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Web 2 vs Web3

draft
Date: 2022-07-28
Tags: web3 crypto service design ux

Web 2, as I see it, was about ajax (asynchronous javascript). Moving from static, request-response model of Web 1, XMLHTTPRequest, allowed browsers to make additional web requests without a full page refresh, leading to the more dynamic SPA's (single-page applications) that are popular today.

Web 2's after-the-face narrative has shifted, when being compared to Web3, in terms of the finances driving the effort.

Web 2 was VC's aggressively funding startups, pouring gas on anything that could exhibit the characteristics of hypergrowth, and growth there was. Increasingly inorganic.

En masse, this leads me toward the conclusion that Web 2 was extremlely extractive; taking people's content for free, re-selling it back... very fight club.

So think of a value stream, where profits are concentrated and extracted from individuals.


Web 3 however, can be different.

Ultimately, shared ledgers imply shared truths and imply shared values, to some extent (to be observed).

Where we currently have harsh externalities and sharp information asymmetries, mediums of truth can start to shine positive attention on these circumstance and transform extractive means and mechanisms into productive experiences .

Incentives can be used to reinforce valuable loops.

By Ryan Wold · © 2022–2026 Ryan Wold

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