Why Elon says ‘Web 3 sounds more like Marketing than Reality’ and what to do, to fix that.

Recently, I watched a short video clip where Elon Musk said these profound words. In many ways he is right.

Elon said – ‘Web 3 sounds more like Marketing than Reality’.

Why is he right?

Well first we have to ask ourselves what is Web 3?

‘Web 3.0 is an open-source, censorship-free place where you own your identity and choose how to share your personal information, can store data without the need for trusted middlemen’ (article – Powered by DeFi, NFTs and Web 3.0, Decentralized Social Media Seeks to Unseat Tech Giants)

‘The significance of a decentralized web or internet is that it is based on blockchain technology. Like cryptocurrency, it is meant to be autonomous, secure, anonymous, and free from the control of any central entity. It is intended to provide a system that operates outside the central governance of ICANN and in a different way from them’

Emersion in this decentralized, container like, ecosystem is the core criteria for virtual products to carry the ‘Web 3’ tag. Without it, they are simply a disparate set of blockchain assets, sometimes referred to as ‘Blockchain of Things’ (BoT). ( from articles by Peter Oluka, Issac Umunna, Bukola Olanrewaju and others).

Here we see the 3 notional support pillars of Decentralization. Column 1, Coin Minting, gives us Decentralized Money.

Column 2, Tokenization

[Aside – Only Tokenization under protocol ERC 721 produce ‘NFTs’. This is an Ethereum based protocol, though there are several others. By design, tokenization happening on any other blockchains are not NFTs]

Tokenization creates secure irreputable title to a huge variety of digital assets. Decentralized Ownership.

Column 3, Web 3 is about Decentralized Identity, Decentralized Access as well as Decentralized Engagement for people. When the earlier quote said: ‘Emersion in this decentralized, container like, ecosystem..’ the emersion is not limited to VR headsets as a device.

Web 3 is about creating a safe decentralized space where Blockchain and other assets can be accessed by individuals whose identity is secured and protected.

I recently ran a poll on LinkedIn looking at where Web 3 development teams actually are with their assets during the development process, and only 25% of them claimed to be in Web 3.

I would even seriously wonder about that 25% attainment, because firstly, several of those who chose to participate are actually NOT active in digital or coding projects, and some others may be fully aware of the message its sending, depending on how they reply, and so are giving political answers.

The likelihood is validation would revise this 25% down.

Evolution of Digital Product to Tokenized Product and then Web 3 Product.

The poll illustrates that the concept of any digital asset or product project being Web3 from initiation is an illusion. It starts out being nowhere near blockchain activity at all.

It may then pass to Pillar 2, where it becomes tokenized. From there it may pass to the Web 3 stage… or not. Most do not.

Web 3 was never intended to be about a different product experience or superior technical ability of product. It is about the freedom from ICANN certificate authority processes supported by  .com .xyz, io etc. ; Freedom from the scrutiny of the mobile network operator, and not having your phone number demanded of you. Web 3 is about dominion over your data. No personalized adds, no AI behavioural learning. No social selling to ‘partners’. It is a compliance step that currently can only be served by a very limited set of tool providers.

Facebook was in a Social Media Space on its own before it saw competition from products such as Twitter, Instagram and Tik Tok, but it was by no means the first Social Media Platform. Facebook was preceded by  Friendster, MySpace, and Hi5. The granddaddy of them all,  SixDegrees, was released in 1997.

While O Reilly floated the idea earlier, the first considered thoughts of Web 2 didn’t come until around 2009. Two things happened that year. It was the year Pinterest was launched, but more important, it was also the start of Bitcoin.

Web 2 didn’t start to get regular mentions until this decade, and that has been usually in the context of people attempting to misrepresent Web 3.

Humankind is expected to believe that all the way back to 1997, until relatively recently, we have all been using an iteration of technologies called ‘Web 2’ without having the slightest clue that we were doing that? …. Unlikely!

I lost a node to the Handshake Core at 3pm, and it took me until 4:30am to get it back. I ran out of cups of coffee.

Sure, there are challenges with integration and providing the means for Web 3 , the problem is that rather than face the challenges along with Web 3 ecosystem tool providers together, project sponsors are just choosing to go ahead anyway, and call stuff Web 3 when it isn’t.

It’s clear that the concept of Web 2, only vaguely mentioned in ‘thought’ circles around a decade ago, has trailed into mass media behind COVID 19. It’s been resurrected posthumously to create a road map alibi for selling Blockchain of Things (BoT) or ‘Web 3 Ready’ as Web 3.

‘A while back, I spoke to an (disillusioned) applicant who had solid web3 experience…it seemed like his job was to just ‘put a ribbon on it’ so they could serve the next web3 client.’ (Owen Healy, Head-Hunter for Devs building off Blockchain).

When what is realizable is given specifications and a buzz word name (Web 3), and commercial interests drive a specification reboot around products only half way there, then that is MARKETING.

Somebody less gracious than Elon Musk would call that something different to ’ more like Marketing than Reality’ but he is clearly being economical with criticism here.

Elon is on the money, as usual.

And it will take more than a ribbon to realize the ‘Web 3’ that will change his mind.

The ball is in the marketers court, but the truth is out!

9ja Cosmos is here… Get your .9jacom and .9javerse Web 3 domains  for $2 at:

https://www.encirca.com/handshake-9jacom/

https://www.encirca.com/handshake-9javerse/

References:

www.businessremarks.com.ng/unstoppable-domains-who-campaign-on-no-renewal-fees-ever-dump-coin-barely-a-year/

newsexpressngr.com/news/169282-No-renewal-fees-ever-Unstoppable-Domains-dump-coin-less-than-a-year-after-leaving-SLD-owners-who-built-upon-it-high-and-dry

techeconomy.ng/2022/10/9jacom-promises-stability-as-unstoppable-domains-dumps-coin-barely-a-year-after-no-renewal-fees-ever-campaign/

filmyspark.com/nigeria-first-country-to-have-web3-cctlds-as-9jacom-goes-live-techeconomy-nigeria-techeconomy-ng/

www.linkedin.com/posts/john-mc-keown-nigeria-expert_web3-webdesign-webdevelopment-activity-6991841897858105344-5rHd?

pymnts.com/news/blockchain-distributed-ledger/2022/powered-by-defi-nfts-web-3-0-decentralized-social-media-seeks-to-unseat-tech-giants/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinterest

twitter.com/desoprotocol/status/1572255622833541121

youtube.com/watch?v=zqFeFmE6oMU

modernmarketingpartners.com/2020/04/23/5-of-the-top-social-media-networks-before-facebook/

zilliqa.com/zilliqa-story