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The old internet shows signs of quietly coming back

(cheapskatesguide.org)
622 points ColinWright | 2 comments | 25 Jan 22 22:24 UTC | HN request time: 0.438s | source
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pavlov ◴[25 Jan 22 23:17 UTC] No.30079513[source]▶
> 'Some people use the term "Web 3.0" to refer only to decentralized blockchain-based networks without considering that all personal websites have essentially the same goals, be they on the regular Internet or on the new blockchain networks. Those who use the term "web 3.0" seem to have forgotten that self-hosted personal websites that run on home servers and are accessible over the regular Internet are inherently decentralized. Unfortunately, despite common goals, some on today's old Internet are hostile to blockchain technology. I am not sure why.'

What goals does today's crypto-token-powered "web 3" vision share with the old Internet? It's not enough to say "well it's decentralized" and do a handwave.

Consider the NFT exploration Moxie Marlinspike did recently:

https://moxie.org/2022/01/07/web3-first-impressions.html

This is essentially a system that lets you buy DRM'd metadata that points to servers owned by a corporation funded by billions of VC dollars, and transactions are recorded on a ledger that spends more power than the entire country of Finland. The only purpose of these activities is to speculate on prices of these make-believe digital assets.

None of these things have anything to with the old Internet: cargo cult DRM, billion-dollar VC funding, enormous energy waste, artificial scarcity where none is needed.

That website on dial-up was slow because of real physical constraints, not artificial constraints erected to make VCs richer at the expense of the planet's ecosystem.

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1. Melatonic ◴[25 Jan 22 23:56 UTC] No.30079856[source]▶
The thing that is telling to me about all of these "revolutions" is WHO is doing the hype and to what end.

Web 1.0 it was the nerds saying it was going to change the world and the people with no knowledge of how the internet worked saying it was BS.

Web 2.0 for the most part just seemed to naturally happen without a ton of specific hype and was what finally got all the naysayers of Web 1.0 on board.

Web 3.0 is all the OG naysayers saying it is going to change the world while the nerds roll their eyes.

Personally I am looking forward to Web 3.1 :-D

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2. zozbot234 ◴[26 Jan 22 00:31 UTC] No.30080137[source]▶
I'm waiting for Web 3.11 for Workgroups. At least it will be useful for something.