Web3, wtf is web3?

First time I’ve heard the term web3 (rather than web3.0), which based on this post is more about distributed/blockchain/nft/supposedly privacy, moving more back to web1 distributed systems rather than web2 client/server centralized providers.

And yet… it’s really going that way to a large degree.

Interesting read and thoughts.

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I’ll agree with him about running servers… I do it, though I’m not sure I’d say I like doing it. It’s just that I prefer running my own hardware (sorry about the downtime a couple days ago, not quite sure what was going on but it needed some power cycling) to the other options at this point, and consider running my own services to be a reasonable thing for me to be doing at this point in time. Need to get the BMC an IP, though. :confused:

I had no idea NFTs were mostly implemented as a web link, though. That’s… cute. I’ve avoided the entire NFT ecosystem, I’ve no interest in it, but it sounds more broken than I’d expected. If someone told me they were buying images on the blockchain, I’d certainly hope the actual images were in the blockchain, not just a URL to some VPS somewhere that won’t last the decade.

Then again, I’m pretty well old at this point, and I think an awful lot of what the modern internet is used for is increasingly nonsense.

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An eye opening response I heard to the “no one wants to sysadmin servers” comment was: home wifi routers.

For many people, the word Server brings up connotations: rackmount chassis, screaming fans, unfamiliar OS, compiling drivers, configuring networks, and other endless technical rabbitholes.

But defines “Server” in the context of Web3/decentralization? Personal ownership and operation of always on computing device to provide software service’s to other personal devices, like phones or PCs.

It’s not a totally new idea. The FreedomBox project has used home wifi router as their ideal user experience. Plug it in, immediately works with reasonable defaults, and all the information you need to log in and configure it further fits on a sticker.

Yeah, there’s some issues with the current state of FreedomBox, it needs more testing and polishing. Technically not insurmountable, but it doesn’t seem to be an attractive open source project for developers at the moment. Its close enough for me not to be convinced running your own server is limited to the small percent of the population capable and willing to do corporate IT style sysadmin for a hobby.