Future of Internet: Reality vs Virtual reality … Not Yet web3.0

5 min readJan 10, 2022

it’s time to call out BS on Web3.0 Money laundering , Inflation, dumb-rich-fear-loss bubble.

Maybe Some background and History :

Web 1.0 refers roughly to the period from 1991 to 2004, where most websites were static webpages, and the vast majority of users were consumers, not producers, of content. Web 2.0 is based around the idea of “the web as platform”, and centers on user-created content uploaded to social-networking services, blogs, and wikis, among other services. Web 2.0 is generally considered to have begun around 2004, and continues to the current day.[2]

Let’s Start with Web3’s definition:

Web3, also known as Web 3.0, is an idea for a new iteration of the World Wide Web that incorporates decentralization based on blockchains wrapped by Artificial intelligence/VirtualReality .

Some technologists and journalists have contrasted it with Web 2.0, wherein they say data and content are centralized in a small group of companies sometimes referred to as “Big Tech”.

The term was coined in 2014 by Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood, and the idea gained interest in 2021 from cryptocurrency enthusiasts, large technology companies, and venture capital firms to capitalize further and keep the party going so they can cash out as mush as available liquidity out of this bubble.

I would argue we’re in web2.5 , since there’s no real technical change in tech stack that actually drive us to name it 3.0.

like period between 2004–2007 is the start of early adoption of smart phones that were connected to the internet, and iPhones smooth touch screen blowup that adoption of mobile/internet connected devices which revolutionized a new wave of companies and adoption to technology by other industries.

However in this case, Crypto + AI + VR all of these technologies combined struggles to add same added value or even adopted by same numbers of smartphones in early/mid 2000’s (2000–2007’s web2.0) or computers connected to internet in mid/late 90' (1990- 1999's web1.0).

Value: Is it really Secure and Decentralized?

No, Absolutely not , it’s pure bs marketed by VCs and some tech founders to make most money out of this bubble (biggest bubble of this Century) , well let’s take Status as an example , it market itself as the new “Decentralized” and “Secure” whatsapp where no censorship, however it works like whatsapp and telegram on iPhone and Android OS .

So it’s not actually secure enough because it works on top of existing stack of os and hardware which’s centralized software (app get downloaded from stores) and un-secure hardware (NSO still hacks phone used under) , it’s no more that a blockchain app, also government can censor it by cutting the internet or dns blocking it. (you get my point ? no added value)

This argument can cover all other apps that are currently working on current hardware/OS/Software Stack that got build on top of Ethereum or other crypto platforms.

in addition to using existing hardware , it uses existing internet infrastructure like DNS servers , Routers , switches , most of the Internet protocols and networks.

I think a big burst of this huge economical bubble will take care/down of lots of these “web3” companies like early 2000s where some good companies survived and some other went under .

I’m not saying that blockchain technology isn’t innovative , however i’m saying it’s not innovative enough to be the change factor that can spin off profitable companies with products that used by regular folks on daily basis.

imagine quantum computers becomes available by 2028, where cryptocurrencies and apps built on top of crypto platform becomes obsolete.

do you know what’s worse than a facebook , Linkedin, youtube , Banks ? an invisible centralized owners and companies disguising in a decentralized mask?

A tech savvy billionaire who have ability to and can spin farms of servers and control let’s say 60% of all nodes on a Network or a cryptocurrency platform can play the role of centralized banks or corporate.

this bring us to second tech value adder : meta-verse, aka virtual reality which isn’t a new idea , it been here for a while and it will be here for a while, which won’t be more than a gaming & entertainment platform , humans and animals couldn’t handle staying in their homes more than a year during a global pandemic which will backfire on some web2.0 companies after the end of covid, this’s written in our DNA, moving and walking ,buying cloths, groceries, eat out, is here to stay , mark or even a new prophet won’t change this, no e-commerce is going to make a jump in VR .

Web2.0 commerce companies before pandemic faced almost growth wall, and will keep struggling after this pandemic ends, people (like me are in billions ,actually 6.5 billion) still prefer to buy things from brick and mortar shops in spite of more expensive prices especially groceries and clothing.

Last point is about 3rd trendy subject , which gets added to web3.0 aka “Artificial intelligence” or “Machine learning” is also an old subject that comes to existence every ten years or so , in a format of an new global event like what happened in 2016 Google’s AlphaGo program becomes the first Computer Go program to beat an unhandicapped professional, or 1997 IBM Deep Blue Beats Kasparov in chess , or 1992's Gerald Tesauro developed TD-Gammon, a computer backgammon program that uses an artificial neural network trained using temporal-difference learning TD-Gammon is able to rival, but not consistently surpass, the abilities of top human backgammon players.

these events spin off some AI companies , then these companies gets squeezed out of juice (VC dollars) by a global economic/financial crisis of 1989/2000s/2007 …etc.

Usually, these companies are very small added value to big tech only, and regular users don’t see the value and/or real affect.

i think we will go through many changes on different fronts and edges of technology at once in every level of the technical stack to reach an event like (1989, 2007) which becomes the foundation of new and real web3.

This will involve computer hardware (quantum power), new software protocols, programming languages, frameworks and Cryptographic/blockchain networks in addition to other inventions in AR/hologram hardware plus new infrastructure like SkyNet/StarLink where your internet is n’t controlled/monitored by one local or regional ISP.

All these innovations will aggregate to a platform or group of similar platforms like ios/iphone & andoid/phones where lots of companies and technologies will jump in like 2008 , till then don’t fall in the trap of cryptocurrency and distributed social media as the key of the future,

I believe the future is a beautiful hybrid between distributed and centralized solutions, and not neither/or situation.

Till reaching that day , Maybe at the end of this decade or early 2040s , i don’t think we should call some websites built as an apps on top of a blockchain platform\s a web3.0 .

References :

[1]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web3

[2]. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Web-20

[3.] https://www.ncsa.illinois.edu/about/history/

[4.] https://home.cern/science/computing/birth-web/short-history-web

[5.] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosaic_(web_browser)

[6.] https://www.ncsa.illinois.edu/research/project-highlights/ncsa-mosaic/

[7.] https://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/WorldWideWeb.html

[8.] https://github.com/cynthia/WorldWideWeb

[9.] https://worldwideweb.cern.ch/browser/

[10.] https://www.torproject.org/

[11.] https://www.computerhope.com/history/network.htm