Why We Need Web 3.0

Gav Would, Ethereum co-founder, writes about the need for a new web.

Centralization is not socially tenable long-term, and government is too clumsy to fix things.

The internet, which is the physical infrastructure of wires, routers, and systems that form the foundation that the web is build on, is quite decentralized and resilient. The Web, the part of the internet that we interact with on the daily, is not resilient and is being centralized more and more.

Take how we pay for things online. On Web 2.0, you are not empowered to make payments per se. In reality, you must contact your financial institution to do it on your behalf. You are not trusted to do something as innocuous as pay your water bill. You are treated like a child appealing to a parent. If you wish to contact your friend online, then likely you will need to appeal to Facebook to relay your message.

Consider frictionless nature of handing a clerk paper money. It could be the same way across distance…

Those who wish to protect the peaceful, liberal post-war world order need to realize: Our present digital architecture will magnify society’s maladies, not limit them.

Consider Web 3.0 to be an executable Magna Carta — “the foundation of the freedom of the individual against the arbitrary authority of the despot.”

Do you remember when a “browser” was a weird word that most people didn’t know? That’s where we are—according to Gav—right now with these emerging technologies.

We’ll use web browsers, but they might be called “wallets” or “key stores.” Browsers (and components like hardware wallets) will represent a person’s assets and identity online, allowing us to pay for something, or prove who we are, without needing to appeal to a bank or identity service. There will still be room for trusted parties, insurance outfits, backup-services and so forth. But their tasks will be commoditized and their activity verifiable. As these service providers are forced to compete in a global, open and transparent market, web users will be relieved of price-gouging and rent-seeking.