(2021-06-17) Dark Star Reputation In Web3 Ships Built On The Great Flood Mirror

Dark Star: Reputation in Web3: Ships Built on the Great Flood. Implicit in the name ‘Web3’ is the expectation of replacement. Will it replace the set of principles, technologies and behaviors that we’ve come to know as Web2?

As the term Web2 has become closely associated with centralized social networks like Twitter and Facebook, and as those networks have become increasingly politically powerful -- with arbitrary, capricious or simply incompetent moderation policies not to mention potentially societally harmful business practices -- it is common to hear crypto folks imply that decentralized applications would do a better job

And yet, it’s difficult to see how that happens. If anything, it seems like crypto has made the ‘old’ centralized social networks, especially Twitter, more central than ever. How many influencers have used their followers to make an easy leap into crypto sales?

it is arguably precisely the gamified virality of centralized platforms that makes them so valuable to crypto marketing and community.

What is actually wrong with Web2?

In 2004 “Web2” was popularized at a conference which sought to ask the very same question: “What is wrong?” The organizers of the first Web2 conference felt that the industry “had lost its way” after the dotcom bubble burst and needed an injection of confidence.

In those days, Google especially was seen as a role model, in the way that it sent searching users away to the best resources. Rather than try to seize 100% of the value, the virtuous approach was also the best for the ecosystem. The symbolically central concept was that of the ‘open API.’ Everyone should and would build on everyone else.

But the catch was that this was never a sustainable long-term strategy, at least not for the purposes of promoting an open ecosystem

it turns out that the data was more a means to reduce friction, improve experience and aggregate demand centrally, recreating most of the negatives of the old portal system, just with a friendly moniker that everything is just one click away

These successful companies in most cases weren’t true platforms, but aggregators

And this necessary lock-in is arguably the source of today’s ire. Whereas 2004's Web2 was reckoning with marketplace failure, 2021's Web3 is reckoning with user failure. We are a community of people failing the marshmallow test, always optimizing for less friction

it was the development and explosive growth of the smartphone that made it so ferocious.

it is in the context of this flooded world, that the notion of Web3 as a successor paradigm has such alluring appeal.

Platform wealth and economic sharing:

Content ownership and rights:

The happy accident of NFTs:

Lies, hype and bots:

Governance, individual influence and moderation:

Permissionless development and composability:

New models of work and collaboration:

Which leads us to the question: If it’s better for more people, will Web3 replace Web2? Why wouldn’t it?

There are three possible answers:

We can think of these being three horizons: Web3 as testing ground (1), as complement (2), or as critique (3). As for the first, it may be that Web3 is a sort of open lab of experimentation whose successes will eventually be absorbed by existing structures

Right now, and for the foreseeable future, follower graphs on centralized social networks are a source of significant and enduring value.

It is factful not fanciful to recognize that they will determine the future. But they won’t do it based on vague ideals of decentralization. Only if and to the extent that Web3 truly benefits their lives will they push past our legacy networks into a next phase.