web3

The blockchain-based “next web” wave of 2021 and early 2022, as captured in a cluster of saved posts from November 2021 to January 2022: ownership and community through tokens, DAOs and NFTs, layered on the read-only Web 1 and read-write Web 2 eras. The saved posts record the debate rather than a settled view.

• Bull cases. Chris Dixon and Packy McCormick wrote about “the promise of web3” in The Economist (Gm, @packyM and I Wrote… (tweet)). Jeremy Liew argues that “Eventually all investors will be ‘web3’ investors or they will be irrelevant” (Great Insight Thread. Today There… (tweet)). Other posts report conviction after a deep dive (I Don’t Know Anyone Who… (tweet), Reflecting on My Accidental Exploration… (tweet)).
• Skeptic cases. Okay I’m Officially a Web3… (tweet) asks what DAOs are good for beyond pooling capital and whether NFT art markets will simply be hype-driven. Ok, I Listened to the… (tweet) asks for a counterpoint podcast, wary of anything “hyped as a panacea,” while finding data portability and “proof of ” more interesting than collectibles trading. Wrote Some Notes Summarizing My… (tweet) is Moxie Marlinspike’s write-up of his first impressions.
• Learning and sensemaking. Been Trying to Give Web3… (tweet) (Brent Beshore) and I Asked, “What Are the… (tweet) (Brian Feroldi, a ten-resource primer opening with Web 1 as read-only) are requests for and lists of resources. Gonna Make a Thread of… (tweet) (Venkatesh Rao) works out what Ribbonfarm would be on web3, starting from the observation that first-class citizens there are blockchain addresses, not “sites.”
• Funding. We Are Co-leading @Syndica_io’s $8m… (tweet) (Chamath Palihapitiya) announces an $8m seed for Syndica, developer infrastructure for the Solana ecosystem, described as “doing for Web3 what cloud providers did for Web2.” Calling All Founders and Builders… (tweet) asks which three VC funds and community round a web3 founder would choose.

Where this appears

Tweets

• Been Trying to Give Web3… (tweet)
• Calling All Founders and Builders… (tweet)
• Gm, @packyM and I Wrote… (tweet)
• Gonna Make a Thread of… (tweet)
• Great Insight Thread. Today There… (tweet)
• I Asked, “What Are the… (tweet)
• I Don’t Know Anyone Who… (tweet)
• Ok, I Listened to the… (tweet)
• Okay I’m Officially a Web3… (tweet)
• Reflecting on My Accidental Exploration… (tweet)
• We Are Co-leading @Syndica_io’s $8m… (tweet)
• Wrote Some Notes Summarizing My… (tweet)

Reading queue

• Social Platform Upstream Is Building a DAO-It-Yourself Kit

Companies

• Uniswap, Commonmetal.xyz