So far, the only crowning achievement of Web 3 is overwhelming financial instability. Infamous site web3isgoinggreat chronicles news stories centre around blockchain and cryptocurrency projects being hacked or falling prey to regulatory or self-induced financial distress (like the FTX situation).
And, yes, I get how ironic the title of this post is, given I am publishing it on Hive, and Hive calls itself a blockchain for Web 3. But it's not clickbait. I believe that Web 3 is largely bullshit.
Nobody can name a successful or secure web three project because none exists. I don't want to believe that most Web 3 projects end up being scams, ideas the founders can't deliver on or sloppily put together projects that end up being hacked. But, the evidence seems to suggest otherwise.
Once again, you might be inclined to say Hive, but I believe this place is worth more than being lumped into the same bullshit scam soup of web 3. Don't you?
Hive is a real platform making real money for people. It's here, and long before people started referring to anything remotely virtual-community like affiliated with a blockchain as web 3, Hive (and Steemit before it) ran successfully without the need for labels.
If web 3 is the future, where are all the awesome web three applications? Besides Hive, all I see are defi projects, Twitter clones, payment apps and gambling apps (do we need another crypto lottery game?).
It seems to me that web 3 is a problem looking for a solution. The web three solutions often offer no real reason over its web two counterparts. If anything, introducing blockchain and cryptocurrency complicates things. Onboarding is harder; there is a cost component in blockchain fees.
Web three has always felt like more of a feeling or vibe than an accurate summation of future-tech projects. While I am not discounting all projects under the web three umbrella (either self-described or labelled), most are bullshit.
While I am a fan of some potential applications, like retaining control over your identity and data and the developments happening in social media with Jacky Dorsey and Blue Sky, most projects are out for themselves. The new trend in the blockchain is social media protocols. Will they all talk to one another? Doubtful.
Some things will stick, but as we saw with the ICO trend back in 2016 and 2017, eventually, the good remains and the bad goes away. The stain always remains, though.