Web3 is broken
Ever heard the phrase "a solution in search of a problem"?
That should sum up Web3 in seven words.
What is Web3, really?
Before I start explaining why Web3 is broken, it helps to understand what Web3 even is. Something that makes this a bit difficult is that even Web3 enthusiasts often don’t seem clear on the definition.
The most common definition, though, seems to be “combining the decentralization of Web 1.0 with the ease of Web 2.0”. And that’s a noble goal, but currently, Web3 is nowhere close to doing this.
Slowing down — what do we mean when we say Web 1.0 and Web 2.0?
Web 1.0 refers to the first version of the internet that was publicly available in the early 90s. In the view of Web3 enthusiasts, Web 1.0 was characterized by interconnected, decentralized open standards: XMPP for messaging, RSS for subscribing to blogs and receiving updates, E-mail for longer communication, and HTTP, allowing users to navigate to different web pages interconnected by hyperlinks.
Web 2.0 is the era of internet as a platform, characterized by the rise of e-commerce and social media sites, allowing users to interact and publish content. Instead of self-hosting blogs and subscribing to them via RSS or Atom, people create accounts on, say, Facebook and post there instead.
Users coalesced around a few different centralized services, giving up the control they had with Web 1.0 in favor of handing it over to “Big Tech”.
That’s the problem Web3 wants to solve.
So, where does blockchain become involved? Because in general, whenever you hear about a Web3 project, it’s always something blockchain related, and often doesn’t even relate to “combining the decentralization of Web 1.0 with the ease of Web 2.0”. Heck, by that definition, even Mastodon is a Web3 app.
What even is a blockchain?
Let’s see what ChatGPT thinks:
“Blockchain is a distributed ledger technology that allows multiple parties to record transactions on a secure and transparent database without the need for a central authority. It uses complex algorithms to ensure the integrity of the data and to prevent any single entity from modifying the ledger without the consensus of the network. Each block in a blockchain contains a set of transactions, and once a block is added to the chain, the data in it is considered to be immutable. Transactions are recorded in a linear, chronological order, and are grouped together in blocks, which are then added to the chain. Each block contains a unique code, called a "hash," that links it to the previous block in the chain, creating an unbroken chain of blocks, hence the name "blockchain." This creates a tamper-proof record of all transactions that is accessible to anyone on the network.”
That’s a pretty accurate description of what a blockchain is.
What’s the most famous use of blockchain technologies? If you guessed cryptocurrency, you’d be right.
Where does “Web3” get involved?
How did Web3 become so closely intertwined with blockchain and cryptocurrencies? Well, the term “Web3” was created by Gavin Wood. If you don’t know who that is, well, he’s one of the co-founders of Ethereum.
What’s Ethereum? Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain platform that enables the creation of smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps). It has its own cryptocurrency, Ether (ETH), but the real innovation of Ethereum is its ability to execute code on the blockchain, known as smart contracts. This allows for the creation of decentralized, trust-less systems and the potential for a wide range of applications beyond just digital currency (in theory. In practice, it’s almost always just digital currency). Additionally, Ethereum allows for the creation of custom tokens, which has led to the development of various decentralized finance (DeFi) applications and the issuance of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
That’s pretty much the state of Web3 right now. Almost every app is built on the Ethereum blockchain and is usually either related to DeFi or NFTs.
But does blockchain tackle the problem of “combining the decentralization of Web 1.0 with the ease of Web 2.0”? No. There have been few attempts to create good, blockchain-based alternatives to the Web 2.0 apps most people use daily. (Ever heard of blockchain YouTube? Reddit? Etsy? I haven’t either.) Sure, there’s DeSo, which is trying to create a blockchain Twitter, but that’s not even truly decentralized! What issue does it even solve?
Now, this isn’t a blanket rejection of blockchain. An example of a good blockchain success story is Walmart: The retail giant has been using blockchain technology to track the movement of goods through its supply chain. By using blockchain, Walmart can quickly trace the origin of a product, which can be useful for identifying the source of a food-borne illness outbreak, for example. This is possible because blockchain can be used to create an immutable record of transactions, making it useful for tracking the movement of goods through a supply chain.
And by themselves, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies like BitCoin aren’t bad. They solve a problem— they create digital currencies that are completely user-controlled, where you can actually own tokens. Blockchain solves that problem well.
The truth is that Web3 can be really, really, good. The core ideals are strong. But Web3 enthusiasts need to stop throwing a blockchain at every issue they encounter with the current web. Sometimes, there really is a better way to do it. Did I say sometimes? Sorry, I meant usually.
If you want a good example of an actual solution to this problem, look at ActivityPub and Mastodon! They’ve created a very usable Twitter equivalent for a decentralized web. That’s what “combining the decentralization of Web 1.0 with the ease of Web 2.0” actually looks like — ActivityPub, an open web-native standard that allows various users from different servers to communicate with each other through short form messages.
So, yeah. Web3 is broken. The problem it claims to solve is real. But blockchain isn’t the solution.
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