Yes. The decentralized web already existed. It was phpbb/vbulletin (or self hosted website) powered and had niche forums for all types of topics. You had an ide

Yes. The decentralized web already existed. It was phpbb/vbulletin (or self hosted website) powered and had niche forums for all types of topics. You had an identity specific to that site, with each behaving as their own community with rules and norms. Not happy with a given forum? Go rent a server and start your own community. With Linode/DO and things like Softalicous, this is much cheaper and easier than it was back in the day, but everything consolidated into walled gardens meant to track and monetize everything while monopolizing your attention. "Web 3" is just a cash grab under the guise of a "blockchain". As an analogy, crypto is a channel on IRC-- it is a topic, people love talking about it, but the underlying tech (IRC protocol, blockchain) isn't being fully utilized, and may never have a solid, widespread commercial application. Yes, governments have adopted some crypto, DAOs are a neat concept, but how many applications are so novel that blockchain is actually the best and/or only application of said tech? For the "new web" concept, we have yet to see internet for the people, created and curated by people without monetization as their primary motive. Will Gen Z (or whoever come next) be tired of the walled gardens and try to reinvent what the old web was, or will they just be amused by the shadows on the wall of their caves?