The concept of Web3 has captivated investors and the tech industry for more than a year now. In some respects, Web3 is a successful re-brand of blockchain technology, a similarly hot trend that attracted growing levels of venture capital investment for several years until 2018, when funding levels faltered. That all changed in 2021: Investment into web3 startups suddenly zoomed up to $23.7 billion, according to startup market intelligence firm Pitchbook, and celebrities and musical artists have been lining up to back all things crypto. Skeptics of Web3 and blockchain say Web3’s ideals of being truly decentralized don’t work in practice.
On March 23, I hosted a Twitter Spaces discussion with U.K.-based Dan Hughes, founder of Web3 startup Radix DLT and a respected cryptographer who spent years single-handedly designing his own version of blockchain technology. He talked through the technical challenges of Web3, and why it could take up to a decade to go mainstream.
