What is Web 3 aiming to do and what is it actually doing?
Rhetoric vs reality?
Web1: 1991-2004, passive user experience
Web2: Increased interactivity.
What Web3 is aiming to do
Web3 is an intersecting set of ideas and technologies that aim to make the World Wide Web:
1. Decentralized
2. Private & Secure
3. User-centric
What it’s actually doing
Web2.5 more than Web3 - Media/music/movie companies see web3 as a way to shift value back from big digital platforms (e.g. YouTube) back to creators and people who own the rights.
OpenSea - “world’s first and largest web 3 NFT marketplace”
American NFT marketplace.
Eth.
Sell at fixed price or through auction.
Criticisms of OpenSea:
“Is the platform aiming to be a haven for artists, a marketplace, or an unregulated casino?”
- OpenSea Experiences a Sea of Criticism (pvplive.net)
“Community”
OpenSea is an aggregator, kind of like google.
We still face similar problems of power as in Web2: “ what gives Aggregators their power is not their control of supply: they are not the only way to find websites, or to post your opinions online; rather, it is their control of demand. People are used to Google, or it is the default, so sites and advertisers don’t want to spend their time and money on alternatives; people want other people to see what they have to say, so they don’t want to risk writing a blog that no one reads.”
- OpenSea, Web3, and Aggregation Theory – Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Amends for OpenSea, Kyle McDonald
“ By participating in NFT marketplaces to enact his critique, McDonald recognizes his own culpability, rather than taking a moral high ground to blame and shame.”
“ McDonald’s efforts to reveal the economics underlying the playful NFT landscape betray the current exploitative market practices that replicate Web 2.0 and undermine the aspirations of those who believe web3 can be a more equitable environment. “
What is the environmental cost of burning an NFT?