The Illusion Of Web3By Matthew Schmitz
January 31, 2022
Anew internet is coming, and with it, a new society. This is the dazzling promise made by advocates of “Web3.” The terms they use—blockchain, cryptocurrency, NFT—may be obscure, but their vision is clear. They seek to displace all “arbitrary authorities”—in the flesh as well as online. They are building a decentralized internet so they can build a decentralized world.
Venture capitalists are investing billions in Web3. They are out to make money, but they also sincerely proclaim certain ideals. Theirs is an updated version of a familiar illusion: that we can rid the world of authority, leaving every man the maker of his own destiny.
The internet, once seen as a zone of experimentation and freedom, is dominated by mega corporations today. Amazon, Google, and Facebook offer immense conveniences to their users. They also advance censorship, surveillance, and social control. No less than the government agencies with which they coordinate, they are vast bureaucracies that shape and limit individual lives.
Web3 seeks to combine the decentralization and freedom seen as typical of the early days of the internet (Web1) with the richness of experience and ease of use made possible by the rise of big platforms (Web2). If it succeeds, then something like a libertarian futurism might be possible. If Bitcoin can displace the Federal Reserve, what other government agencies might be rendered superfluous by new technologies?
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Despite this, there are serious reasons to doubt the promises of Web3. Moxie Marlinspike, the founder of the encrypted messaging app Signal, recently decided to become better acquainted with how Web3 works by creating several digital products using its protocols—which, unlike the platform of Web2, are in theory equally open to everyone. They are supposed to ensure that users never have to rely on, or be subject to, any third-party entity.
Marlinspike’s description of what happened is revealing. He found that despite Web3’s stated goal of moving beyond platforms, Web3 products are already being handled through centralized platforms. This is not simply because Web3 has yet to reach its full potential. As Marlinspike argues, platforms that are centrally controlled can be easily improved, whereas distributed protocols are very hard to change. It turns out that a central authority can be a very useful thing indeed.
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Source:
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-illusion-of-web3/
