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The thing that bugs me is that 25 years in the tech industry and I never heard a single person, engineer or business person, ever use the term "web 3." Then one
by gspencley 5y ago
The thing that bugs me is that 25 years in the tech industry and I never heard a single person, engineer or business person, ever use the term "web 3." Then one day a few months ago it seemed like a ton of news outlets dropped articles on the exact same day which started using the term.
It smells like a made up buzz word that did not originate organically. Someone coined this termed and released a bunch of press releases to get it to catch on. I don't even know why people are giving it the time of day. It's someone's marketing speak and it smells awful.
And furthermore, decentralization is not new nor is it unique to the web, nor does this "web 3" garbage have anything to do with the web either. Web 2.0 was also buzzwordish but at least it was referring to a genuine paradigm shift in the way that websites work. The inclusion of the XHR request API in browsers and the birth of publicly available RESTful APIs that web-sites could consume which helped lead to the split between frontend and backend development as specialties that we see today (whether that's a good thing or not is another discussion).
"web 3" is just marketing PR garbage for "crypto is the next big thing ... somehow."
- bondarchuk 5y agoMaybe it's just me but the only time I see "web 3" is when people/articles on HN are complaining about it.
- exdsq 5y agoYeah 100% this. I've worked on various blockchain projects since 2018 and have never written nor seen it written in any internal slack/discord.
- KineticLensman 5y ago> the only time I see "web 3" is when people/articles on HN are complaining about it. Counterexample: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/14/exclusive-clubs-called-daos-are-popping-up-online-whats-it-all-about https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/14/exclus...
- Qub3d 5y agoYou might want to consider sampling a broader source of news or discussion. HN is prone to insulation and echo chambers like any other social media. I can tell you that there is a large contingent of Twitter, for example, fully on board with "Web 3" -- generally in the context of NFTs and the latest coin offering.
- cinntaile 5y agoIt first appeared in 2014 but it never gained traction. Someone of course marketed the term into public discourse last year, maybe it was a51z. It's not like web 2.0 just organically appeared either.
- zenkat 5y agoWhat's even more hilarious is that "Web 3.0" has already been used for another (failed) evolution of the Internet -- the much-hyped switch to the "Semantic Web" of the 2010s.
- marban 5y agoThey promised us the semantic web and all we got was FB OpenGraph, Twitter Cards and even more SEO gurus.
- emptyparadise 5y agoWe were robbed.
- dboreham 5y agoI'm familiar with the term, having worked in the decentralized space for a few years. However, yes there was definitely some astroturfing going on in the past few weeks. I don't think the web3 mentioners I see on CNBC and suchlike have any clue what it is.