rather than just want to speculate and become rich.

Recently, there are many voices about Web3. As the man who defined "Web 2.0" 17 years ago, I am often asked to say something about it. Generally speaking, I avoid doing such things because most of the predictions about the future turn out to be wrong. What we can do more is to ask ourselves more questions to understand the present and understand the present which is gestating the future. As William Gibson famously said, "the future has come, but it is unevenly distributed." We can also observe the patterns and cycles of economy and society and learn from history. As Mark Twain said, "although history will not repeat itself, it is always strikingly similar."

Remember, the Internet Foam Burst very early. At that time, Google maps had not been invented, iPhone and Android did not exist, online payment was still in its infancy, there was no twitter or Facebook, AWS and cloud computing, and most of the things we rely on today did not exist.

I suspect that cryptocurrency is the same. There are too many things waiting for us to create. Let's focus on the parts of the Web3 vision that have nothing to do with instant wealth, and on solving the problems of trust, identity and decentralized finance. Most importantly, let's focus on the interface between cryptocurrency and the real world people live in. As Matthew Yglesias said when talking about housing inequality, "over time, society becomes rich by accumulating a long-term stock of capital goods." If, as Sal Delle Palme said, Web3 heralds the birth of a new economic system, let's turn it into a system that can increase real wealth - not just the paper wealth of those who are lucky to get wealth at an early date, but the goods and services that really change their lives and make everyone's life better.