The term Web3 has been around for over two decades. But it exploded in popularity in late 2021, with notable figures like Elon Musk starting to speak up about it. Judging by Google Trends, interest in the term has fallen by around 25% from its peak in December 2021. However, in November 2022 it began a downward trajectory from which it has not recovered as of this writing. Article.

What is Web3?

The definition of Web3 depends on who you ask. But, the first use of the word Web 3.0 was in 1999 by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web. The definition of it was also known by another nickname: the “Semantic Web”. The Berners-Lee setup implied a future in which all computers could intelligently analyze all data on the Internet, with “machines talking to machines”.

Such intelligent analysis would be made possible by shared tags, web structures, and vocabulary, definitions, and standards that would make all data on the web machine-readable. W3C, or World Wide Web Consortium, an organization led by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, still upholds this definition of Web3 to this day.

However, the most popular definition of Web3 is the one first used by Gavin Wood, founder of Polkadot. In 2014, Wood used the term to describe a third stage of the Internet. One that was more decentralized and less dominated by Big Tech surveillance capitalism. Wood, who is also a co-founder of Ethereum, envisioned this third stage as running on the blockchain or distributed ledger technology (DLT). By making the exchange of value and information more secure, efficient and transparent, Wood has claimed that Web3 will create significant social and economic change.

Web: a web without trust?

Last year, Wood told CNBC’s ‘Beyond The Valley’ podcast that Web3 can enable a trustless Internet. “We have to trust the people behind the services.”

In his vision, trust would be replaced by blockchain-based algorithms and smart contracts. One of the aspects of Ethereum distinguishes it from Bitcoin. “So it’s like, it’s very peer to peer, right? … The idea is that all participants contribute a small portion of the final service,” Wood said.

“And so no one really has any advantage over anyone… not in the same sense, at least like, as you know, when, for example, you go to Amazon or you go to eBay or Facebook, where the company behind the service you really have absolute power over what they do in providing the service.”

The definition is still in dispute

Wood’s definition has drawn a lot of attention and criticism, particularly since its popularity peak in December 2021. In that month, Elon Musk called the term “more marketing than reality,” which isn’t even that controversial. Most proponents of it admit that Web3 is more of a journey than a destination. And since blockchain-based services still take up a fraction of Internet traffic compared to their Web2 counterparts, that’s not necessarily wrong either.

Musk also called the space ‘BS’ in response to a tweet from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

One of Musk’s Twitter CEO predecessors, Jack Dorsey, is another who doesn’t buy the hype. Despite being a Bitcoin maximalist, the Silicon Valley hippie has more nuanced views on the potential of Web3. On Twitter, he argued that, far from being revolutionary, Web3 had the same corporate incentives as its traditional alternative.

Speaking with BeInCrypto, Arie Trouw, XYO co-founder and CEO, believes that the term ‘Web3’ can be useful if used correctly. Unlike Web2, the Web3 model can allow users to control and monetize their own data without the middleman of Big Tech. “Web3 is key to disrupting current systems that don’t serve the majority of Internet users,” Trouw says. . “Web2 led to the rise of big tech entities that control our data. However, the new Internet will allow us to move from centralization to an open source model.”

Last year, Berners-Lee spoke at an event in Lisbon and laid out his vision for the Internet. He said: “It’s a real shame, actually, that the Ethereum people have taken the real name of Web3 for the things they’re doing with the blockchain. In fact, Web3 is not the web at all.

Web3 and Crypto are not the same

Another pitfall of the term Web3 is that it is so deeply associated with cryptocurrency. While both are ostensibly based on cryptography and blockchain; They are far from being synonymous. The collapse of crypto giants like FTX and Celcius has also increased people’s reluctance to use the term.

“I think the word ‘crypto’ has been tainted in a sense, as the mainstream thinks it is synonymous with get-rich-quick schemes and financial crime,” continues Trouw. “Some people even refer to it as the ‘C’ word not to say. Terms like “Blockchain,” “Self-Sovereignty,” and “Zero Knowledge” best describe the innovations happening in the space, though none are quite as sexy as “Crypto.”

Gavin Wood himself has tried to create distance between the two mandates, although for different reasons. The need to exchange one of thousands of native tokens can unnecessarily complicate people’s entry into Web3. “I suspect that currency will continue to play a role in services. But I think…in general, we’re going to start to see services being delivered without the need to use tokens,” he told CNBC. “And I think it’s going to be a big leap.”