Stack Overflow, a QnA forum for developers and IT enthusiasts, decided to survey a total of 595 devs. To what end, you ask? The answer is an attempt to gauge reactions to Web3 across the board, maybe even providing a balanced and more complete picture of exactly what’s going on with the technology. I’m personally pretty excited to delve right into this study; crypto, NFTs, and blockchain have become such commonplace terms in today’s social zeitgeist, and all three terms have been met with very mixed reactions across the globe, ranging from frank invitation to open hostility. My own opinions on the matter aside, and trust me, I have enough of them, I think it’s important to keep the conversation regarding such material ongoing. Such topics and technological introductions can have a rather hefty impact on the world’s foreseeable financial future, and staying informed is paramount. With that in mind, let’s quickly break down what Web3 is, and then move on to brass tacks.
So, fun fact, the world wide web actually has more than one iteration. Weird as it might be to think about this, many tech enthusiasts tend to divide the internet into Web1 and Web2. The difference between the two has nothing to do with the world wide web itself, but rather concerns how information is disseminated across the net. Think of them as sociological terms, rather than technical ones. For example, Web1 saw a heavier emphasis on personal webpages, with platforms such as Yahoo! GeoCities allowing users to create websites featuring only themselves for rather affordable fees. There were fewer online content creators and more consumers. This changed with what many consider to be a major demarcation point between Web1 and Web2: the advent of social media. With platforms such as MySpace and Facebook offering users the ability to create their own online identities without the need for websites, online social culture took a rather abrupt swing. While we still encounter the likes of personal blogs and whatnot, they’re more often than not found on Instagram or TikTok.
Web3 is an idea being floated around by netizens, which invites other online users to engage freely with cryptocurrency and make virtual currency the norm for all online transactions. This idea was initially proposed by Ethereum founder Gavin Wood (because of course it was), but has since gained traction from other members of the cryptocurrency and NFT trading scene. To be fair, the latter were probably just happy to be included in something that didn’t result in self-ridicule. Web3 as an idea isn’t popular everywhere, however, and major names such as Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey have actively dismissed the idea as being a provocative buzzword.
The best part is that not a lot of people, even within the IT world, are familiar with the term. Of the entire study’s population, 36% of individuals had no familiarity with the concept. From the remaining 64%, 25% called Web3 the world wide web’s future. 9% referred to the idea as a scam, 15% called it a product of overtly generated hype, and 14% believed it to be important for strictly crypto-related business.
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